Voters should not make engineering decisions

Houston Chronicle ^ | July 16, 2014 | Chris Tomlinson

[thackney]

Denton late Tuesday night became the latest jurisdiction to announce a referendum on a drilling technique, joining Colorado and New York in allowing voters to decide where hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas may take place.

This a deeply worrying trend that mixes misinformation with a not-in-my-backyard attitude that too often ignores science, engineering and the nation's need for energy. In many ways, though, the drilling companies and state regulators have themselves to blame for public outrage by failing to quickly and transparently address the concerns of local residents.

First, let me say I've spoken to a lot of people who are terrified of hydraulic fracturing, a technique where millions of gallons of fluid are pumped into a well until the pressure fractures the shale and releases oil and gas deposits. The fluid consists of water, lubricants and sand to make sure it flows properly and then the cracks remain open to help the oil and gas flow. When done properly, the oil and gas can be extracted without any harm on the surface or to the ground water.

Drillers have fractured the rock in wells for a century using other techniques, but only in the last 20 years have they perfected using water in shale rock. This technology has allowed the U.S. to become one of the world's largest oil and gas producers today and prevented an energy crisis that would have been triggered by political instability overseas had their not been increased U.S. production.

Much of the shale rock is found in populated areas and in places where people are unaccustomed to drilling...

[Paladin2]

Let’s pass a law making pi = 3.00

[a fool in paradise]

They are trying to make biological decisions with regards to sexual identity. No one ever really changes his or her sex.

[Bubba_Leroy]

Neither should left wing politicians.

[thackney]

http://mentalfloss.com/article/30214/new-math-time-indiana-tried-change-pi-32

[Paladin2]

Interesting subject now that the web is around.

My dad told me the apparently simplified story ~ 40 years ago. I'd guess that there could have been multi-state attempts to do this in states other than (racist) Indiana where there is extant documentation.

[Blood of Tyrants]

While we are at it, we can repeal the law of gravity and Newton’s laws of motion. That will save thousands of lives each year!

[Paladin2]

Repealing the laws of demand and supply along with the Laffer curve would help the gov’t even more.

[familyop]

"Voters" NIMBYs, being technically incapable, "should not make engineering decisions." Middle class residential, rural real estate prices will go generally down for decades anyway. The something-for-nothing flipping racket is gone.

[thackney]

It is the voter that makes the impact effecting others.

[thackney]

Middle class residential, rural real estate prices will go generally down for decades anyway.

Not around here.

[Jedidah]

Amen. Not in Texas.

[NorthMountain]

This technology has allowed the U.S. to become one of the world's largest oil and gas producers today and prevented an energy crisis that the communist 'environmental' movement has tried for decades to precipitate.

[Jedidah]

They’ve been fracking and pumping under my house and neighborhood for a couple of years now.

Not one problem. You’d never even know it, except for the lease payment and small royalty checks.

That’s because our entire subdivision bargained with the drilling company, both for money and for specifics as to location of the site and environmental concerns. With horizontal drilling, well sites can be placed well away from homes and businesses.

[familyop]

"It is the voter that makes the impact effecting others."

And bipartisan NIMBY voters (mostly senile commies with government-linked incomes) elected regulator commies in a primary to yet another term in my area, but they did so by thin margins. As the economy, other conditions and general morale are doing so well (little irony there), I reckon they'll have one more term. The young hipster folks waving pirate flags will do a much better job of governing less.

[familyop]

"Not around here."

'Cause us Baby Boomers are gonna live forever.

Oh, wait... You're in Texas, aren't you. My guess: northern Texas. If so, I believe you.

We'll pray for the weather and debt regime to send you a couple million more foreclosed suburbanites from the Rockies (suburbanites originally from the northeast, many by way of California). ;-)

Current weather condition: extremely smoky, probably due to recent unusually intense lightening storms somewhere to the west.

[Pentagon Leatherneck]

It’s been my experience after a half-century of working with and overseeing engineers that they almost universally make recommendations and decisions based on facts and scientific analysis. What they sometimes fail at is seeing beyond the envelope of their immediate inquiry. IOW, foreseeing unintended consequences.

TC

[thackney]

My point is: it is not just the NIMBYs who vote holding the country back. It is also far too many that would support hydraulic fracturing if they only got information outside the main stream media, and other types as well.

[familyop]

Yep. Drillers do a good job of sealing and casing around those holes. Most often, the fracking happens way deeper than water tables anyway and presents no danger to aquifers.

[familyop]

"My point is: it is not just the NIMBYs who vote holding the country back. It is also far too many that would support hydraulic fracturing if they only got information outside the main stream media, and other types as well."

That's a good point. The challenge, then, is to find a way to present relevant parts of drilling (clay, cases, etc.) and fracking (only very localized effects from fracking) technology to very non-technical folks (depths of fracking being harmless to water supplies far above and separated by impermeable layers).

I'm not a fracker and only grew up around oil work in south Texas. But only a little later while still young, I sometimes ran an old cable tool for a hillbilly neighbor in the Ozarks (24/7 drilling, covered with mud). High tech., those rigs were, and quite musical. ;-)