Gas Land

Oil and gas. I can’t seem to get away from the stuff. My mother once joked that it is in my blood. I was born in a land made obscenely rich by massive oil finds, started out wanting to be a doctor or architect but ended up seduced by rocks and working in the oil industry for a decade and now own property and live right on top of one of the most prolific American gas shales.

Last night, when I turned on HBO’s GASLAND, a documentary about the hydraulic fracturing of shales for oil and gas removal and its human and environmental impacts, imagine my surprise when it started with the Devonian Marcellus shale that sits about half a mile below this Ohio town and runs all the way east into Pennsylvania and southern New York and south into West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, Tennessee and northern Alabama.

First, a short primer on hydraulic fracturing: Conventional drilling is tapping into porous rock, sandstone for instance, and pumping out oil and gas. Hydraulic fracturing involves breaking non-porous rock, in this case shales, with a high-pressure mixture of water, sand and proprietary chemical mixes, which releases oil or gas into the well. The controversy here comes from two things: 1) Hydraulically fracturing rock impacts adjacent aquifer horizons by exposing them to oil, gas and chemicals through the fractures and 2) the Energy Policy Act of 2005 included the exemption of hydraulic fracturing from the Safe Drinking Water Act (recommended by a special task force on energy policy convened by Vice President Dick Cheney, FYI). Fracking of the Marcellus shale east of here has had documented negative effects on the health of humans, water sources and wildlife.

GASLAND takes director Jason Fox and his production crew from his home in Pennsylvania to various places in America where fracking is on the rise to tap these unconventional sources of energy, i.e. not regular crude oil or coal but oil and gas shales, as the quality of life of the people of these regions decreases. I am as wary of non-scientists “doing science” as it gets and am not partial to the Michael-Moore-And-Me “folksy” style of exposé, but Fox is on to something here.

***

It is the beginning of the third month of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. GASLAND‘s parallels with this disaster alone are startling.

- Area residents and fauna take ill as hydraulic fracturing intensifies and companies blame it on anything but the chemicals required for said fracturing. Even when no one got sick and water coming out of pipes wasn’t flammable until then.

- The well blowouts and pipe leaks. They are everywhere.

- Halliburton is everywhere.

- State regulatory agencies are mismanaged and underfunded bodies that seem to operate on behalf of energy companies and not the people they represent. “There is no one here to help you. Find a lawyer.”

- Legal and public relations arms of the energy companies expertly stonewall the media.

- Legislative hearings are dog-and-pony shows in which energy company executives state that they follow the law and that they have published the chemical composition of their raw materials but are unwilling to hand those documents over to lawmakers.

- One legislator uses the hearing to stump for his next campaign and apologizes to the energy companies for this hassle while thanking them for the jobs they have created in the region.

- Louisiana is always terminally screwed. Never mind its own production, refining and pipeline activity, which pollutes the coastline and has created Cancer Alley between Baton Rouge and Plaquemines Parish, the state receives one-third of the nation’s oil and gas drilling waste via the Mississippi and other streams in its drainage basin.

- Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is as useless now as he was then. As Colorado senator, he voted for the 2005 Energy Policy Act with the hydraulic fracturing provision intact (then Senator Obama of Illinois, Senators Landrieu and Vitter of Louisiana, Senator Kohl of Wisconsin and both senators of Ohio and Pennsylvania respectively also voting Yea, surprise surprise).

***

The pros of offshore drilling, hydraulic fracturing and other conventional energy-extraction methods: Jobs, revenue and independence from foreign energy sources.

The cons: Shitting where you eat Water and land pollution; human and animal illness, chromosomal abnormalities and death; long-term environmental destruction.

Jobs and revenue are great, but we have to get past looking at energy in these terms. As D says, “When horses were replaced by automobiles, the guys clearing horseshit from roads and stables complained about lost jobs.” Times change and our resources are limited. Deal with it.

If we don’t take this opportunity to check our energy consumption and use oil, gas and coal but only to evolve into our next, more sustainable set of energy sources, we are going to be left with neither and will have polluted our soil and drinking water in the process. Given our growing rate of consumption, we will also have to return to importing fuel after having depleted ours.

Fast, easy and cheap. We get to pick two.

June 22, 2010 | Filed under: energy,environment,geology,government,health,louisiana | 7 Comments »

Fell Off The Bookmobile

For the last month, I haven’t touched a book other than to look up formulae, quotes or recipes. Well, that’s not completely true, I haven’t touched a really good book in the last month, which may explain my current aversion to them. A neighbor loaned me Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol and I figured why the hell not. On guessing the identity of the bad guy as well as the never-literal final thrust of the story halfway through the book, the compulsive in me had to plow through to the final page (also to figure out if I was right). That couldn’t end well.

Symbol wasn’t a total loss. It re-introduced me to Ben Franklin’s Magic Squares and a couple of other cool puzzles. Also makes me want to take a month to visit the Smithsonian again and other buildings in the nation’s capital.

Before that was Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Smart and well-paced for a detective thriller with heaping spoonfuls of social advocacy, but it didn’t propel me into its sequel, The Girl Who Played With Fire. Chalk it up to the fact that we are in the throes of the horrifying BP oil spill and Season 1 of Treme and I’m not quite in the mood to read about a woman flashing back to psychological and physical abuse in the Swedish child welfare system, even if she does grow up to kick ass and take goth tattoos.

The Wall Street Journal’s Books’ section agrees with me: “If ever we’ve needed a healthy dose of escapism, this summer is it. We’re stressed about losing our jobs, paying our mortgages, selling our homes.” But even their selections are too shallow or too depressing.

These have been my reading attempts over the last five weeks:

- 15 pages into Kevin Baker’s Dreamland (really hard to keep the cast of 5000 characters introduced in the first 10 pages straight, especially when you’re falling asleep on an airplane)
- 2 pages into Cory Doctorow’s Little Brother (I’ve had enough of the government passing bad regulations and not good ones for a while, thanks)
- 20 pages into Denis Leary’s Why We Suck (do I need Leary to tell me?)
- 16 pages into Stieg Larsson’s The Girl Who Played With Fire (see earlier analysis)

These four books impede the purchase of Miguel Syjuco’s Ilustrado, Michael Chabon’s Gentlemen of the Road, Citrus County by John Brandon, Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Angel’s Game and other recommended books. Who am I kidding? Existing books have never kept me from buying new ones. But, I don’t want to buy them and have them sit there.

Exercise, sleep and making the food, metronome, jewelry and clothing (other than the three t-shirts I altered the other day) I’ve long envisioned also wait in the wings. What’s stopping me? Sleep, or lack thereof, and the crap tv I watch in order to fall asleep but end up watching until late. Ideas?

June 8, 2010 | Filed under: books,health,the game of life | No Comments »

Liveblogging From RT4: Healthcare Panel

This entry is part 5 of 8 in the series Rising Tide Conference 4

Liveblogging as usual, so keep checking back here for updates.  Also follow the #risingtide and #rt4 hashtags on Twitter.

Healthcare panel includes public health Ph.D. candidate and local blogger Holly Scheib, Cecile Tebo, crisis unit coordinator for the NOPD and one of New Orleans magazine’s Top Ten Female Achievers; Dr Elmore Rigamer, medical director of Catholic Charities, moderated by our very own Liprap.

Rising Tide 4: Healthcare Panel

It’s not an exaggeration to show that the nation’s healthcare woes are magnified in New Orleans, especially after Katrina and The Flood.  If there was a time for accessible and affordable community clinics in this city, it is NOW!

Katrina Pain Index 2009:  “0. Number of hospitals in New Orleans providing in-patient mental health care as of September 2009 despite post-Katrina increases in suicides and mental health problems.”

Closure of NOAH = crime against New Orleans.  Cecile Tebo lets us know that these patients will end up in hospitals not in the area.  The mentally-ill also end up in the closed structure of jails to contain problem, where they do not get required treatment.

Loki’s aunt Ninette asks two great questions: What about the health of our first responders?  Also, what about the stressful nature of living in New Orleans, with two or three full pages of obituaries daily as opposed to just one?  Dr. Rigamer invites one and all to the Catholic Charities free care, but it has its limits.  Holly: We get caught up in conversations about access; health is more than access, doctors and medicine.  Where we live, who our neighbors are, what we eat, these community factors are paramount, and the conversation should be broadened to include these factors.  Cecile touts 211 – more New Orleanians need to know about this.  But, an internet search of “New Orleans 211″ yields useless information.  As the G-Bitch asks, “Where’s the information? Where are the lists and hours and phone numbers?”

Short-term funding for much-needed clinics eventually runs out.  Continued care is crucial to full recovery.

Q&A: Loki mentions seeing a mental health counselor on returning to New Orleans in late 2005.  This professional had a breakdown while treating Loki and subsequently quit the profession.  (I’m sure it wasn’t Loki who drove this poor person up and over the wall.  Not at all!  :-P)  Similar thing happened to me;  I had to quit my post-K counselor after one or two sessions because it was obvious she needed therapy more than I did.  In and after a crisis situation, it is a back-breaker to be strong for everyone around you.  This is why I personally went with Pistolette‘s self-treatment.  (Hey, it worked in 1991, why not in 2006?)  Not everyone can just snap out of it, however, especially those with pre-existing, chronic, chemical and/or genetic issues and conditions.

Update: Healthcare in this country is broken on the whole, as friend Jenny and I discussed later, and this comes down to what people define as “healthcare.” Definition 1: Not taking care of yourself, be it through lack of education, motivation and/or money, and hitting the ER or Urgent Care facility for an expensive emergency procedure.  Definition 2: Annual physical exam, preventive care, exercise, eating well, education as ongoing armor against illness.  Definition 3: Preventive care mentioned in 2 as well as available, affordable care in case of accident, cancer, childbirth, etc.  A lot of people in New Orleans and America think healthcare is Definition 1, while what we need is people thinking in terms of Definitions 2 and 3, a healthy mix of personal responsibility and a social net.

August 22, 2009 | Filed under: blogging & bloggers,health,new orleans,recovery,rising tide conference | Comments Closed

Suspect Device On The Public Health Option

From Greg, whose lovely wife my parents and I met right after his valve replacement.

Like I was saying, “Employment and personal wealth should not be the only ways for an American to access a basic and low-cost yet good healthcare plan.” Especially not when health insurance exists to benefit from the healthy and not to cater to the really ill. We need better options as people live longer (but not necessarily better), the economy worsens and sick is the new norm of American health.

July 7, 2009 | Filed under: family & friends,government,health | Comments Closed

Karen In Public Health Option Video Spot

Below is my friend Karen Gadbois (looking good!) in a MoveOn.org video speaking on behalf of the public health insurance option. Karen is a breast cancer survivor and one of many New Orleanians suffering without proper healthcare since The Flood and what I call Recovery Stalling severely crippled the Charity system.  Honestly, I don’t know whether the public option is a good idea or not.  Will it ensure healthcare access for every American or is it simply robbing Peter to pay baby boomer Paul’s upcoming social security and Medicare tabs?

I am quite sure of two things, however: 1) As it stands now, private insurance is not you handling your money or choosing from a long list of competitive health brokers.  It is not The Individual’s Choice when you are saddled with a large insurance company that your employer has partnered with and are subject to their plans, rates and doctors.  So, enough talk of the Glorious Free Market when that market is mostly two big insurers with enough government backing to be the damned government, and 2) Employment and personal wealth should not be the only ways for an American to access a basic and low-cost yet good healthcare plan.

The current system sucks, but is this the answer?  All I know is Karen, her daughter and many other hardworking Americans should not have to languish in ill health because of a private or public bureaucracy’s greed.

July 2, 2009 | Filed under: family & friends,government,health | 2 Comments »

Day 1273: EPIC SCIENCE FAIL

VatulBlog has been quiet for a week.  Mardi Gras and being sick during Mardi Gras can do that to a blog.  The inflammation under my ear is still around, so I bought it furniture and gave it a name.  D refers to it as my second head, so Zaphod was a possibility, but we’re going with Pancho for now.  If nothing else, Erik Estrada has been contacted in case Maitri’s Earache: The Movie goes into production.

The doctor told me to suck on lemon drops, massage the area and drink a lot of water if I want Pancho to move out.  This is essentially everything I’ve been avoiding over the last week to ease the pain.  FAIL.

On top of that, I have a sinus infection which is just now starting to respond to the anitbiotic-Mucinex combo.  And I have to take the antibiotic all the way through Monday (Lundi Gras) night in order for the stronger bugs not to develop a resistance to the antibiotic and take up residence where Pancho has not.  I’ve quit taking antibiotics mid-course in the past, which may explain a few things.  Bob, who rode in the King Arthur parade with D and is here until Ash Wednesday, and I talked about how I had effectively helped bacterial evolution along, while rendering myself the weaker species.  As a scientist, that is EPIC SCIENCE FAIL.  To which, Bob deadpans, “LOL.”

The point of this whole post about my illness: Take your antibiotic to the very last pill, drink a lot of water, bundle up and enjoy Mardi Gras.  It can be done.  May the Pancho be with you.

Also, I caught every possible Muses throw.  Every last one.  Muses rocked!

February 20, 2009 | Filed under: carnival,health,new orleans | 2 Comments »
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