The February 23 CBS Evening News segment on hydraulic fracturing gas drilling, better known as fracking, revealed how journalists can cover a highly controversial subject by removing the controversy.
The report started off with references to high gasoline prices; the implication, then, is that domestic gas drilling will help solve that problem. As anchor Scott Pelley kicked things off:
President after president has called for energy independence for America, but somehow it never seems to happen. But Anna Werner talked to an oil man today who is predicting that it’s coming, and in just a few years.
That oil man is Oklahoma’s Melvin Moran, the source driving the whole piece by touting his success in the gas business. The only reference to enormous controversy over fracking is this aside:
Fracking is controversial, and some question its impact on the environment. Moran believes if done responsibly, it’s safe.
So “some” question it–we won’t hear from them–but the guy making money from drilling doesn’t!
The only other source in the piece is Eric Potter of the University of Texas’s Bureau of Economic Geology. Potter worked in the industry for years. He points out that fracking is attractive when the price of oil is high.
And the piece closes on this rather implausible note:
WERNER: But Moran, who used to head a major petroleum association here, is confident. He even predicts this boom could eliminate the United States’ need for foreign oil in just 10 years. Ten years is not very far away.
MORAN: No, 10 years isn’t. Just 5 years ago we were importing 60 percent of our oil. Today, we are importing only 42 percent.
WERNER: So you didn’t expect to see that.
MORAN: I did not expect to see that ever.
Writing in Extra! (2/12/12), Miranda Spencer noted that much of the recent TV coverage of fracking has been fairly positive, despite its contamination of ground water and major contribution to global warming. Her piece also noted that the gas industry has a heavy presence as a commercial advertiser on the TV networks.
With coverage like this, the industry can’t be much happier; it would be difficult for an industry ad to be much more pro-fracking than CBS‘s news report.
The literally Golden Rule for the corporate media, and the corporatocracy that controls them:
What we don’t know won’t hurt them
America do has gas reserves – but it’s much cheaper to import it from foreign countries while colonizing them. America’s most of current wars have been fought for oil/gas and Israel. Both Iraq and Libya were destroyed for the same reason – and AIPAC is vigorously campaigning for American attack on gas/oil rich and pro-Hizbullah/Hamas – Iran.
It’s very dangerous to say such truth in public. Pat Buchanan did that and got himself fired from MSNBC two weeks ago.
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/why-msnbc-fired-pat-buchanan/
“Just 5 years ago we were importing 60 percent of our oil. Today, we are importing only 42 percent.”
When I read that statement of Moran’s, I said, “Whoa!” And I looked up some statistics from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). Check it out:
http://205.254.135.7/energy_in_brief/images/charts/Consumption_production_import_trends-large.jpg
See also:
http://www.wtrg.com/prices.htm
Melvin Moran, relying on the popular ignorance that CBS’s puff piece did nothing to alleviate, would probably have you believe that our declining reliance on imports is the result of increased domestic production, and further that that increase is due solely to “new drilling techniques,” hoping that we will not notice that these techniques would probably not be economical if it were not for the continuing increase in the global price of oil. The EIA graph demonstrates that, in fact, reduced consumption â┚¬“ probably a result of the economic crisis â┚¬“ is responsible for most of the drop in oil imports. Increased domestic production plays a much smaller role.
I believe the continuing increase in the global price of oil is ultimately a problem of global supply and demand. In other words, the global supply, which is non-renewable, isn’t going to go up much farther from here on out, no matter what clever, high-risk technologies the drill-baby-drill crowd comes up with. At the same time, global demand keeps rising. I believe it is past time to draw the obvious conclusion, which is that we need to conserve oil and develop alternatives to petroleum as a basis for our transportation system.
America’s most recent wars have been fought to control other countries (China and Russia) access to energy resources. We could be 100% energy independent, and we’d still be going to war over energy, because as the sole global superpower, the US empire believes it is its job and its right to control the rest of the world. This is something that well-meaning but insufficiently informed liberals need to understand. A much more comprehensive critique is needed to understand the dynamics in this situation.
America’s largest crude oil imports come from Canada (2,324,000 barrels per day), followed by Saudi Arabia (1,465,000), Mexico (1,099,000), Venezuela (759,000) and Nigeria (529,000).
Oil, coal and natural gas account for more than 85% of the energy consumed in the United States at this point in time. Oil accounts for nearly 40% of all energy utilized in the United States in this day and age.
The US wars and conflicts in the Middle East, which has the largest known oil reserves (727 billion barrels), in not the main reason – because oil from all those countries is available to the US for a reasonable price. The main problem is america’s blind support for Israel which hated by not only the Muslims around the world but also millions of Christians, Hindus and Jews.
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2012/03/01/baroness-tonge-israel-will-not-go-on-for-ever/
new from rolling stone [part of a huge article on fraking and the damage done]
Chesapeake Energy, the primary profit in fracking comes not from selling the gas itself, but from buying and flipping the land that contains the gas. The company is now the largest leaseholder in the United States, owning the drilling rights to some 15 million acres â┚¬“ an area more than twice the size of Maryland.
Owner Aubrey McClendon has financed this land grab with junk bonds and complex partnerships and future production deals, creating a highly leveraged, deeply indebted company that has more in common with Enron than ExxonMobil. As McClendon put it in a conference call with Wall Street analysts a few years ago, “I can assure you that buying leases for x and selling them for 5x or 10x is a lot more profitable than trying to produce gas at $5 or $6 per million cubic feet.”
According to Arthur Berman, a respected energy consultant in Texas who has spent years studying the industry, Chesapeake and its lesser competitors resemble a Ponzi scheme, overhyping the promise of shale gas in an effort to recoup their huge investments in leases and drilling. When the wells don’t pay off, the firms wind up scrambling to mask their financial troubles with convoluted off-book accounting methods.
“This is an industry that is caught in the grip of magical thinking,” Berman says. “In fact, when you look at the level of debt some of these companies are carrying, and the questionable value of their gas reserves, there is a lot in common with the subprime mortgage market just before it melted down.”
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-big-fracking-bubble-the-scam-behind-the-gas-boom-20120301?print=true
It is outrageous that a CBS “news” reporter talks to only one person, and that person one who is heavily involved financially and through his business about something so controversial. Why not at least interview someone with a different perspective about what fracking is and does?
The town of Pavillion, Wyoming, has suffered from contaminated groundwater for years. Finally, after much community activism, the EPA started an investigation. The preliminary results show that drilling, hydraulic fracking, and oil/gas production are likely responsible for the contaminated groundwater.
These are preliminary results and final results are pending. We can only hope that there are no political attempts to fool around with this study.
Natural gas is not petroleum – at least not the petroleum I remember from my years of life in Oklahoma and my three-mont stint in Saudi Arabia. Fracking, point blank, is another way of industrializing the American landscape. What are some of the other ways: paving, pouring concrete, burning, building on, dumping chemicals on, etc. etc. And this is America?
Peices like this prolong the US switch to energy independence because it holds out false hope for domestic oil and gas supplies for 100 plus years. The technology is not there to extract all the oil and gas in US underground shale. Maybe we have 20 years supply – some have said we only have 6 years supply. The important point is that this is a limited supply and the sooner we make the shift to renewable energy sources the better for true US energy independence.
@alan gregory… It’s obvious you’re a moron as natural gas IS considered “petroleum”
About 2 months ago Diane Sawyer (and a local reporter) on ABC did a really upbeat story about the expected surge in new jobs around Steubenville, Ohio because of Marcellus Shale. They said it was now possible to extract natural gas from the shale and that this process was going to produce a big upswing in jobs in this entire area of Ohio. Not one word was said about what process was going to be used to extract the natural gas. Fracking was never mentioned. Diane exuded happiness that ABC could report such a positive story.
Wonder why the oil and gas people are so reluctant to tell us what chemicals are being used to frack with and what they use to thin the heavy crude that goes into the Keystone Pipe Line. Could it be that if we knew the result would be downright unpleasant for the oil and gas companies?
So here’s a glimpse into our media future. This will be the “Liberal Media;” The one that points out that problems “May or may not exist.” The other side will not mention the existence of any potential problems. Viola! “Balance.” Orwell said it would be like this…
False dichotomy, Keith. There is no “Liberal Media,” at least not in the mainstream media. So long as commercial interests pay for, and therefore dictate, the content of MSM news reporting, there will not be any such thing as liberal media.
Such thinking is delusional, sorry.
Fracking has been done for many decades.T bones Pickens has used it on thousands of wells for twenty five years without incident.This is not our first time to this rodeo.The difference is in the increase in horizontal drilling that uses more water and chemicals.As of March 7-8 the EPA will start a comprehensive look at every aspect of fracking on drinking water.The energy companies look forward to this scientific inquiry ,and feel it will give them a clean bill of health.I think they are nuts.EPA could give them four gold stars and a clown sticker.It won’t change the minds of those greenies who are playing political games.
Here is a statement which cannot be called – fracking!
â┚¬Ã…“Netanyahu not only wants a pro-Israel regime change in Iran, but also a regime change in the US,â┚¬Ã‚ says Max Blumenthal, a Jewish-American military analyst and author. Watch video below.
http://rehmat1.wordpress.com/2012/03/03/usrael-the-new-middle-east-project-is-derailed/
Off topic troll is off topic trolling….
No Difference, look at the quotes around “The Liberal Media” that Keith used. His sarcasm is correct. Short but sweet, T. Roll B’Gone.
In PA, the Marcellus Shale industry wants to extend pipe lines in much of the state. Philadelpia,PA was mentioned. Gov. Tom “the gas industry gave me almost a million dollars for my campaign” Corbett, is now allowing fracking activities in all zoning districts of the state, including residential, with no township being allowed to enact anything stronger than state regs.
The purpose? Get this gas to a world market where the global market will determine the price and energy hungry, emerging markets will cause it to go up.
We get the problems. The oil companies get the profits.
Elaine read about Sullivan county.I hunt up there.The explosion in standard of living is un believable.No problems yet.Can’t find a place to stay for miles.Lets let the EPA do their study then we can talk without all the sky is falling usual lib speak.They start in a few days.As far as how things are marketed and sold lets leave that up to the free market.What other option is there?Government control?Socialism?
fyi, elaine…the epa did a report in 2009, never published, that showed fracking runoff water contained radioactive elements…and that treatments plants were ill equipped to deal with it…
nyt 2/26/11
….but the e.p.a. has not intervened. In fact, federal and state regulators are allowing most sewage treatment plants that accept drilling waste not to test for radioactivity. And most drinking-water intake plants downstream from those sewage treatment plants in Pennsylvania, with the blessing of regulators, have not tested for radioactivity since before 2006, even though the drilling boom began in 2008.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/27/us/27gas.html?pagewanted=all
Socialism huh? I would love to sentence all of those who are true believers in the infallibilty and humanity of the oil companies to permanent residence in the Niger Delta, where the air is unbreathable, the water is undrinkable and devoid of fish, and giant gas flares light up the night skies all night long year after year. At least a handful of people have gotten rich out of the destruction of an eco system.
Just because fracking has, and will continue to make some people wealthy, and will provide jobs for others doesn’t mean that it’s a good idea to allow the practice to expand exponentially with little or no government oversight. Since the gas which it produces goes to the global market, it will do nothing to reduce our dependence on “foreign” sources. Like offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, and off the California coast, large scale fossil fuel extraction inland will give people living there a false sense of job security and environmental safety because many years will have passed and many wells will have been drilled before the inevitable large scale accident. Once groundwater, small wells, and major aquifers are fouled, how does the industry plan to deal with it? If Exxon Valdez grounding and the Gulf blowout are models of how the petroleum industry exercises oversight and corporate responsibility, I would be very reluctant to write the oil companies the kind of blanket protection they are seeking from regulation.
woodward burnstein: What an eye opener! Actually we can go back to 2004, with an E.P.A. study used to address complaints against hydraulic fracking and it was later discovered that the E.P.A. ignored evidence that hydraulic fracking could cause the water problems we now see. It was about this time that the gas industry got an exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act so that the E.P.A. cannot monitor and regulate this industry under this Act.
Therefore, I’m left to wonder just how much power has been stripped from the E.P.A. to regulate this industry. For example, if the many chemicals used in fracking are “trade secrets,” how can the E.P.A. know what it is they are studying if they don’t know exactly what’s been forced into the ground or how these chemicals interact with one another (in addition to the exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act).
Yes, Peacehead, let the true believers live in contaminated air, water, and soil. This way, the contamination can enter the food chain, too, and they can actually eat the stuff as well.
Sorry for the misspellings: “woodword” and “peasehead.” Also wanted to mention that as much as 40% of the original amount of water used in fracking a well can come back out of the well. PA will allow surface impoundment basins of this fracked water and as close as 300 feet from a residential district. The basins are lined. (Hope the lining holds up and that it doesn’t smell too much).
I totally agree that the EPA must do a complete and thoroughly comprehensive look at all aspects of FRACKING before the new technology of the vertical process is implemented fully.They are the competent agency able to carry this out.And the EPA must have all the power of the government behind it to enforce against and control any dangers they may find.It seems by all accounts they intend to do just that.I think it is disingenuous to say at this early date that their investigation is already compromised by a lack of authority to enforce their findings . It is as if some factions are already saying we don’t give a damn what you say,what you find, or what the science is here.WE BE AGIN IT! Lets all take a breath and see what they find.If they find 10,000 wells tested clean with one failure due to technical problems thats one thing.If it goes the other way I will be the first to say shut em down.Check out the amount of gas stations that leak oil/gas into the drinking aqua filters.Been a problem for 80 plus years.But we go on trying to do a better if not a perfect job.Or we can just all stop driving I suppose
Fracking not only industrializes and devastates the natural environment, but it devastates the local economies because of it destroys the local infrastructure, drives down and out local industry, drives up costs of every-day consumables, reduces the local tax base, drives up local taxes, and because with few exceptions all the profits go out of the local area and/or overseas. When the frackers are done in NY and PA, the fracked localities might as well be in Nigeria.
Taxpayer….Does this also apply to any other free successful enterprise?
I went walking around in Pennsylvania the other night and the water was fine. Case closed.
PS: Environmental protection is for wimps.
Michael…Environmental protection is for the environment.Not for the agenda/ re-election of a standing president.
Wonder why the oil and gas individuals are so cautious to tell us what substances are being used to frack with and what they use to slim the hefty raw that goes into the Keystone Pipe Line.
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