"Artic Oil Drilling in Domenici Plan"

"WASHINGTON— Sen. Pete Domenici on Thursday suggested opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling as part of a major U.S. production initiative to help drive down gasoline prices.

The measure also calls for oil drilling in parts of the outer-continental shelf off both coasts, mining oil shale in Colorado and other Rocky Mountain states, and a temporary suspension of U.S. oil deposits in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

Domenici, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, unveiled his bill during a Capitol Hill news conference along with a dozen other Senate Republicans.

Senate Democrats said the bill's chance of passage— especially containing the ANWR provision— is slim."

"Alberta the underdog in oilsands PR battle: Stelmach"

"EDMONTON - Premier Ed Stelmach says the Alberta government is playing David to a big green Goliath in a rapidly intensifying argument over the oilsands.

He justified the province's new $25-million image campaign today as environmental groups got a fresh reason to decry the rapid pace of oilsands development and lax government regulation: hundreds of migrating ducks in danger of dying after landing in a toxic pond at a Syncrude mine site.

Officials have only been able to rescue three ducks so far, Environment Minister Rob Renner said. Many of the sludge-soaked birds have tried diving into the tailings pond to clean themselves, to detrimental effect."

"Wyoming's air is getting a little thick"

"Recently, I heard an ozone warning for the first time on Wyoming radio. I grew up in the tiny town of Saratoga and have lived in Wyoming for 27 of my 34 years, and during that time I’ve watched air quality decrease in other places -- like Denver. But I never expected to hear air-quality alerts in Sublette County, Wyo., where hardly anybody lives.

The warning meant that children and the elderly should not go outside and breathe the mountain air; although the radio did not say that, the local newspaper did. The ozone is caused by pollutants emitted from natural gas fields in the area combined with weather conditions and temperature inversions. The warning was repeated three times over the course of 12 days.

To think that this rural region is faced with air-quality issues similar to Los Angeles and Denver is downright sad."

Lensic Event: Readings & Conversations: Elizbeth Kolber with with Sam Howe Vehovek - May 7th

Elizabeth Kolbert, author of the very well received series on global warming/climate change in the New Yorker, followed by her book Field Notes from a Catastrophe, will be speaking at the Lensic Wednesday evening, May 7.

If you can't hear her directly on Wednesday, her presentation will apparently be broadcast on KSFR or KUNM (check) on Saturday, May 10. (The Lensic didn't know the time or which station.)

Review notes for Kolbert's Field Notes from a Catastrophe:

"The hard, cold, sobering facts about global warming and its effects on the environment that sustains us. Her book is nothing less that a Silent Spring for our time."

"Reporters talk about the 'trial of the decade' or the 'storm of the century.' But for the planet we live on, the changes now unfolding are of a kind and scale that have not been seen in thousands of years – not since the retreat of the last ice age. Elizabeth Kolbert gives us a clear, succinct, and invaluable report from the front.

"In this riveting view of the apocalypse already upon us, Kolbert mesmerizes with her poetic cadence."

"If you know of anyone who still does not understand the reality and scale of global warming, you will want to give them this book."

Galisteo Watershed Partnership Quarterly Forum - May 9th

Galisteo Watershed Partnership meeting on May 9, from 8:30 am until 12:30 pm at the Santa Fe Community College Board Room (#223). Please see the attachment with an updated agenda and location map for more details. The meeting is free of charge. We welcome your photos, quotes, and other great reminders about the importance of wildlife in the Galisteo Basin.

Jan-Willem Jansens
Executive Director
Earth Works Institute
1413 Second Street, Suite 4
Santa Fe, NM 87505
www.earthworksinstitute.org

PRC Candidates Forum - May 7th - 7:00pm

PRC Candidates Forum

Wednesday, May 7th

7:00 – 8:30 pm

Unitarian Church of Santa Fe, 107 W. Barcelona

Come Hear The Candidates

For the Public Regulation Commission, District 3

District 3 covers the NE part of NM including most of Santa Fe, Espanola, Los Alamos, Taos, Rio Rancho and Corrales.

"County brings in outside firm for drilling ordinance"

"Santa Fe County has hired a planning firm to help develop an oil-and-gas-extraction ordinance (amendments to the Land Development Code pertaing to public facilities and gas/oil/geo-thermal extraction), write an area plan for the Galisteo Basin and finish writing growth-management amendments to the county general plan.

The County Commission voted Tuesday to enter into a contract with Planning Works, a Kansas City-based firm that will charge the county $125 per hour. County spokesman Stephen Ulibarri said the county has set aside about $160,000 to pay for planning services from the firm.

Ulibarri said Robert Freilich, the Los Angeles-based attorney the county hired in February to consult on the projects, recommended Planning Works."

Related story.

"Editorial: Gas Producers agree to clean 'Oil Patch' air"

"If it's done right, the job of environment secretary for the state of New Mexico is not for the faint of heart.

In recent decades, lots of the work has amounted to playing catch-up with a century or so of plundering the American West. With that exploitation came a consequences-be-damned approach to mining and hydrocarbon drilling and processing — directed from the comfort of gentlemen's clubs by Wall Street barons, and carried out in some of our state's bleaker quarters under the eyes of highly skilled, rough-and-tumble engineers undaunted by Mother Nature.

So when our state and the rest of the country got serious about environmental protection, the job of reclaiming ripped-away land and poisoned water was enormous. It still is — and because extractive-industry executives don't want shareholders, including themselves, stuck with the cost, they use all the leverage they can muster to minimize environment department enforcement of some potentially effective New Mexico laws. "

"Big Oil: 'Together, We Can' Ignore Climate Change"

"The American Petroleum Institute (API), the trade organization for the oil and natural gas industry, has just begun running a feel-good commercial that argues “America’s future” lies in drilling out domestic reserves of oil and natural gas off our coasts, in our western lands, and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

"In the clear: Real-estate slowdown comes at good time for developer"

"Lot sales in Commonweal's Southern Crescent subdivision ground to a halt last summer, with nine of 22 lots sold since they were first offered in 2006. Harrison said the finicky market for conservation lots in a unique development probably dried up on news of possible oil-and-gas drilling in the area and on the tide of a nationwide real-estate slowdown driven by last year's credit crisis."

The Schreiber Report

The "Schreiber Report" is a first hand account of the Rio Arriba County oil & gas drilling permitting moratorium process.

"Nonprofit Buys Land in Galisteo Basin"

"A Santa Fe nonprofit has now purchased more than half of a 13,222-acre former ranch in the Galisteo Basin that it intends to use for open space and new homes.

The recent acquisition of 2,444 acres brings Commonweal Conservancy's total holdings to date to 8,235 acres.

Commonweal has an agreement to purchase the former Thornton family ranch in phases.

The purchases include not just the land but also the mineral rights, at least in cases where the family owned them, spokeswoman Lauren Whitehurst said Saturday. Some of the mineral rights are also owned by the Bureau of Land Management, she said.

Mineral rights have become a big concern in recent months among land owners in the region ever since Tecton Energy of Houston announced plans to explore for oil and gas."

"Land Deal Has Us Star Struck Again"

"ORALE SANTA FE: It was pretty interesting to read last week that the Santa Fe County Commission officially cleared the way to buy 65 acres it's been leasing as a business park from the state Land Office. The plan is to allow a movie studio to be built there under the county's jurisdiction.

It's just the latest chapter of the movie industry's love affair with New Mexico— an understandable infatuation, because we live in such a photogenic state. At a press conference last week, county commissioners Mike Anaya, Virginia Vigil and Jack Sullivan handed over a $1.82 million dollar check to state Land Commissioner Patrick Lyons— a nice chunk of change for, yes, you've heard it before, "the children of New Mexico" whose schools benefit from revenue from state trust lands managed by the Land Office (as does the state prison system, by the way, although no one at the Land Office brags too much about all the dough raised for "the felons of our state")."

"The Real Side"

"As they battle the evil oil monster, opponents of energy exploration near Santa Fe drape the green cape of environmentalism around their shoulders. Underneath they wear a body stocking knit with threads of hypocrisy.

Many of the anti-oil activists live around the Galisteo Basin, the area Tecton Energy wants to explore. Rather than occupy modest quarters inside city limits where they could leave a smaller carbon footprint, many of these activists have fed the sprawl gobbling up the countryside. Starting with McMansions in the Eldorado subdivision, they’ve pushed roads and utilities into land that will never again qualify for the adjective “pristine.”'

"Neighbor county OKs drilling ban"

"ESPANOLA — The Rio Arriba County Commissioners unanimously passed an amended moratorium on new oil and gas drilling within their county, approving a four-month ban while it continues to study environmental concerns."

"San Juan County outranks major metro areas in carbon emissions"

"FARMINGTON — San Juan County is ranked No. 6 on the nation's Top 20 Worst Offenders for Carbon Dioxide Emissions list in research published by a Purdue University professor.

Being one of few non-major metropolitan areas included on the list further sets San Juan County apart from other cities listed by Kevin Gurney, Ph.D.

San Juan County follows counties that include Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Cleveland and Detroit.

"This is really due to the electrical demand," Gurney said. "There is a wide-spread phenomena (in the U.S.) to produce power and send it to other areas."'

"Rancher's road slimed by drilling fluid; produce(r) says it will be cleaned"

"FARMINGTON — Río Arriba County rancher Bill Smith lost his patience with the oil and gas industry shortly before noon Tuesday.

He's shared the 4,140 acres his family homesteaded near Gobernador in 1910 for years, but he's kept his mouth shut about the industry that generates a lot of money for New Mexico.

But Smith had quite a few things to say when he discovered a quarter mile-long, six- to 12-inch wide swath of drilling fluid leading to a Paul and Sons-owned oil field water truck at about 11:30 a.m.

"ConocoPhillips just drilled a well that has a reserve pit," Smith said. "When I came out here on my motorcycle I found a truck that looked like it dumped this on the road."...

..."Río Arriba County commissioners vote Thursday on a resolution proposing a six-month moratorium on all new drilling in the county, with the exception of American Indian land."

Nova: "Car of the future" / Chevrolet Volt & Tesla Motors

Nova: "Car of the future"

Tesla Motors
Wikipedia - Tesla Motors
YouTube - Tesla Motors

Chevrolet site - Volt
GM - Volt
Wikipedia - Volt
YouTube - Volt

"Waste Not" - TheAtlantic.com

"Opening the grid to competition is one of the more important steps to take if we’re serious about reducing fossil-­fuel use and carbon emissions, yet no one’s talking about doing that. Democratic legislators are nervous about creating incentives for cleaner, cheaper generation that may also benefit nuclear power. Neither party wants to do the dirty work of shutting down old, wasteful generators. And of course the Enron debacle looms over everything.

Technocratic changes to the grid and to industrial plants don’t easily capture the imagination. Recycling industrial energy is a solution that looks, well, gray, not green. Steel plants, coated with rust, grime, and a century’s worth of effluvia, do not make for inspiring photos. Yet Casten, pointing to the 16 heat-recycling contraptions that sit on top of the coke ovens at the East Chicago steel plant, notes that in 2004 they produced as much clean energy as all the grid-connected solar panels in the world. Green power may pay great dividends years from now. Gray power, if we would embrace it, is a realistic goal for today."

Lisa Margonelli is a fellow at the New America Foundation and the author of Oil on the Brain: Petroleum’s Long, Strange Trip to Your Tank, just published in paperback.

Related article, "The Unsung Solution," by Bill McKibben

"Recovering From Wyoming's Energy Bender" -- The New York Times

"They imply that anything less than full support for the oil companies is un-American. But a bumper sticker on a pick-up truck hints at the truth: “The war is over. Halliburton won.”'...

..."Oil and gas are accustomed to dominating the debate. But Ms. Williams’s forums have created an opportunity for grass-roots rebuttal. Residents, who have so far been cowed by the enormous tax contributions that energy companies make to the state’s coffers, are upholding values not counted in dollars. “My hope is that with our backs against the wall we will finally speak up,” another weather reports participant said.

Maybe Wyomingites, justifiably proud of their roughneck heritage and anxious to keep the oil field work, have realized that this boom isn’t going away soon, and they’d like a little of Wyoming left when the oil companies move back to Texas. “We’re Mother Nature’s bodyguards,” a billboard sponsored by Sportsmen for the Wyoming Range warns. “And yes, we are heavily armed.”'

"San Juan's producers unhappy with latest pit rule delays"

Something unexpected for some readers of the article, "San Juan's producers unhappy with latest pit rule delays, " "The issue of reclaiming and reusing produced and "frac" water is drawing attention in Texas. Reporter Mella McEwen, of the Midland Reporter-Telegram, recently covered an announcement by a local oil and gas company, Stan Weiner of Weiner Oil & Gas, that he planned to partner with General Electric to enter into the "emerging market" of reusing the liquid by-product.

The article was an outgrowth of a Barnett Shale symposium held at Midland College in December.

The state of Texas deals with 6 billion barrels of produced water annually. The amount of produced water brought up by New Mexico's oil and gas producers was not immediately available." (click here for referenced article)

Is the future of oil and gas producers to become water producers?

"My view: 1872 Mining Act doesn't apply to Ortiz" - Bill Condit

From "My View: 1872 Mining Act doesn't apply to Ortiz, " In other words, whatever happens in Washington D.C. to amend or revoke rights under the 1872 law will have no effect upon Santa Fe Gold Corp.'s lease of the Ortiz area. Exploration and development of the leased area will be governed by state laws, no doubt with ample input from Santa Fe County citizens, not unlike the Tecton Energy oil and gas leases, also entirely on privately owned land and minerals." Point of fact, Santa Fe County has a Mining Ordinance that will apply at the local level for proposed exploration and development of the Ortiz.

From a previous Alamagorda Daily News article, July 23, 2006: Industry leaders insist drilling plan protects Otero Mesa

"HEYCO consultant Bill Condit sat in the Santa Fe municipal airport, his flight to a Colorado energy forum delayed. Loudspeakers crackled overhead, announcing boarding times with static.

"I was a liaison in Vietnam ... there, being a liaison could get you shot. And now I may be in that position again," Condit quipped, surprised that Yates tapped him for a talk with the press.
...
Like Gallagher, Condit attributed fears of irreparable damage on Otero Mesa to misunderstandings of the oil and gas production process.
...
But despite the top geologists and pricey software, Condit admits there's much HEYCO has to learn, and can only learn, from drilling.

"It's absolutely true that more information is necessary before the next step after the next exploratory well," he said. "BLM can talk about the 1,589 acre cap (on total surface disturbance), but that's a long way from happening."

Condit can't admit much else, because most of the company's information is considered proprietary. He cannot reveal how much natural gas production the company anticipates, how it would conduct its exploration, or how much it discovered in 25-1 and 1-Y, the only successful wells ever dug on Otero Mesa.

"We believe one of the reasons George's wells were successful and the others weren't is because they drilled with an air mist, not water," said Condit.
...
"George understands he's going to be constrained by the new plan," said Condit.
...
If U.S. District Court Judge Bruce Black, who is expected to rule any day now, allows the BLM to implement its plan and proceed with drilling, Condit says Yates is committed to using the most environmentally sound techniques available."

HEYCO: heycoenergy.com

"Drilling Ban," - Rio Grande Sun

"Drilling Ban," Rio Grande Sun:

"The moratorium could last six months or longer while the (Rio Arriba) County develops an ordinance addressing the environmental and cultural effects of the proliferation of wells. It will apply to "any portion of the territory within the County that is not within the zoning jurisdiction of a municipality or not within Native American designated lands," the proposal states. Federal lands are also included in the draft." (full article)

"Critics slam energy corridor planning," - trib.com

"Critics slam energy corridor planning," from trib.com:

"The vast majority of a draft environmental analysis focuses on explaining why the corridors will have no impact on the environment, said Joanna Prukop, secretary of the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. "We disagree with that," she testified.

The corridor designation process is currently proceeding without compliance with key federal laws, consideration of renewable energy resources or efforts to protect the other natural resources and communities, she said....

...The Energy Policy Act of 2005 directed federal agencies to designate energy corridors for oil, gas, and hydrogen pipelines and electricity transmission facilities on federal lands in portions of 11 Western states.

Last November, federal agencies released a draft programmatic environmental impact statement. They are currently analyzing 14,000 public comments. They hope to have decisions signed by the end of this year that would designate corridors and amend land management plans in those areas." (full article)

"The Green Team," Santa Fe Reporter

"The Green Team," by Laura Paskus, sfreporter.com:

"Here—just in time for Earth Day on April 22—are the stories of 10 folks making a difference in New Mexico." (full article)

"Environmental News for New Mexicans," Laura Paskus