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February 12, 2013 12:31 PM UTC

Hickenlooper Does It Again: "I Drank Fracking Fluid"

  • 22 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Conservation Colorado blasts Gov. John Hickenlooper in a statement a short while ago:

Conservation Colorado Deputy Director Carrie Curtiss released the following statement on Governor Hickenlooper’s comments in front of a U.S. Senate Energy and Environment Committee today:

"Looks like Governor Hickenlooper really drank the frack-aid on this one.  We're astounded that Governor Hickenlooper would use a national platform to give the impression that frack fluid is safe for public health.  The industry has a track record of misleading the public about the fact that its fracking fluid contains numerous toxic chemicals.  These chemicals  – include cancer causing benzene and diesel, as well as dozens of other dangerous compounds. Rather than implying to a national audience that there is nothing to fear, his energy would be better spent protecting public health back home."

Try to contain your apoplexy while the Washington Times reports from today's testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee: 

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper went to unusually great lengths to learn firsthand the strides the oil and gas industry has made to minimize environmental harm from fracking.

The first-term Democrat and former Denver mayor told a Senate committee on Tuesday that he actually drank a glass of fracking fluid produced by oilfield services giant Halliburton.

The fluid is made entirely "of ingredients sourced from the food industry," the company says, making it safe for Mr. Hickenlooper and others to imbibe.

"You can drink it. We did drink it around the table, almost rituallike, in a funny way," he told the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. "It was a demonstration. … they've invested millions of dollars in what is a benign fluid in every sense."

As we've explained before when energy-cozy Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper has claimed that one can drink "fracking" fluid, by all accounts he was drinking a product called CleanStim. CleanStim is indeed marketed as using ingredients "sourced from the food industry," and Halliburton makes much of the ability of willing politicians, and even Halliburton executives, to consume (presumably small) amounts of the fluid without injury.

Unfortunately, as we have noted and a Denver Business Journal reporter found when she asked the question, there is little evidence to indicate that CleanStim is being used anywhere in Colorado–let alone required to be used in place of any number of other proprietary brews, like whatever it was that a drill rig worker came into a Durango hospital drenched with that almost killed his attending nurse. In the absence of hard figures detailing the actual commercial use of CleanStim–or more importantly, the extent to which it is not used–claiming that all "fracking" is safe, because Hickenlooper took a swig of this one brand-new kind of "fracking" fluid, is well beyond merely deceptive. Gov. Hickenlooper is doing the concerned citizens of this state, and around the country taking part in the contentious debate over "fracking" happening in so many places today, a profound disservice.

Comments

22 thoughts on “Hickenlooper Does It Again: “I Drank Fracking Fluid”

  1. Uncle Voy's low-calorie Fracking Margarita.

    two shots Tequila

    two shots Marguerita Mix

    one can Diet Squirt

    one shot Grenadine

    mix in blender with ice, to crush the ice and leave a smooth, foamy blend.

    And whatever you do, don't add any fracing fluid.  we're not idiots, are we? 

  2. John "Frackenlooper"is a disgrace to his office. He does not represent the citizens of Colorado. His constituents are named Halliburton, Shlumberger, Anadarko, and Exxon, to name a few.

    Someone please primary this oil and gas toady so we can get a real Democrat in that chair..

  3. Christ, don't you read the Denver Post?

     No, I don't….and, if he doesn't stop fracking around he may not keep that status. This issue is not something you can just brush off and ignore. Yeah, I know I'm dreaming, JeffcoBlue, but Hick is doin' us dirty…no getting around it.

     

     

     

     

  4. 1) Products of the "food industry" are not necesarily food.

    2) Such products come with no guarantee of their safety for human consumption (see xanthan gum .)

    3) As mentioned above, safety of one product used for a certain application does not guarantee the safety of all products in that category.

    If fracking fluid is so safe, then let's require disclosure of all its contents in all applications and remove the industry's exemption from environmental regulation.

        1. Looks like this is not the first round of drinks from this company.  In the same article, now updated:

           

          PDC Energy has been involved in seven other oil and gas-related spills and incidents so far in 2013 in Colorado — two of them within the last week, state records show. Three of those incidents impacted groundwater. In 2012, the company was involved in 27 oil and gas spills and releases, 12 of which contaminated groundwater

           

          *Seven* spills already in 2013.  I give them credit, they are certainly working hard!

  5. As we learn today of frack fluid spewing from a Colorado well for over a day…frack fluid that is toxic, that if Mr. Hickenlooper sat around and drank with his oil and gas and Halliburton buddies would not allow him to go to Congress and misrepresent the real fears of many of his constitients and the Colorado public,  by telling industry-inspired red-herring anecdotes.  It is ironic that he is there arguing against any stronger regulations than his commission would allow (which does not require or even encourage 'clean stim') and against any federal regulations (which might require BMPs from one state–for instance for nontoxic fracks) across state lines.  It is hard to see this as anything other than doing industry bidding, IMO.  It raises real questions.  The Constituion in this state is easy to amend.  It may be time to tie the Governor's hands in these matters and give more poweer to local communites.

     

  6. Wow. Hickenlooper was introduced on the committee by Mark Udall (D). Hickenlooper is a Democrat, but look at the radicals at Colorado Pols attack him just for saying what he thinks.

    You are out of touch even from your fellow Dems, Pols. How does that feel?

  7.  It may be time to tie the Governor's hands in these matters and give more power to local communites.

    Roger that…if Hick won't allow his commission to regulate these companies, then they need to be marginalized by allowing the communities themselves to do so.

    1. Boy oh boy, I'm with you Duke.

      I told you earlier my wife and I know a family in "Gasland".

      This shit makes people and animals sick. It gives people and animals cancer. It fouls the water, it's inconcievable that this could be happening in the United States right now. The EPA is foiled at every turn by industry hacks and allies in government.

      I'm with you. If this chicken shit doesn't have the testicular fortitude to simply do his job, if he thinks protecting water and the people that drink and use it will submarine his carreer, then there are two things to understand.

      First, a guy like that isn't worthy of representing the people. Maybe he's an upgrade from the loon tancredo, but that's like winning the world's tallest small person contest.

      Secondly, the care of the land, the decisions to frack or not, must be left to the people that will be directly affected by those decisions.

  8. Recent contributions to Governor John Hickenlooper:

    Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000155 EndHTML:0000025329 StartFragment:0000000475 EndFragment:0000025312

    11/21/12

    ALLEN MOORE

    ANADARKO Mining/Energy

    $1,100.00

    $1,100.00

    11/21/12

    ANDREW TAYLOR

    ANADARKO Mining/Energy

    $250.00

    $250.00

    11/21/12

    BEN RODRIGUEZ

    ANADARKO Mining/Energy

    $250.00

    $250.00

    11/21/12

    BRADLEY MILLER

    ANADARKO Mining/Energy

    $350.00

    $1,100.00

    11/21/12

    BRADLEY MILLER

    ANADARKO Mining/Energy

    $750.00

    $1,100.00

    11/21/12

    CARRIE HORTON

    ANADARKO Mining/Energy

    $500.00

    $500.00

    11/21/12

    CHRISTOPHER CASTILIAN

    ANADARKO Mining/Energy

    $1,100.00

    $1,100.00

    11/21/12

    CRAIG WILLENBORG

    ANADARKO Mining/Energy

    $350.00

    $350.00

    11/21/12

    DAVID THIBODEAU

    SKA BREWING Manufacturing

    $550.00

    $550.00

    11/21/12

    DOUGLAS NATH

    ANADARKO Mining/Energy

    $400.00

    $400.00

    11/21/12

    JAMES KLECKNER

    ANADARKO Mining/Energy

    $1,100.00

    $1,100.00

    11/21/12

    JOHN FORD

    ANADARKO Mining/Energy

    $800.00

    $800.00

    11/21/12

    JOHN HUYCKE

    ANADARKO Mining/Energy

    $200.00

    $200.00

    11/21/12

    MICHAEL WEAVER

    ANADARKO Mining/Energy

    $200.00

    $200.00

    11/21/12

    NICHOLS SCHOVILLE

    ANADARKO Mining/Energy

    $800.00

    $800.00

    11/21/12

    NOBLE ENERGY PAC

     

    $1,100.00

    $1,100.00

    11/21/12

    SANJAY PARANJI

    ANADARKO Mining/Energy

    $300.00

    $300.00

    11/21/12

    SCOTT MILLINGTON

    ANADARKO Mining/Energy

    $100.00

    $100.00

    11/21/12

    SHANE FROSS

    ANADARKO Mining/Energy

    $1,100.00

    $1,100.00

    Did someone say Morgan Caroll primary?

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