"The oil and gas industry needs to understand it is under attack."
The latest attack, which is actually a backdoor approach, was on the transportation safety record of the oil and gas extraction industry, and was launched in an extended article in The New York Times last week. The article was headlined, "Deadliest Danger Isn't at the Rig but on the Road" and was authored by Ian Urbina who had authored a series of anti-gas shale articles in the paper last summer. The article was placed prominently in the center of the front page, spanning three of the page's six columns, of last Tuesday's newspaper and above the fold [...]
Here again is another reason why the oil and gas industry needs increased regulation and control, or even outright banning, as not only is the process of drilling and fracturing these wells risky for local citizens, e.g., water pollution and increased earthquake risk, but the associated increase in truck traffic could cause more highway crashes and deaths for the locals.
h/t Adrian
To many people want thew stone age back. Not content to live that way themselves they want to drag us all back to wattle & daub housing while they live in Castles. I see no sanity on the horizon till another generation at least.
But, but, wouldn't there be increased road traffic if the new development was a massive mall, with various food markets, clothing stores, big box stores and so on?
The very same elements whine about how developement (boom towns) affects local government.....more people more cops, more garbage, more traffic, more hospitals, more schools....ignoring the kick in the local economy....
These same elements try desperately to conceal how Marcellas and Baaken have provided jobs by making a big thing about the numbers of unemployable losers attracted to the boom towns.....and a rise in crime.....
The make a good point.
Obama Economy = No jobs = No trucks = No Accidents
And starving to death never hurt anybody.
Oh, the reaching of these people is just so sad....
Truck drivers are more at risk from the general driving public than the reverse. That's why the little sign at many lease exits, 'you are starting the most dangerous part of your day'.
Hard to believe some of the four wheel drivers have lived as long as they have.
I left rigzone a comment that they need to expand their advertising to counter these attacks, much like CAPP in Canada is doing.
The Luddites are determined to take us back to the caveman days and need to be countered with extreme measures.
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." David Hume, Scottish philosopher, 1711-1776
What exactly are the stats about car-truck accidents being a percentage of the total accidents reported?
What percentage of those truck-car accidents was the truck driver was found at-fault?
That should sufficiently run that BS claim into the guard rails.
Truck accidents can be spectacular in a grim fascination way but are a statistical blip on the radar of FACT.
What percentage of those truck-car accidents was the truck driver was found at-fault?
The truck driver is basically always at fault. There are so many rules and regulations that some infraction can always be found.
Hit a car from behind, the trucker is always at fault, even if the car passes, pulls in front twenty feet ahead and slams on the brakes to turn. This all happening at highway speed.
Haven't hit one yet, but it happens often.
Well were at it why don't ban those pesky fuel tankers hauling to their local gas station. Then they can be peseants and be safe they can chop done trees pick wild fires wear suspenders and a bra and be a girlly just like their dear mama.
This whole thing is becoming one big Monty Python skit.
Well were at it why don't ban those pesky fuel tankers hauling to their local gas station. Then they can be peseants and be safe they can chop done trees pick wild flowers wear suspenders and a bra and be a girlly just like their dear mama.
This whole thing is becoming one big Monty Python skit.
The oil and gas industry must always take the high road. We've realized the industry was under attack ever since Suzuki complained about the oil and gas industry not liking him on CBC radio in the late 90's. The problem is the industry makes money and therefore automatically earns public contempt. We have to work ten times harder to earn public trust - if we didn't every regulatory hearing would be lost.
The problem is the industry makes money...
Sometimes I wonder how. Farmers and ranchers get twice as much done in a day. Way too many parasites...safety this and safety that...
@Bruce....
Obama Economy = No jobs = No trucks = No Accidents
Thats lefty logic on display.
Sadly many on the left agree with that logic wholeheartedly.
Having supervised a good many projects, I can assure you, the trucking part worries me more than anything else. There are so many inexperienced drivers, it scares the bejesus out of me. Even so, that's not the scariest thing out there. It's the farmers who pose the biggest risk to public traffic, and the police have a terrible habit of giving them a pass for illegal loads. AB and SK are about the only places in the western hemisphere, where you can round a curve, on the national highway, and come up behind a combine straddling both lanes. It wasn't all that long ago, that ranchers herded cattle down hwy#1, in the Brooks area. Of all the fatal accidents I've come across, in the last 35 years, I only remember one that was caused by an oilfield truck. People just seem to have sense enough to slow down when they see a rig move, or a fracking convoy.
Whoa you guys have curves??
Now. I'll ask this.
Were the Regulations relaxed, in Ontario, concerning the operation of commercial pteroleum product-related vehicles and their operators during the Ontario gas "shortage" a few years back in order to keep people from complaining or holding the politicians responsible?
How many of those vehicles had accidents during that period and could be considered a "spike" in the stats?
With a study projecting that fracking and drilling can add $4.9 billion to the Ohio state’s economic output by 2014, Kasich has said “there’s gold in them Thar hills.”
(Democrats and environmental groups)
who opposed the bill said while Kasich deserves credit for seeking the regulations,
but they do not go far enough.
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Ohio is an Oblamer swing state.
If Ohio votes for Blamer they deserve the government taxes and regulations he will frack them with.
@Bruce....
Obama Economy = No jobs = No trucks = No Accidents
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Walking is Good for You!
Vote for Obama!
NYTimes ... on the same page as the Winnipeg Free Press and their resident NDP mouthpiece Mary-Agnes Welch who spins every energy development story into a smear against industry.
In the background the TIDES foundation feeding activist freaks of all descriptions.
The bottom line is that people who rely on the MSM for information are getting nothing but the opinions of the ignorant and self serving liberals who populate the field.
Gerald Caplan had an interesting article in the G&M regarding foreign interference in the oil sands outside of environmental groups, the biggest manipulator Koch brothers.
There is an investigative piece in Bloomberg he referenced and I must say it is quite damning. I have always been a proponent of the free market system and capitalism, but I don't think they exist anymore. What we he have is a crony corporate capitalism where the losses are socialized and the gains capitalized.
I believe the oil sands are a huge economic benefit to this country as a whole and it may be time to start a debate about either nationalizing those assets or some other type of regulatory oversight with bite.
I am no socialist and in fact own and operate a biz in the oil and gas sector in AB with about 20 employees, been doing my thing since 98. I haven't had a holiday since 2009, sleep with my phone next to my pillow been divorced damn near bankrupt etc etc.
There has to be a better way to manage our resources more effectively and protect the environment and our future. I'm getting older, 43, and don't believe things can keep going they way they have been.
The times they are a changing and too many people seem to be bought and paid for these days. Not saying nationalizing is the best option, but we need to start having a Convo here, respectfully. There's way too much interference in the oil patch from a number of different sources and direction. She ain't what she use to be IMHO