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Op-Ed "Reporter" Tells One Side of Story

by: ClubTwitty

Wed Jul 01, 2009 at 07:55:04 AM MDT


(First time promoting myself--I feel like an American-trained Central American general seizing power in a coup.  Or something. - promoted by ClubTwitty)

In the 'dog bites man' category, Gary Harmon--crazed opinion-editorialist and pretend reporter at the Daily Sentinel--has another article on the FRAC Act.

The Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act would require federal monitoring and disclosure of the mostly unknown chemicals that are injected by the truckload into the ground around, among, and outside our ranches, communities and neighborhoods.

Gary's latest hit-piece dressed up as a newspaper article sits under the screaming headline: Cities, counties oppose legislation on gas fracturing-Bill sponsored by Colorado Dems draws little support in drilling areas

ClubTwitty :: Op-Ed "Reporter" Tells One Side of Story
The article lists the predictable opposition of such counties as Mesa, Moffat, Rio Blanco and Delta, along with Club 20 16, the dwindling Voice of the Western Slope since as if it were still 1953.

Harmon's "article" notes:

Six counties, including Delta, Mesa, Moffat and Rio Blanco counties on the Western Slope, and Morgan and Weld counties in northern Colorado east of the Continental Divide, have adopted resolutions opposing the legislation.

Weld County contains 25 percent of the state's gas wells and includes the Wattenberg field, the eighth largest in the nation, the Weld County Commission said.

In addition to the counties, the towns of Delta, Naturita, Nucla, Rangely and Grand Junction oppose the bill.

The thing is, Harmon neglected to mention another fact--that at least provides perspective to the point he wants to make in his latest conjured up column "article."

From NBC11News (Grand Junction, June 15) we learn that:

...while Mesa County is opposing the bill, nine other Colorado governing bodies have passed resolutions supporting it, including the City of Durango, the City of Glenwood Springs, La Plata County, Pitkin County, and San Miguel County.

On one hand you have eleven local jurisdictions (counties/municipalities) opposing the bill; on the other you have nine supporting it.  Harmon writes his whole hit piece discussing the former but fails to even mention the latter.  Many of these counties are on the Western Slope, the area of which the Sentinel claims to be the 'Paper of Record.'  

What Harmon has done here isn't journalism.  The Sentinel is diminished each time they look the other way and print such one-sided columns as anything other than opinion.  

But conflict of interest seems par for course among the industry cheerleaders.  Whether its weekly right-wing columnist Harmon pretending to write 'news' stories or County Commissioner Craig ("My Bread is Butter with Oil and Gas") Meis.  

So, I leave you with this, dear readers, on my first day as your new FP Editor--carrying on a proud legacy and mindful of the esteemed colleagues with whom I share this momentous task.  The 11News piece includes this "He didn't Say That, Did He?" Meis gem:

"Ninety-five percent of it is actually water and sand," said Meis. "The other five percent that isn't are household items."

Supporters don't buy it.

"If the chemicals they use are safe, why won't they disclose them?" said Utesch.

The commissioners say it's because each company creates its own unique frac fluid to gain a competitive edge in the market.

"Why does KFC not identify their special recipe?" said Meis. "It's a trade secret if you will."

Would you like that super sized?

Poll
Gary Harmon is a 'journalist'
Because he went to Journalism School
Because he writes for the Daily Sentinel
Like Mikey is a Mouse

Results

Tags: , , , , , , , , (All Tags)
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WTH-I'll provide the first comment too
this is what absolute power leads to.  You all read/saw LOTR, I am sure.  My chair here, in mother's basement, looks kind of like the Ring of Isengard.  I fear no Ent.  

Here is an article in today's Post-Independent.  Recall how the very lobbyists, lawyers, and mouthpieces that a few months ago were decrying state regulations--are now embracing state regulations (which don't really exist) as why the FRAC Act is unnecessary.  (Only Alabama--of all places--specifically regulates Hydraulic Fracturing).  

Parachute man frustrated by perceived inaction of gas commission

PARACHUTE, Colorado - An local guide and outfitter, who believes that chemicals from area gas drilling activities has ruined his livelihood, says he is mystified by the amount of time it is taking for the state's industry watchdogs to investigate his claims.

Ned Prather, now 61, was hospitalized for throat injuries in May 2008 after drinking water from one of two springs that surface on a mountainside above Parachute Creek and gather in a pool on Prather's property.

Testing of the spring that feeds Prather's cabin revealed benzene, ethylbenzene, trimethylbenzene, xylene and toluene, said attorney Richard Djokic, who represents Prather. He said testing of the second spring to the west found the same "chemical cocktail," minus the toluene.

..."I finally got a water supply, but we still have two springs contaminated," he said, explaining that the gas companies being investigated by the state over the matter finally installed a water tank on his land.

"I started begging for it about two months ago," he said, "and I got it a week ago."

...In general, Prather said, the contamination of the springs has been nothing but trouble.

"It's got our business shut down," he said of the guiding and outfitting company his family has been running for the past 40 years or so. "I can't take hunters up there around the contamination. There's too much liability for me."

He was expecting to hear from the COGCC in early May about the results of an investigation into his complaint, but still has heard nothing.

...Dave Neslin, director of the COGCC, said in mid-May that the commission was investigating, and that the case "raises potentially complex issues about determining causation and fault, and those can take some time to sort out."




"Yes Twitty, I'm an idiot." Ben Stein's $$

Twitty = Rulebender
Please source the article with a link as prescribed by Pols guidelines published yesterday.

[ Parent ]
Did Ken Wonstolen really say that?
In a column by Jim Spehar in the Grand Junction Free Press (the "other paper"), Mr. Wonstolen responds to Spehar's earlier call for identifying the ingredients in fraccing fluids:

Another response came from Ken Wonstolen, former counsel for Colorado Oil and Gas Association and now an industry lawyer. Ken also provided the aforementioned industry-favored list of possible fluid components compiled by Chesapeake Energy, a marginally useful document that purports to list every ingredient used anywhere in connection with hydraulic fracturing. Still left unanswered is the question of what specific chemicals are being used at individual well sites and in what quantity.

"What is the next step?" Ken asked, "Government control/prohibition of selected frac constituents (a la Santa Fe County, NM)? Public hearings on every frac job?" Then came the part I really liked. "If so, we better start worrying about the Class 1 underground injection wells where we, as a society, dispose of really nasty stuff like PCB's."

Thanks for making my argument for me, Ken. I'm told those kinds of wells are not exempted from the Underground Injection Control (UIC) programs of the Safe Drinking Water Act, the programs from which hydraulic fracturing is specifically excused. [Emphases added.]

The extremely highly paid defenders of the status quo (ignorance for the masses, profits for the few) can't come up with any positive arguments for keeping secrets from the American people.  

Sum Ergo Cogito.


[ Parent ]
Welcome to Twitty Nonversation #1
This attempt at a reverse hit piece might get 10 posts by noon ... who knows, my post just might fire up the base.

ps You forgot this poll question: Twitty is a 'journalist' ... Because he thinks the 104 people who participated in the election and the 17 that picked him really represent a cross section of the people that skim ColoradoPols.


Sorry about the link...
Link-for-Libby

I generally try to include these, as you will note from my previous diaries and comments.

Of course, I have never, anywhere, ever claimed to be a journalist.  I write snark and opinion, my side, my take, my story.  Nothing is wrong with that--even you or Mr. Harmon doing it--it just isn't a news article.  

Headline for Gary's piece should have read

Some cities, counties oppose legislation on gas fracturing-Bill sponsored by Colorado Dems draws mixed support in drilling areas

And the article most certainly should have noted that an almost equal number of municipalities and counties have taken the opposing view.  The failure to include this pertinent information, is a failure on the part of the Sentinel to get the story right.  

"Yes Twitty, I'm an idiot." Ben Stein's $$


[ Parent ]
Nice attempt at diversion
Try to stay on-topic please.

If you so whole-heartedly support the idea that oil co's should be allowed to dump whatever chemicals they want into the ground with zero accountability, just say so.

If you don't believe that said chemicals can contaminate groundwater and injure people or degrade the environment, just say so.

If you oppose as sensible regulation to insure clean water to drink or clean air to breath, just say so.

It's not that hard.


[ Parent ]
On unfettered chemical pollution ... not here bro
What do you expect, we've already driven ONG from Colorado via the Ritter-Harris Commission on Job Erosion.

ps I am goin' to WeldCo where I can fart in the wind to do my part.


[ Parent ]
You mean this?
ExxonMobil completes Colorado project expansion

Bill Barrett expands in Piceance basin

Residents seek more say over drilling permits

Schlumberger buying land for oil field services

I happy to take on all comers--arguing from reality rather than just pointing out how much you despise me and my being here, will illicit a more thoughtful response.  In this case, in spite of Libertad's failure to provide any such 'fact,' I still provided the counter...just because I like shooting my fish in a barrel.

This makes me think, however, that I should post a 'flypaper' diary pretty regularly--that way we can fight them there so we don't have to fight them here...

"Yes Twitty, I'm an idiot." Ben Stein's $$


[ Parent ]
Good, Libertine!
Your farts will go perfectly with the flaming tap water.



[ Parent ]
Gee, where did O&G go?
Please enlighten us. We've all seen the rig counts for surrounding states. Can't be there. Did they perhaps take their oil and gas and go home?

Everybody who frequents this blog has seen all the data on rig counts, price of gas, and new finds closer and more accessible to urban markets.

My question to you, Libby, is why do you ignore these facts?


[ Parent ]
O&G growing more rapidly than ever
Through the first 5 months of 2009 there were nearly 20% more new wells on line in Colorado than during the same period in 2008 and 133% more new wells than during this same period in 2007.

Get some facts on page 16. For those who like to draw conclusions using facts, additional COGCC staff reports can be found here.

So despite all the lay offs and dropping natural gas prices and general whining, O&G is still drilling and completing wells in Colorado faster than they have ever done.

I guess Ritter really sucks at driving O&G from Colorado, doesn't he?

Sum Ergo Cogito.


[ Parent ]
Libertad that makes no sense
O&G operates in some of the most inhospitable places: 5k miles under the sea, frozen tundra, politically explosive regions subject to revolutions, marxist nations subject to expropriations and war zones.

Are you serious when you say by asking O&G to keep our water clean or raising our severance taxes to equal those of liberal bastions like Wyoming or Oklahoma we are driving them out of the state?

If you actually believe this I feel sorry for you: if you don't, avoid the hyperbole, it will make you seem more credible when what you post isn't completely ridiculous.  


[ Parent ]
Public officials who say they don't care what's in fracture drilling chemical brews
Are violating the public's trust in a really horrific way.

Here's some actual research on the subject published in the Durango Herald yesterday:

http://durangoherald.com/secti...

The founder of The Endocrine Disruption Exchange said in the last 20 years the natural-gas business has grown more and more reliant on chemicals that are dangerous to public health.

The use of those chemicals is used in the fracturing of rock to release natural gas. She said that although natural-gas companies claim they recover most of the chemicals used in fracturing the rock, many times only a small percentage is recovered, and results are rarely recorded.

"We have not found actual volumes that record what is recovered," she said.

"There is no accountability (from companies)."

No one from the drilling industry attended the presentation.

Her foundation found that of 246 chemicals used in natural-gas production in Colorado, 93 percent of those had adverse health effects to humans. All of the chemicals that have adverse effects have multiple health effects on the human body.

These chemicals are able to get into water and affect the health of everyone, she said.

You tell me these officials entrusted to protect the safety of the public are acting responsibly. Go ahead, Libertine, enough with your meta bullshit. Do you have anything real to say?


[ Parent ]
Nice, Pols
Do you realize what you've done!?  Let's switch the name of the site to the Twitty show.  

1.  Write a diary
2.  Promote same diary on the front page
3.  Be the first peson to comment on your diary because it doesn't generate any comments

A full time activist who is most likely paid to trash the oil and gas industry using his "power" as a front page editor on Pols to conjur up deliverables for his or her clients calling out Gary Harmon for his OPINION piece is beyond the pail. Teapot meet Kettle doesn't even seem to give this hypocrisy justice.  


Its posted as a news article (Harmon's piece) not an Opinion piece
I posted the comment--not because I expect much response within mere minutes--but because I ran across a pertinent article int he Post-Independent that I had neglected to include int he diary.

Feel free to actually contribute a diary Mr. TaxCheat.  It might get promoted.

 

"Yes Twitty, I'm an idiot." Ben Stein's $$


[ Parent ]
My bad
I thought from reading your post you were railing on him for writing an op-ed.  Sorry.

I still think you're a paid environmental hack.


[ Parent ]
I am employed, I am an environmentalist, plenty think I'm a hack
But no one pays me to write for Colorado Pols.  This, in fact, distracts me from my paying clients...

But I am open to entertaining offers--maybe I'll even switch sides if the dollar amount is high enough.

Bidding opens...now!


"Yes Twitty, I'm an idiot." Ben Stein's $$


[ Parent ]
This would be kind of funny if RedGreen posted it
but since you're serious, it's just...sad.

"You need to move past Fourier transforms and start thinking quantum mechanics!" --The Transformers

[ Parent ]
What we can expect from Twitty


I sincerely hope so!
Excellent first FP diary, Twitty. And look how you brought them out to play!

This is going to be a good six months.


[ Parent ]
Long six months
Plus the long term damage.  

[ Parent ]
Damage to what?
To Josh Penry's election chances? To the oil and gas industry's ability to lie to the Colorado public? I'm curious what you mean.

[ Parent ]
Notice a trend here?
None of our conservative friends here have posted anything that actually addresses the content of CT's diary.

As the Bard might say "...full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."


I think it's cause they got nothing...
but maybe one will prove me wrong.

I need to get back to work--I am still waiting for my Soros check...contrary to myth I have yet to find someone to pay me for these things I dribble out on Pols.  But hope springs eternal!  



"Yes Twitty, I'm an idiot." Ben Stein's $$


[ Parent ]
No, Twitty,
they won't prove you wrong...because you are right, "They got nothing".

I am frequently the target of the mindless but spirited attacks from the O&G brethren.(See my post entitled "the next squeeze of the trigger"). They resort to the Ad Hominem attack, the red herring, the straw man, the old reliable three D's (deny,deflect,dismiss), but sorry, none of that pesky factual stuff.

Our buddy, Gary, has a penchant for omitting troublesome information from his news(insert hysterical laughter here)stories. It has ever been thus.


[ Parent ]
I must say
it's an unusual barrage. They must really be worried that CT's FP status will have an actual affect on the O&G industry.

Very interesting that multiple cons would try to attack Twitty with ad hominems on his first day. It looks like they're starting to get defensive and desperate.

"Nice driveby spin" -- Libertad

"This site is filled simpletons..." -- JO


[ Parent ]
I hope so
They must really be worried that CT's FP status will have an actual affect on the O&G industry.

Anything that gives CT more impact is good for all of us. It's even good for the people in the O&G industry because they will remain haelthy to enjoy their obscene profits.

Amazon tax? Bad Idea!


[ Parent ]
Wow! So much hate ...
directed at CT, and so little argument of substance against his thesis.

Hello?

This diary is not unlike anything previously written by CT. It's well written, timely, of appropriate length, and includes a snarky poll. It is something that was sure to be promoted to the front page under previous editorial regimes. The only difference is it was promoted a few minutes earlier.

Not surprisingly, so far all the responses have been ad hom attacks against CT. I'd say this is solid evidence that the libertads, taxcheats, and jpjones on this site are admitting defeat.

In short, there are no good arguments for not revealing the compounds in fraccing fluids. Indeed, using Craig Meis's favorite examples (Coca Cola & KFC) all kinds of proprietary recipes are required to reveal ALL their ingredients. In decreasing order of abundance.

No one is asking (yet) for this level of disclosure of the fraccing fluids (but if Meis keeps bringing it up, maybe someone will).

Currently, O&G is being given "special" rights. They are the only industry that doesn't have to comply with the Clean Water Act. We're not for "special" rights, are we libertad, taxcheat or jpjones?

Sum Ergo Cogito.


Here's an argument...
Do Diana DeGette and Jared Polis have such little faith in Harris Sherman and Dave Neslin that they believe the federal government needs to regulate this practice -- instead of the states?  You all are missing the bigger picture here.  The reason the exemption was included in the Energy Bill of 2005 was to allow invididual states to regulate the practice.  
The same people who have been holding Colorado up as such a shining example of regulating the oil and gas industry now believe the federal government would do a better job?  
It's blatently obvious that the DeGette/Polis bill is designed to further regulate an industry that's on the ropes in Colorado.  Is it because of the Ritter rules?  Partly.  Is it because of credit, the market, gas prices, pipeline capacity as well?  Yes.  The bottom line is that DeGette and Polis are trying to throw yet another monkey wrench at the head of an industry that is already struggling to make the development of natural gas in Colorado economically viable.  

And, Twitty is a jerk.


[ Parent ]
Please explain
How Reagan and deregulation in the 80's caused the collapse of shale and O&G?

It didn't?  It must have, they happened at the same time.

O&G is not nearly as important to this state as tourism and poison water, slowly changing colors of gas pads, and the fresh smell of benzene in the spring do nothing to help that industry.  Lets not even get started on the water issue.

We're not trying to kill O&G, we are just asking that they not destroy other industries and the quality of life in Colorado.  And if they are such an important industry, they can afford to pay taxes--if they can't I'll take the water and the elk and the wide open spaces.


[ Parent ]
Please explain the state regulations to me
that specifically deal with fracking; and the regulations in OTHER states where this practice occurs.  Remind how happy the O&G companies are about the CO regulations?  Are they suing to have them overturned?

The oil and gas industry is on the ropes around the world--as natural gas stockpiles are at an all time high and cheaper resources (where fracking also occurs) are coming on line that dwarf the reserves in Colorado and are miles/hundreds of miles--rather than hundreds/thousands of miles--from market.

What you call an 'argument' I call conjecture.      

"Yes Twitty, I'm an idiot." Ben Stein's $$


[ Parent ]
holding Colorado up as such a shining example ?
Perhaps it would be beneficial to refer to the rules?

According to the COGCC Final Rule Amendments (December 17, 2008):

Rule 205. Access to Records
205.d. Where the composition of a Chemical Product is considered a Trade Secret by the vendor or service provider, Operators shall only be required to maintain the identity of the Trade Secret Chemical Product and shall not be required to maintain information concerning the identity of chemical constituents in a Trade Secret Chemical Product or the amounts of such constituents.

Although there are many good things to say about the new Colorado O&G rules, as you can see in the above, there is no attempt to protect the people of Colorado by giving them information about what is being put into the ground around their homes.

And, to add insult to injury, this weak rule is one of the new state rules that O&G is trying to block (while simultaneously using the current existence of the rule as an argument against new federal protections).

You are misinformed and a jerk. The big picture is that by "allowing" states to "regulate" this practice what actually happens is the O&G lobby is better able to use their considerable resources to block any protections for citizens that might interfere with profit.

Sum Ergo Cogito.


[ Parent ]
Yes, CT is a jerk
but the kind of jerk I like to read.

[ Parent ]
I actually really like Gary Harmon
He's a good reporter to work with, and any time he writes a bad story it's usually because the communications people on the other side didn't do a very good job with him. That's been my experience, anyway. He's burned me before, but only because I completely dropped the ball.

On the whole, I think he's one of the better reporters - as long as you do the legwork to get in touch with him, which I've had to do with nearly every reporter I've ever worked with. Now you can argue all day long about whether he should be out there doing all the digging himself, but with the amount of stuff these guys have to write about every day, well, let's just say I always made sure to call him.

Also, and this is important, reporters rarely write - or even have any input on - headlines for their stories.


Also...
Congratulations on your first front-page self promotion! What a coup! ;-)

And, along those lines, welcome to the vitriol of our Pols community. We done love us some writer bashin!


[ Parent ]
I'm a seasoned veteran
their ad hom attacks are like so much music to my ears...

I understand that they have no really arguments...the desperation, however, is surprising to me.  I will thicken up my skin some more at Twitty Camp and be back...soon.

I don't think Gary's writng skills are lacking--just his reporter's curiosity.  

I do think Gary lets his bias get in the way of his reporting too often.  I see no excuse for failing to even mention that other (a relatively significant) number of other local jurisdiction have taken the exact opposite position.  It has already been reported.  In the GJ market.  It is either lazy reporting or bias.  

"Yes Twitty, I'm an idiot." Ben Stein's $$


[ Parent ]
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