Front Range sitting on a billion barrels of oil. (Hugo: real estate, credit)

[Idunn]

“It’s crazy when you see these derricks that shoot up 150 feet in the air,” Davis says. “They light up like a giant Christmas tree at night time.”

Standing next to his silver Volvo sedan, Davis looks out on a tan-colored well and a pair of storage tanks less than a football field’s length from his and his neighbors’ tract homes built in the 1990s on land that used to be prairie …

“The irony, we’ve got residential areas and yet we’ve got 25 signs that say “danger” or “toxic chemicals” or “highly explosive,” Davis says.' [1]


Something that article alluded to are the other front range communities impacted, such as Longmont, as mentioned in this reference from KUNC as well. It would probably be a good idea if all other communities followed the lead of Colorado Springs in this. Particularly in Weld County, which at 17,000 has more oil wells than any other in the nation.

Something sometimes overlooked in this discussion is that while by regulation these fracking companies are at least supposed to keep their 150' rigs far enough from your home so not flattening it if falling over, that they can and do drill directly under it, entire towns.

If any sensible balance is to be found then the greater hope likely in such grassroots efforts as that of Joe’l Lambe, as Governor Hickenlooper is a petroleum geologist himself, and more oil cheerleader than environmentalist.

1) 'Oil Boom Creates Opportunities, Consternation Along Colorado's Front Range,' KUNC
Oil Boom Creates Opportunities, Consternation Along Colorado's Front Range | KUNC

[BayAreaHillbilly]

Ooooooooooooh noooooooooooo! EVIL oil! It must be left in the ground. The same for EEEEEVIL radioactive elements. We must subsist on photovoltaic electricity, intermittent wind power ... and dung. It will all be good, the population will drop to 1B world wide. Bambi will rejoice! / sarc

[Idunn]

"Hannah and Eleanor Fairchild were standing in front of heavy equipment in an attempt to halt construction of the Keystone XL pipeline on Fairchild's farm in Winnsboro, a town about 100 miles east of Dallas. They were arrested for criminal trespassing and taken to the Wood County Jail, Bassis said." [1]


This is in the news due the celebrity of Daryl Hannah. But read it more closely. Apparently landowner Fairchild was arrested for trespassing on her own land.

If this occurred in Texas, seemingly anyone in contention with the easements or supposed rights of others may be in a similar position, with plenty of opportunity for that in Colorado.

1) 'Daryl Hannah arrested in Keystone XL protest,' The Guardian
Daryl Hannah arrested in Keystone XL protest | Environment | guardian.co.uk

[rushhournewb]

Drill baby Drill.

[julian17033]

Oil is a globally traded commodity.
This means we could be removing everything from the U.S. concerning raw crude and the price of fuel will still not be affected.

The reason is that Global emerging markets like China and India are demanding huge amounts of petroleum thus driving up the price of oil.

You can "" drill baby drill "" all you want but the price you pay at the pump will only drop if China and or India goes into an economic tail spin of epic proportions.

[jazzlover]

I billion barrels, eh? Wow. That is a whopping 53 days of US oil consumption at current rates of 19 million barrels of oil used in the US per day. So, we would have to find 6 new fields of that size per year in the US--from now to eternity--just to keep up with current oil usage rates in this country (meaning no growth in consumption). Not happening. Get real, folks.

[Mike from back east]

There were spot shortages of gasoline in California this week; we can make what we will of it, but at least we should think "hmmm, what's that all about."

I was in CA a few weeks ago and driving one of their freeways in the Bay area; it was six lanes EACH way. All 12 lanes were moving at 60+ MPH and full of cars as far as one could see. The obvious thought came to me that the amount of gasoline we use is so stupendous that we probably can't comprehend a number that large.

[delta07]

Originally Posted by Mike from back east

There were spot shortages of gasoline in California this week; we can make what we will of it, but at least we should think "hmmm, what's that all about."

I was in CA a few weeks ago and driving one of their freeways in the Bay area; it was six lanes EACH way. All 12 lanes were moving at 60+ MPH and full of cars as far as one could see. The obvious thought came to me that the amount of gasoline we use is so stupendous that we probably can't comprehend a number that large.

I think you hit the nail on the head with this comment.

[aus10]

Originally Posted by Idunn

"Hannah and Eleanor Fairchild were standing in front of heavy equipment in an attempt to halt construction of the Keystone XL pipeline on Fairchild's farm in Winnsboro, a town about 100 miles east of Dallas. They were arrested for criminal trespassing and taken to the Wood County Jail, Bassis said." [1]


This is in the news due the celebrity of Daryl Hannah. But read it more closely. Apparently landowner Fairchild was arrested for trespassing on her own land.

If this occurred in Texas, seemingly anyone in contention with the easements or supposed rights of others may be in a similar position, with plenty of opportunity for that in Colorado.

1) 'Daryl Hannah arrested in Keystone XL protest,' The Guardian
Daryl Hannah arrested in Keystone XL protest | Environment | guardian.co.uk

A prime example of people not knowing what their talking about...(not meaning ya'll.. but meaning those protesting and even those reporting this)

#1. This is the Keystone Southern Expansion project - NOT XL. This project was designed years before XL was ever conceived. The permit's and paperwork went into FERC well before the general public ever heard of XL.

#2. 99% of the land owners that this line is going through, agreed to the line, and were paid handsomely for it. All close to 500 miles of it. This lady was a hold-out. A hold out among thousands. It was decided that for the good of the project, the courts used eminent domain on her land. She will still get paid, and the land will be repaired at the end of the project.

#3. All of these people keep saying, "the oil is being sold, it's going to China, on and on." Most people don't know the deference between crude and refined products. They don't realize that we still IMPORT crude. We export product. BIG DIFFERENCE!!!

#4. The environmentalist groups protesting are fixing to get themselves in a bind big time. They have started threatening bodily harm to the workers (AMERICAN WORKERS!) and are now being goaded by their financial supporters to do damage to the equiment on the ROW's. This equipment is American manufactured, owned by AMERICAN construction companies, and operated by AMERICAN workers. I hope that they are punished to the full extent of the law. And first thing they can do is go arrest the bat-crap crazy woman who was running around the Right-of-way the other day in her underwear hugging and kissing trees.

[Mike from back east]

Aus10, agree fully. Pipelines are about the "friendliest" way to transport things....like my natural gas and tap water, among many other things.

I wonder if people even stop to think about the massive amount of jet fuel piped in to all our airports - and what a hell our roads would be if all that fuel had to be trucked in for hundreds of miles, or a thousand. I cannot even comprehend moving gasoline by truck or rail from refineries to every city and town around the nation - talk about damage the environment. I've seen gasoline tankers burn and it's quite the sight. Once in a while some nimrod with backhoe will break a product pipeline, but it's rare.

There are 2.3 million miles of pipelines in the USA, see item 7 at this site. For that woman to protest is just nuts, pipelines aren't a problem.

Though I'm a big fan of railroads, putting gasoline in RR tank cars is asking for trouble, it's just too dangerous given the frequent derailments. Most people have no idea of all the hazmats that travel in RR tank cars, from LPG (essentially huge gas bombs) to molten sulphur to chlorine to sulphuric acid to molten steel in some cases. By far, pipelines are the safest and cheapest way move petroleum products (and many are good investments that pay a nice dividend no matter the price of oil).

The environmentalists need to do a better job of picking their fights, pipelines are almost totally benign and trees will grow back soon enough.