It's Not Fracking - It's Old Tanks!

Dear Readers,

Back in the mid-1980s, I had a chance to leave the Security field and go back to sheetmetal construction.

About 8 years earlier, I worked as a sheetmetal worker and welder for a few months until Jimmy Carter's economy - which I refer to as the truly last Economic Depression in America  - took my job and many others.

Those years, if you wanted to survive, you simply weren't choosy about what you were doing for work. Yes, you took a job wherever you could find one.

And yes, that meant doing things that you might not have wanted to be doing to keep a roof over your head and pay your bills. For me, well since I had only been out of the Marine Corps about a year when the construction layoff came - I really considered going back in to the Corps.

Instead, I made a plan to join the Marine Corps Reserves to keep my rank and looked for a job in anything that I could find. Give myself a year, and than if I couldn't find some work - well I could always go back to my beloved Corps. Besides, I should have never gotten out in the first place - but that's a story for another time.

Since I had so much experience in security in the military, a friend asked me to work for him in the private security field.

I worked in security and put myself through a nearby community college. After getting my degree in Criminal Justice, I started putting in applications with police departments.

At the same time, I had the chance to get back into construction. Since I'd always enjoyed working with my hands. I jumped at the opportunity for many reasons - mostly it was to get away from working nights and weekends.

Working in construction was good and bad. I enjoyed building things, whereas unlike security, you can actually see the fruits of your labor. But frankly, I might have made more money an hour than I ever had at that point in my life - but I made a lot less money a year than I ever did in my entire life.

The layoffs, the jobsites not being ready, only working 7 months out of the year, it was a killer. Frankly, if it weren't for the fact that I did Security Consulting on the side - I don't know how I would have made it and kept from ending up on the street.

So what does any of this have to do with ground-water contamination?

Well, the construction company that I worked for built and remodeled gas stations throughout Northern California.

For a few years there, that's what I did. Along with my foreman, the company that we worked for sent us all over Northern California building and remodeling gas stations.

It was while I was working in that field that I got my first look at soil contamination from leaking underground fuel storage tanks and how bad it was.

Lately, there are people out there who are trying to say that fracking which takes place 5,000 to 8,000 feet beneath the earth is responsible for contamination of ground-water in different locations around the country.

Of course, the problem with this is that they can't explain why there is the same sort of soil contamination in areas where oil and gas drilling operations are no where near - or that the ones that may be close don't use fracking?

My belief, and this is based on what I saw years ago, is that leaking underground fuel storage tanks are to blame for a lot of what people are experiencing.

The reason that I'm writing about this is that I have received e-mail from readers who read my article Fracking - Let's Talk About It. 

It seems that they want to know more about what I said in that article about ground-water contamination from service stations (gas stations) tank leakage.

Following World War II and the boom in automobile manufacturing in the United States, the construction of thousands of gasoline stations across the country was also at a fever pitch.

At these new stations, bare steel tanks were installed underground to store gasoline. The average life expectancy of a steel tank was 30 to 50 years depending on the rate of corrosion of the steel.

In the early 1980s, corrosion of these steel tanks, along with faulty installation and operation, have resulted in all sorts of ground-water contamination by gasoline.

Back when I was working construction, way before anyone even heard about "fracking," I knew a man who lit his house water faucet on fire because of all of the gasoline in his well water.

Today, because nearly half of all Americans depend on ground-water for their drinking water, leaking gasoline tanks represent a significant public health hazard.

Leaking gasoline tanks can also present the risk of fire and explosion because vapors from leaking tanks can travel through sewer lines into buildings.

The majority of these underground storage tanks (USTs) contain petroleum products which include gasoline, diesel, heating oil, kerosene, and even jet fuel.

Many other substances classified as hazardous by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act ("Superfund") are stored in USTs.

Today, these leaking tanks, the USTs, are called LUSTs.

In September 1999, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was monitoring about 370,000 LUST sites in the United States.

About 21,000 site cleanups were planned for fiscal year 2001. Cleanups are funded by the EPA's LUST Trust Fund, which is currently funded at a level of about $70 million per year.

So how much gasoline does it take to contaminate ground-water - and subsequently our drinking water?

Well, prior to the EPA's 1988 UST regulations and their final implementation deadline in 1998, a slow leak from a 10,000 gallon gasoline storage tank at the neighborhood service station was virtually undetectable to the station operator - but is still hazardous to nearby groundwater supplies.

The hazards of gasoline are mainly attributable to the BTEX compounds. BTEX compounds are benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes.

The benzene content of typical gasoline is 0.76% by mass (gasoline composition).

A spill of 10 gallons of gasoline which is only 0.1% of the 10,000 gallon tank, a quantity that is undetectable by manual gauging and inventory control, contains about 230 grams of benzene.

The EPA's Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for benzene is 5 parts per billion, or 5 micrograms per liter, in drinking water.

What this means is that the benzene in a 10 gallon gasoline leak can contaminate about 12 million gallons, of water.

So now, you really think fracking is what's doing it?
Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes together are the most common hazardous components of gasoline leaks - and subsequently ground-water contamination.

Benzene is the most hazardous of these compounds. Long-term exposures to benzene in drinking water at levels above the MCL increase the risk of cancer.

Toluene and ethylbenzene are not considered carcinogenic or cancer-causing. Over the long term, toluene and ethylbenzene damage the liver, kidneys, and central nervous system.

Xylenes are a mixture of compounds. Xylenes also affect the liver, kidneys, and nervous system, but they are not considered nearly as hazardous as the first three - benzene, toluene, and ethylbenzene.

MTBE (Methyl tertiary butyl ether) is an additive used to increase the oxygen content of gasoline to improve air quality.

In the language of the 1990 Clean Air Act, oxygenated gasoline is referred to as "reformulated gasoline" or "oxyfuel."

At concentrations as low as 20 parts per billion, MTBE makes drinking water unfit for human consumption because of taste and odor.

MTBE is classified as a potential human carcinogen, but as yet there is no Maximum Contaminant Level for drinking water.

So, as many as 9,000 community water wells in 31 states may be affected by MTBE contamination.

The U.S. Geological Survey reports that about 20% of groundwater in areas where reformulated gasoline is sold is contaminated by MTBE.

Concerns about air quality will kill us by way of the MTBE in our water.

MTBE is highly soluble in groundwater. The high solubility of MTBE allows it to be readily dissolved into groundwater from leaked gasoline and transported over great distances.

In some cases, MTBE transport has exceeded the transport distances of BTEX compounds by 10 times.

Compared to MTBE, the BTEX compounds are less soluble and more readily sorbed to aquifer sediments.



So yes, when I said, that back in the 1980s, I remember that inspector telling me that the underground fuel storage tanks leaked as they got older and were a genuine problem for us all - I believed him.

I remember him saying that he trailed one set of old tanks 40+ miles as he tested the water from one service station to another down the peninsula.

Since ground-water runs on plates beneath the surface, I have no doubt that he did in fact trail that ground-water contamination as far as he did.

The compounds in the ground-water that is cancer causing isn't the result of fracking thousands of feet below the ground-water tables.

In many if not most cases in the United States, it is the result of old tanks at gas stations leaking some amount of fuel that have compounds which even in the smallest amounts can cause us all great harm.

Story by Tom Correa

Fracking - Let's Talk About It

Dear Readers,

Folks are writing asking me if fracking will kill us all one day like Liberal Hollywood wants us all to believe?

So since now the press is attacking fracking during the flooding in Colorado, I figured I'd address your e-mails.

But before I start, as a matter of full disclosure, I did once upon a time work in the energy industry.

Today though, I have no ties to the energy industry in any way shape or form - other than a consumer like you.

So where do we start?

Well first off, I don't believe fracking will kill us all.

After all it's been used for more than 60 years and has been safe during that entire time.

It's true. There is no proof that fracking hurts us.

Of course that fact does not stop liberal hysterics who want to find something to use to attack America's energy industry.

Facts don't stop Hollywood and the liberal media from attacking something they know nothing about!

In a hydraulic fracturing job, "fracturing fluids" or "pumping fluids" consisting primarily of water and sand are injected under high pressure into the producing formation, creating fissures that allow resources to move freely from rock pores where it is trapped.

Typically, steel pipe known as surface casing is cemented into place at the uppermost portion of a well for the explicit purpose of protecting the groundwater.

The depth of the surface casing is generally determined based on groundwater protection, among other factors.

As the well is drilled deeper, additional casing is installed to isolate the formations from which oil or natural gas is to be produced, which further protects groundwater from the producing formations in the well.

Casing and cementing are critical parts of the well construction that not only protect any water zones, but are also important to successful oil or natural gas production from hydrocarbon bearing zones.

Industry well design practices protect sources of drinking water from the other geologic zone of an oil and natural gas well with multiple layers of impervious rock.

While 99.5 percent of the fluids used consist of water and sand, some chemicals are added to improve the flow.

The composition of the chemical mixes varies from well to well.

To recap, the oil and gas industry injects water at a very high pressure of around 9,000 psi or more, which breaks though the rock and holds the cracks open - otherwise they would close when the fluid stops flowing.

That's the key, without the pressure being they would close on their own from the pressure within the earth itself. So yes, when the pressure is stopped - the cracks close from the pressure release.

And by the way, hydraulic fracturing offshore has been going on now for several decades, and the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) has permitted it.

Thanks to fracking, for the 5th time in the past six years, North Dakota recorded the nation’s fastest growing personal income, which increased by 12.5%.

It's a fact, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, average personal income in North Dakota increased by 12.4 percent in 2012 thanks in large part to an increase in hydraulic fracturing.

Thanks to hydraulic fracturing, 2012 natural gas production in the U.S. is at its highest level ever.

At 24,062,889 million cubic feet, dry natural gas production in the U.S. in 2012 was at its highest level ever recorded.

So What Is Fracking?

According to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE): "Hydraulic fracturing is not a drilling method, but rather one of the many operations that an operator can propose to use on an Application for Permit to Drill or Modify."

Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is a proven and well-regulated technology.

First used in the 1940s, hydraulic fracturing has unlocked massive new supplies of oil and clean-burning natural gas from dense deposits of shale — supplies that increase our country’s energy security and improve our ability to generate electricity, heat homes and power vehicles for generations to come.

Fracking has been used in more than one million U.S. wells, and has safely produced more than seven billion barrels of oil and 600 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

In addition to enhancing our domestic energy supplies, shale development has irrefutable economic benefits.

Hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus and Barnett Shale has boosted local economies—generating royalty payments to property owners, providing tax revenues to the government and creating much-needed high-paying American jobs.

Engineering and surveying, construction, hospitality, equipment manufacturing and environmental permitting are just some of the professions experiencing the positive ripple effects of increased oil and natural gas shale development.

Some opponents of oil and natural gas production claim that fracking has serious environmental consequences.

Fracking's Track Record

The truth is, while all development has challenges, hydraulic fracturing technology has a strong environmental track record and is employed under close supervision by state, local and federal regulators.

Studies by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Ground Water Protection Council (GWPC) have confirmed no direct link between hydraulic fracturing operations and groundwater contamination.

Studies estimate that up to 80 percent of natural gas wells drilled in the next decade will require hydraulic fracturing technology.

In fact, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson recently testified that she was “…not aware of any proven case where the fracking process itself has affected water.”

Fracking makes it possible to produce oil and natural gas in places where conventional technologies are ineffective. Access to new wells encourages economic growth and provides energy for all Americans.

The oil and natural gas industry is committed to the continued safe and responsible development of our domestic resources and ensuring that the public is part of the conversation.

Let's let's talk about ground-water contamination and how it "could" take place.

I have two very deep water wells on my property. One is at almost 3oo feet and the other is at almost 400 feet down.

They are very deep in comparison to water wells in the San Joaquin Valley and the San Francisco Bay Area towns like say Livermore.

If there were oil drilling in my area, say right next door to my property, even at the depths of my wells, my ground-water would be safe from contamination.

The reason is that though water accounts for about 90 percent of the fracturing mixture and sand accounts for about 9.5 percent - which means that chemicals account for the remaining .5% (one half of one percent) of the mixture - the fracking process is taking place too deep for it to effect my wells.

"It's our experience in Pennsylvania that we have not had one case in which the fluids used to break off the gas from 5,000 to 8,000 feet (1,500-2,400 m) underground have returned to contaminate ground water."

-- John Hanger, former Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.
That's right! We're talking about wells that extend 5,000 to 8,000 feet beneath the earth!

To give you an idea of how deep that really is, imagine this:

On November 17th, 2011, Shell Oil Company broke its previous record for the world’s deepest underwater well.

Shell says it has started producing oil from a well 9,627 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

That depth is more than six times greater than the Empire State Building’s height.

Try to imagine the Empire State Building one on top of another 5 times. That's close to the depth that the fracking process is taking place.

Do you really thing that at that depth, that the process way down there can be effecting you ground-water a few hundred feet from the surface?

Let's Look At The Well Construction For A Moment - and where water contamination "could" come from.

And yes, all oil and gas wells use piping, sleeves and concrete when putting in a well - whether its a conventional well of one used in a fracking.
It's simply a part of the construction process of putting in an oil or gas well - for fracking or not!

Here's a short video about the process of Drilling an Oil Well, its construction.

Please note:

1) How the construction of the well piping to ensure no contamination enters the water tables close to the surface;

2) How the oil enters the well pipe - it does so through a perforated pipe.

This method has been used longer than most can remember; the only difference between a standard well and once used with a fracking method is the introduction of high pressure fluid to open the ground to allow more oil to be gathered. 

3) Note the safeguards and safety measures that the video shows are put in place before any oil or gas can be pumped out of the ground;

4) And please note the fact that this video comes from the extremely liberal State of California.

Since underground water runs on plates and sideways, the only way my ground-water could become contaminated is if there were a problem with the casing, the piping and sleeves, and the concrete put into place to protect the ground-water.

But how "could" oil, or say gasoline, get into our my ground-water?

If there is any ground-water contamination, then it has to come from the area near the surface - it has to be bad well construction.  

It cannot be coming from a many thousands of feet at the actual well openings in the perforated pipe.

We've used this system for more than a hundred years, and contamination comes from the rig and not way down below.  

Other than that, there is one more possibility that has nothing to do with oil and gas well drilling.

Years ago I met a man who did inspections of gasoline levels in the ground-water in the San Jose California area.

Those were the days before the fuel recovery systems used today under gas station underground tanks.

That was back in the mid-1980s, and I remember the inspector telling me that the underground fuel storage tanks leaked as they got older.

Their age and deterioration of the tank walls meant that gasoline leaked into the soil under the tank.

The seeping gasoline would of course rise atop the water (as oil separates itself from water) then it would travel on those underground plates.

I remember him saying that he trailed one set of old tanks 40+ miles as he tested the water from one service station to another down the peninsula.

He showed me on a map where he trailed the ground-water contamination. Plotting it out, all he had to do was connect the dots and find its source.

But friends, even back then gas in the ground-water wasn't the result of a fracking module down in the holes those thousands of feet below the ground-water tables.

In that case, it would have been the old leaking tanks at the service stations.

Other than in that case where there is leakage into the soil from old gasoline underground storage tanks, and someone was absolutely certain that it was coming from an oil rig operations?

If there were ground-water contamination from the oil well?

Then anything in the ground-water from an oil or gas well would have to be a result of a problem with its protective measures during the initial construction of the well, or the waste water ponds.

It would be a problem with the safeguards near the surface and not what's taking place thousands of feet below the earth.

It has nothing to do with any process, standard or fracking, used after the well was put in.

About this Information

All of the information above has been researched so that we can get an unbiased view of fracking.

While the information comes from many different sources, most come from the energy industry which uses fracking.

I used mostly Energy Industry information because when I'm looking for technical expertise, I like going to the source. Since they use it, and I needed to know how it was done - so I consulted the experts.

Besides I didn't want to go to some Hate Fracking website to find out what they "think" takes place, I wanted to get the technical information.

It's sort of like going to a lawyer to find out the law, instead of going to someone who hates the law, lawyers, the whole justice system, government and everyone in it.

And yes, that's how I see so-called "environmentalists". They hate everything about mankind and society, and have no respect for our needs.

They don't understand the balance that has to be struck between our needs as a nation and the needs to keep our environment as perfect as possible.

No one that I know wants polluted rivers and streams and harbors like we had before President Richard Nixon created the EPA, but at the same time to attempt to produce an environment before the existence of man and animals is insane.

Environmental extremists accuse fracking of causing earthquakes, sinkholes and all other sorts of calamities.

It seems that if it were left to them, 9/11, the Johnstown flood, Hurricane Katrina, the Rim Fire, and creation of Big Foot would all be blamed on fracking by the oil and gas industry.

Fact is, after 60+ years of use, fracking has not been linked to any natural or made-up disasters.

Environmental extremists are simply too biased and unbalanced to trust.  

Story by Tom Correa

 

Boston School Purposely Skips 9/11 Remembrance

Dear Readers,

The headline read: Boston High School Reads Students Muslim Poem On 9/11, Skips Pledge Of Allegiance

It was reported that one school in Boston has a strange way of Remembering 9/11, just skip it and instead read a Muslim poem.

Students at Concord Carlisle High School marked the anniversary with no Pledge of Allegiance.

Instead, they all listened to a Muslim poem.

That's right, a Muslim poem which had nothing to do with 9/11.

Instead of teaching our children about what took place on 9/11, the facts of what took place, who and why we were attacked, the self-sacrifice, the heroism, the valiant work involved to rescue those buried alive, the loss of loved ones, the rebuilding, the unity that it inspired throughout America  - no, instead the school made the decision to instead turn the focus of attention of the children on Muslim hardship in the United States.

The Islamic poem was called "My Grandmother Washes Her Feet in the Sink of the Bathroom at Sears" by Mohja Kahf.

The poem is about the poet's "grandmother [who] puts her feet in the sink of the bathroom at Sears to wash them in the ritual washing for prayer, wudu, because she has to pray in the store or miss the mandatory prayer time for Muslims" and the reactions of other women in the restroom.

So what does this poem about Muslim rituals and the way it is perceived by women in a bathroom, who probably wish she had stayed home and done it there, have to do with Remembering 9/11?

Nothing! Nothing at all! The poem is designed to gain some sort of sympathy for Muslims in America.

Yes, it's as if the school was trying to say, "look at how the old Muslim women is looked at? Isn't that horrible."

Instead of saying, "Children, let's talk about what toke place 12 years ago that changed the entire country in one single moment of time. Let's talk about why we have become the Big Brother society that we have become. Let's talk about the self-sacrifice and heroism that took place that day, those virtuous attributes that were on display for the world to see on 9/11 those 12 years ago."

They did none of that!

The school could have taken the time to educate and enlighten those children about the most significant event in U.S. modern history, but the failed to do so!

Instead, they purposely steered the their attention away from what took place on 9/11 - and focused onto something "they thought" mattered - the strangeness of Muslim religious rituals to Mid-West women in a bathroom at Sears.

Please understand, on the 12th Anniversary of the Muslim Attack on America, on 9/11, and the 1st Anniversary of the Americans, who the Obama administration let die in Libya, the Pledge of Allegiance was skipped altogether that day and instead a Muslim poem was read.

The incident immediately caused outrage with parents in the Massachusetts community, and the school apologized promptly.

In a statement, the school said, "Yesterday was the first Wednesday of the school year; we were unaware that our student Pledge reader had an internship commitment on this day. We humbly apologize that this oversight and communication gap occurred."

"Pledge reader"? What the hell kind of a half-ass excuse is that?

You telling me that there is no one else in the school that can recite the Pledge of Allegiance when someone is absent?

That's pure bullshit! Someone made the decision to "skip" the Pledge and that's the simple unvarnished truth!

The school’s principal, Peter Badalament, said the poem was read for "cross-cultural understanding."

He said, "We had the well-being of students at the forefront of our thinking when we chose to acknowledge 9/11 by reading a poem that focused on cross-cultural understanding rather than unsettling words and images associated with the event."

Allow me to translate that liberal crap for you:

They ignored the anniversary of 9/11, consciously made the decision not to remember those lost in the attack on 9/11, prevented the children from knowing what took place in what American History will call the worse attack on American soil in the entire history of the United States.

"Unsettling"? That is just insulting!

Ask yourself, if they won't show their High School Students "images" (ie: pictures) of 9/11, did they skip Civil War images of Lincoln or Gettysburg, or images of the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7th, of D-Day on June 6th, or any World War II pictures?

Did they show their students pictures of the Korean War, the Vietnam War, or the Gulf War? How about the images of President John F Kennedy being assassinated - are those also too "unsettling"?

How about the "unsettling words and images associated" with the Civil Rights marches of the 1960's with police dogs, water hoses, armed Black Panthers, or KKK rallies?

Is a picture of Martin Luther King Jr laying shot dead an "unsettling" image? How about "unsettling" images of when Bobby Kennedy was shot? Or of the Watts Riots and the anti-War protests of the 60's?

How about the "unsettling" image of President Reagan being shot?

How about pictures of President Obama taking office? Are they "unsettling"?

And yes, it's a legitimate question since I was told that schools withheld pictures of George W. Bush from classrooms when he was president, do teachers withhold images of Obama because it might be "unsettling" because Obama has become the worse president in American History?

The term "unsettling" is a scam that liberals use for things that they want to exclude from students today.

Let's see, how about the current administration telling lies to the American people, emboldening racism and divisiveness, ObamaCare mandates and fines, Big Brother, high unemployment, a record number of people on Food Stamps, poverty rate higher than ever before, NSA spying, IRS criminal activities, Fast and Furious gun running into Mexico to Drug Cartels, the Obama family going on lavish taxpayer paid trips abroad while school kids can't tour the White House?

How about Benghazi and the Obama administration letting four Americans die without help that was only a few hours away?

Are all of these things "unsettling words" that teachers and school administrators feel students should not be exposed to?

Yes, the term "unsettling" is a scam to make you the parent think that they are looking out for your child - when in fact they aren't.

What they try to pass off as "logic" and caring is nothing but a scam, a con game.

It is a scam that liberal teachers and school administrators try to pull on parents while they carry out their agenda of liberal political correctness.

What they are doing is depriving students of a quality education. And yes, it is criminal to deprive students of a proper education because "you've decided" that that subject is taboo!

And yes, that's what they are doing in Boston at Concord Carlisle High School as well as other schools around the country.

People talk about the "dumbing down" of American kids. Well, this is part of the reason - teachers and school administrators who should be fired are teaching in American schools. 

Yes, this is part of the reason why I have such a problem with teachers and the educational system in America these days.

Liberals running the schools have an agenda of anti-Americanism. And yes, don't kid yourself, it is absolutely anti-American to skip the remembrance of 9/11 - or of those who were killed.  

Yes, this is just one more example of teachers and school administrators who are out of control should be fired.

The good news is that parents aren't letting this sort of thing take place without consequences to those who want to perpetuate the scam.

Yes, more and more parents are simply not taking it anymore!



Story by Tom Correa

Oil & Gas Industry: Facts & Trivia - Part One

Do we need energy policy changes? 

Yes, let's get rid of those people in all aspects of government who are not for American energy independence.

What present policies need to be changed? 

• Increase, not decrease energy production by promoting all sources.
• Encourage energy self-reliance and self-sufficiency as a core American principle.
• Encourage investment in advanced technologies and long term energy initiatives.
• Allow market forces to allocate products and adjust to changing conditions.
• Refrain from more new taxes that make it more and more expensive to develop our domestic supplies.

There are over 157,000 retail gas stations in the U.S.

So how many are owned by the major integrated oil companies, aka “Big Oil?” 

Well, how about 3%! The vast majority of branded stations are owned and operated by independent retailers licensed to represent that brand.

According to the National Association of Convenience Stores (NACS), more than half of the retail stations in the US are owned by an individual or family.

According to the Energy Information Administration the U.S. is projected to consume 107.64 quadrillion BTUs of energy in 2040.

So how much of that do they think will be supplied by oil and natural gas? How about more than 59%!

Even as renewable energy production grows, oil and natural gas will continue to provide the majority of our energy for years to come.

According to a study by Sonecon what group owns the most shares of publically held oil and natural gas companies?

How about Public & Private Pension Funds!

That's right, nearly half of the shares of U.S.-based oil and natural gas companies are held by public and private pension and retirement plans, including 401(k)s, and IRA’s.

Corporate management owns less than three percent of the oil and natural gas industry.

What percentage of offshore federal areas remains off limits to oil and natural gas

development? How about 87%!

The areas off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, off the coast of Alaska, and in the eastern Gulf of Mexico are resource-rich but closed to development by government policy.

In 1995 it was estimated that there were less than 200 million barrels of oil in the Williston Basin shale area (North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana).

With new technologies it is now estimated that there are 7.38 Billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in the area.

In 1995 it was estimated that there were less than 200 Million barrels of oil in the Williston Basin shale area (North Dakota, South Dakota and Montana).

With new technologies it is now estimated that there are 7.38 Billion barrels of undiscovered, technically recoverable oil in the area?

“These world-class formations contain even more energy resource potential than previously understood, which is important information as we continue to reduce our nation’s dependence on foreign sources of oil.” - Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell 

According to the latest State Department study, how many jobs could be supported during the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline?

Yes, even a State Department study says at least, at a minimum, 42,100 American jobs can be created with the Keystone XL pipeline. 

An average, across studied cases, indicates that 213,000 new American great paying American jobs would be supported by LNG exports between 2015 and 2035.

An oil industry worker makes about $94,500 a year on the average.

And yes, for every one job created in the oil industry - there are 3 jobs created in support of the oil industry.

If Americans, even liberals, are really concerned about the quality of life here in our country, than job creation should be our number one priority. 

America's oil and natural gas industry has a widespread economic impact throughout all sectors of the economy and across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The industry supports 9.8 million men and women in a wide range of highly skilled, well-paying professions.

In fact, oil and natural gas industry exploration and production wages are more than double the national average.

In 2011 the industry paid over $200 billion in direct wages to U.S. employees, with another $300 billion in wages paid to workers in jobs supported by the industry.

Oil and natural gas companies invest in cutting-edge technology and offer fulfilling careers to the next generation of American engineers, geophysicists, chemists, earth scientists, geologists, climate experts and explorers.

These individuals, working with the best technologies, will help find and recover oil and natural gas here and abroad and help secure America's energy future.

In addition, the industry employs professionals that most people don't normally associate with our industry, such as botanists and marine biologists, even zoologists and veterinarians.

With the right government policies in place, the oil and natural gas industry can create more American jobs that can help grow the U.S. economy, generate substantial new revenues for government and provide greater energy security for our nation.

In fact, with increased access to U.S. oil and gas resources we can create 1 million new jobs in the next ten years alone.

To put that in perspective, that would provide enough jobs for nearly every citizen of Rhode Island.

A recent study by Wood Mackenzie found that by 2030, nearly 1.4 million new jobs could be added through policies which encourage development of America's oil and natural resources, and facilitate Canadian oil sands production through the development of Keystone XL and other related pipelines.

A few examples are as follows:

• Development of the Marcellus Shale alone could create 160,000 jobs in Pennsylvania, 20,000 jobs in New York and 30,000 jobs in West Virginia by 2015.
• The opening of Florida to exploration and development could result in up to 100,000 new Florida jobs by 2016--just with increased access to federal areas within the Gulf of Mexico.
• U.S. State Department approval of the Keystone XL pipeline could generate nearly 85,000 jobs by 2020

So ask yourself how bad this economy would be if it weren't for the oil and gas industry putting so many Americans to work?  

The oil and natural gas industry contributes significantly to the U.S. economy as one of the nation’s largest employers and purchasers of goods.

Even in a struggling economy, America's oil and natural gas companies continue to provide well-paying jobs, revenue to governments and investment growth for millions of Americans - totaling an economic contribution that challenges Washington's idea of stimulus.

Consider it the energy stimulus: $476 billion delivered to the U.S. economy in 2010. That's equal to roughly 60% of the 2009 federal stimulus.

It's a stimulus that didn't need an act of Congress and which, with the right policies, can be repeated over and over. And yes, each and every time helping to drive broader economic recovery.

The oil and natural gas industry by the numbers:

9.8 million: Number of people directly and indirectly employed by the U.S. oil and natural gas industry.

600,000: Increase of the number of jobs supported in just two years.

$200 billion: Paid by the industry paid in direct wages to U.S. employees.

$300 billion: Paid to workers in jobs supported by the industry.

1.4 million: Number of jobs the industry could create by 2030 with the right government policies in place to expand access to domestic natural resources.

$85 million: Daily amount companies pay to the federal government in royalty payments, rents and bonus fees.

$2 trillion: Invested by the industry in U.S. capital projects since 2000 to advance all forms of energy, including alternatives.

$74 billion: Government revenues generated by unconventional oil and natural gas development in 2012, rising to $138 billion in 2025.

12 percent: Percentage that U.S. energy demand will grow between now and 2040.

America’s oil and natural gas industry is creating jobs, stimulating the economy through investments in energy development and fueling our modern way of life.

Together, we can find commonsense solutions to our nation's energy challenges.

Among the biggest challenge facing America's oil and natural gas industry is President Obama and the Democrat Party - and their opposition to American energy independence. 

Of course, as with their trying to take away our guns, nothing changes until we vote Democrats out of office in 2014. 

 

Modern Day Minutemen Descend On Washington DC

Dear Readers,

On the 12th Anniversay of the Muslim Terrorist attack on America, we watched more than a million modern day Minutemen and women bikers descend on Washington DC.

Patriotism was in full swing as we remembered and saluted the victims of 9/11.

We didn't hear much at all out of the Million Muslim March.

Come to find out, maybe a hundred or so signed up, but only a handful showed up.

The back story on this is that a Muslim group wanted to make the 12th Anniversery of the 9/11 Attack as a Civil Rights march for Muslims.

They labeled their event as the Million Muslim March, but when that went over like pork chops served at a Mosque for dinner - they changed it to sound more politically correct.

But hey, whatever name they gave it - everyone understood that it was going to be a celebration of what took place on 9/11.

It was certainly not going to be American or Patriotic.

When a few bikers from the Northeast heard about that, they had other ideas.

The groups organizers, Bill Williamson, Belinda Bee, and John Mullins, did an incredible job keeping the public informed about the ride – for the bikers, and for those of us who can’t be there but wanted to show support.

If they could help it, our nation's leaders will get a reminder that Americans who will never forget the worst terrorist attack on American soil - and that we still wait for answers about who is criminally at fault for Benghazi.

Permits

While the Muslims applied for a permit to rally but not to be freed of traffic controls.  The biker group was refused a permit.

As strange as that was, that didn't stop the those Patriot bikers from showing up yesterday.

Sure, the group of bikers had been denied a no-stop permit for its planned "2 Million Bikers to DC" ride to commemorate the 12th anniversary of 9/11 Wednesday which meant that they could still ride through the capital - but they had to obey traffic signals and signs.

Or so they told them!

The bikers' rally generated a lot of buzz on social media, with thousands vowing to ride through Washington to "remember the victims of 9/11 and to honor our armed forced who fought those who precipitated this attack," according to the group's Facebook page.

The ride was also meant as a response to the Million Muslim March, a movement organized by the American Muslim Political Action Committee (AMPAC) in an effort to show Americans that Muslims denounce terrorism.

Message from the Muslims

"On 9.11.01 our country was forever changed by the horrific events in New York. The entire country was victimized by the acts done on that day," AMPAC said in a statement.

"Muslim and non-Muslim alike were traumatized but we as Muslims continue 12 years later to be victimized by being made the villains. To this day every media outlet and anti-Islamic organizations have committed slanderous and libel statements against us as Muslims and our religion of Islam."

My response to that!

Where have you Muslims been for 12 years?

America didn't hear a peep from any Muslim group in the U.S. condemning the attacks on 9/11/2001 or the attack that killed 4 Americans in Libya last year on 9/11/2012.

Fact is, there has been no condemnation from any of the Islamic nations in regards to either attack.

Instead, we have President Obama who came to office, bowed to their Princes, kissed the rings of the clergy, and gave away Billions of American Dollars which are certainly needed here more than there in those Oil Rich barbaric countries who hate America and all we stand for.

Over a year has gone by since the fools that we have in the White House failed to send military help like the Marines into Libya Benghazi to support our Americans there.

Instead, they let them die after a 10 HOUR battle!

The day before 9/11, the same President Barack Hussein Obama had the nerve to tell America that it is our responsibility to attack Syria on behave Muslims with ties to the very people who attacked up both on 9/11 twelve years ago and last year.

Obama's step-brother is an organizer for the anti-American terrorist group the Muslim Brotherhood, and is the very same American president who takes vacations every few weeks and gives away Biilion upon Billions of our taxpayer dollars to Muslim nations who harbor terrorist and want us dead.

Isn't it strange, yes queer, that Obama has found assets to attack Syria on behave of a group that has ties to Al Queda.

Isn't it strange how he now has the committment to go  to war to help someone.

Where was Obama when Americans needed him to go to war for them?

And youknow what, that's a damn fine question, where was he when that all came down a year ago?

Fact is, a year has passed and we still don't know the whereabouts of President Obama on the night when 4 Americans were under attack and needed help from Marine quick-response teams only a few hours away.

Why is it he wants to go to war for Muslims but not Americans?

Back to our Hero Bikers!

The "2 Million Bikers to DC" organization was denied a no-stop permit from the city, which meant it would not be allowed to ride through red lights or stop traffic.

"Washington DC has DENIED our permit for a no-stop ride through Washington DC. We find this regretful for the residents and businesses of that great city, and humbly offer our apologies," the ride's organizers posted on the group's Facebook page last week.

"What could have been a one or two hour ride through will now likely be an all-day event. We will be obeying all laws. We will be stopping at all stoplights, stop signs, and yielding to all pedestrians."

The denial didn't mean that the group was prohibited from riding, though that's how many on Twitter took it.

And yes, they rode in anyway!

The group said in a statement Sunday that D.C. officials denied their request for a special nonstop ride through town with a waiver for red lights, stop signs and other traffic signals.

“What could have been a one or two hour ride through will now likely be an all day event,” the group said.

Denial of the permit sparked outrage on the biker group’s website because the District of Columbia reportedly had granted the American Muslim Political Action Committee a permit for the Million Americans Against Fear rally, formerly known as the Million Muslim March, for Wednesday on the National Mall, the PAC announced Saturday.

BizPac Review pointed out that the Muslim advocacy group also announced it had received a commitment from Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, Missouri Democrat, to speak at the event.

The 2 Million Bikers to DC group offered an apology to D.C. residents, who will undoubtedly be disturbed by the noise.

“We did the right thing and went through the proper channels to secure a no-stop permit to ride through your great city,” the groups said Sunday.

“We wanted to ride an established route, which would have taken us past the Viet Nam Memorial to the Lincoln Memorial, across the bridge into Virginia, and that’s it! We would have been completely out of Washington DC, and your city would have been back to normal.”

The bikers planed to meet at the Harley Davidson in Fort Washington, Maryland, on Wednesday morning, where they will had opening ceremonies, blessings, the Pledge of Allegiance and a handful of speakers.

Up until yesterday morning, the final route has not yet been announced “for security purposes.”

Their message!

“On September 11th, we ride as one!!” the group said.

“We ride to pay tribute and offer respect to those that lost their lives on that day 12 years ago, and to salute our troops engaged in the War on Terror. Riders!…we are the best of the best in America!! Our love for these people and this country is staggering, and we will make a display of Patriotism and solidarity America won’t soon forget!!”

And that they did!

World Net Daily reported:

Driving in from Canada and from all over the United States, the bikers, who were denied a permit for their demonstration, were flooding the capital.

At approximately 1 p.m., “2 Million Bikers to DC” Facebook page co-founder Belinda Bee posted that police have counted nearly 1 million bikers are on the streets of Washington.

The name of the “Million Muslim March” was changed to the “Million American March Against Fear” because organizers said the original name proved too “scary.”

In fact, The American Muslim Political Action Committee was criticized for scheduling the march on the anniversary of 9/11.

Organizers refused to change the date of the march, which marked 12 years since the attack by 19 Muslims on New York City and Washington.

“September 11th, 2001 was the beginning of a new era of fear,” the organizers insisted. “Since 9/11, Americans have been terrorized by the media.”

Claims AMPAC: “They have been taught to fear their neighbors. They have been inculcated with fear of other religions. They have been brainwashed into fearing people with brown skins, turbans, and foreign accents.”

Million Muslim March organizer M.D. Rabbi Alam addresses an empty field and 25 people where a million Muslims were supposed to gather.

The Huffington Post reported: “Organizers at the group American Muslim Political Action Committee (AMPAC) didn’t exactly do a lot to engender sympathy for an event held on one of the most emotionally charged days of the year. The group is led by M.D. Rabbi Alam, a professed 9/11 truther who has pushed controversial anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about the attacks. AMPAC’s plans outraged conservative outlets earlier this year, though many cited the religion of the organizing group, rather than the fringe beliefs behind the event.”

The bikers, meanwhile, have stated their opposition to President Obama’s push to “fundamentally transform” the U.S.

Radio giant Rush Limbaugh said Wednesday the American public as a whole did not understand what Obama was intending to do when he campaigned in 2008 with that remark.

“They had no idea that fundamentally transforming the United States of America meant turning the Constitution of the United States on its head,” Limbaugh said.

“They had no idea that transforming the United States of America meant getting rid of capitalism and replacing it with socialism. They had no idea that it meant co-opting one-sixth of the U.S. economy by the government, the health-care business. They had no idea what Obama was promising. They thought they knew, but they didn’t. Some of them may now not even know, but the bikers in D.C. know – and knew.”

There is a major difference in the Facebook pages for the two 9/11 events.

The Million American March Against Fear page has a paltry 295 Facebook likes and had not posted any photos of their rally as of 2 p.m.

But on the 2 Million Bikers to DC Facebook page, there were 196,000 likes, and many photos of the bikers rolling into the nation’s capital.

If you want to know what it looked like, here you go!

God Bless each and every one of those bikers and their families. They truly are Patriots! Too bad I can't say the same for the President who ignored them.















Like the man holding the flag as you ride by, I salute every one of you.

Thank you!

Story by Tom Correa