Originally Posted by
Sink r8
Agreed, but that should come hand-in-hand with much tighter environmental controls. What's not being discussed much is the damage being done. A little less free-for-all, a little consolidation probably wouldn't hurt, and the flip side of it could be bigger operators doing things better and tighter.
One way or another, this is all meant to concentrate production in the hands of the large producers. Saudi ARAMCO and EXXON aren't really all that far apart, are they?
That is because there is not much to discuss. What damage is being done due to the current level of drilling?
Spills rarely happen (I've fired employees due to spilling 1 QUART of water on a drill site). More damage is done due to spills at your local gas station than spills at drilling sites.
You should see a modern day completed drill site in ND. Tree huggers from DC would spend the day picknicking and picking up their dog poop on one of those sites.
Biggest issue right now is truck and rail traffic to transport the oil (which the Keystone would solve), high demand on water (they aren't using more, it has just transitioned from AG), and flaring of NG which comes back to pipeline permits to capture.
The well depths in ND make it virtually impossible for fracking to pollute water resources so that is not an issue there. I will admit in shallow areas like PA, it may be an issue and should be addressed.
So, it's not being talked about because there is nothing to talk about.