Frack Job

Gang of Seven Meets Behind Closed Doors to Draft State Fracking Regulations
by RUSSELL MOKHIBER


To regulate or to prohibit.

That is the question.

Ask people on the ground who are being adversely affected by hydraulic fracturing, and overwhelming they say – prohibit.

They don’t believe that you can frack without harm.

The major environmental groups know this.

That’s why, when major environmental groups join with industry to draft regulations, most of them don’t admit to it – and the drafting of the regulations takes place behind closed doors.

Over the last couple of years, a group of three fracking companies and four major environmental groups have been meeting in secret to draft model laws to regulate the industry at the state level.

Only one company – Southwestern Energy – and one environmental group – the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) – have admitted to participating in this effort.

Lisa Wright is a grassroots activist working on shale issues in upstate New York.

“I would like to know who all the groups are and why the secrecy?” Wright asked.

So, we asked EDF’s Scott Anderson – who are all the groups and why all the secrecy?

Anderson said he wouldn’t tell us who the groups are – that’s up to each group to make their involvement public – or not.

“EDF is happy to have our name associated with this,” Anderson told Corporate Crime Reporter last week. “I would observe that the politics surrounding natural gas development are polarized to say the least. This is an effort of people to attempt to work on a consensus basis, to develop well construction rules that are as reasonable as possible. There are no guarantees that the wheels won’t come off. The other groups would just assume not announce their participation until the project is successful.”

Anderson did say that the other three environmental groups are major players with recognizable names.

So, we rang up a couple of the usual suspects – and asked if they were involved.

The Natural Resources Defense Council’s Jenny Powers responded by saying that “NRDC is not part of a covert effort to draft shale regulations with the gas industry.”

“Several years ago, we were asked if we wanted to be a partner in an effort led by EDF and one gas company, Southwestern Energy, to develop model state regulations that would significantly strengthen oversight of this activity in states in which it is already being undertaken subject to unacceptably weak standards,” Powers said. “We opted not to partner in this effort. We made that choice because the primary focus of our national efforts has been advocating for uniform federal standards, which we view as critical to protecting Americans and their communities from the dangers of fracking.”

“Instead, we said we would provide feedback to the effort because we recognize that oil and gas drilling is currently taking place in over 30 states and, as noted, existing regulations are wholly inadequate to protect public health and the environment.”

Next, we asked Sierra Club – are you part of this covert effort?

“We were invited to the table and have sat in on some conference calls to evaluate the project, but we believe our resources are better used working directly on natural gas regulation at the federal and state levels,” said Sierra Club’s Maggie Kao.

A group of eight – four companies and four environmental groups – originally began meeting in early 2010, Anderson said. One of the companies dropped out last year.

The group of seven now meets regularly – sometimes by phone and sometimes in person. The next meeting will be next month at an undisclosed location.

The group has drafted a model state law – elements of which have been adopted by Arkansas and Montana last year.

An edited copy of one draft, dated January 12, 2012, gives some insight into how the negotiations are working.

One provision of the draft – titled Audit and Enforcement – would have given the state regulator the authority to visit a well site to inspect the facility, cite the operator for violations, and issue a fine. That provision was redlined out of the draft.

Nonetheless, Anderson portrays the covert effort as an attempt to bring violators under control.

“There are far too many instances where oil and gas operations have caused unacceptable problems,” Anderson said.

“We are dedicated to try to find out what the causes have been and to come up with improved regulations and practices to prevent these problems. Road damage from overweight vehicles is one of many problems that oil and gas development poses. Also spills of chemicals – frequently the trucks are hauling wastewater. Sometimes there is intentional midnight dumping. Spills at the surface are the single biggest cause of documented causes of drinking water pollution. That happened a lot in New Mexico. Improper well construction is the second biggest cause of drinking water problems. It is essential that people drill their wells correctly, outfit the wells with the right quality of pipe, have that pipe set at the proper depths, make sure there is an adequate cement job.”

Anderson said the group has agreed to some common principles – we want to work on a collaborative basis.

“We agree that the rules shall be as protective of the environment as reasonably possible.”

Anderson says that just because there have been no proven cases of drinking water being contaminated by the actual fracking process doesn’t mean it won’t happen.

How Energy Firms Spy on Environmental Activists

Leaked documents show how three large British companies have been paying private security firm to monitor activists
by Rob Evans and Paul Lewis
Monday, February 14, 2011 by The Guardian/UK

Three large energy companies have been carrying out covert intelligence-gathering operations on environmental activists, the Guardian can reveal.

The energy giant E.ON, Britain's second-biggest coal producer Scottish Resources Group and Scottish Power, one of the UK's largest electricity-generators, have been paying for the services of a private security firm that has been secretly monitoring activists.

Leaked documents show how the security firm's owner, Rebecca Todd, tipped off company executives about environmentalists' plans after snooping on their emails. She is also shown instructing an agent to attend campaign meetings and coaching him on how to ingratiate himself with activists. The disclosures come as police chiefs, on the defensive over damaging revelations of undercover police officers in the protest movement, privately claim that there are more corporate spies in protest groups than undercover police officers.

Senior police officers complain that spies hired by commercial firms are – unlike their own agents – barely regulated.

Sir Hugh Orde, the president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, which until recently ran the secretive national unit of undercover police officers deployed in protest groups, said in a speech last week that "the deployment by completely uncontrolled and unrestrained players in the private sector" constituted a "massive area of concern".

Revelations about Mark Kennedy and three other undercover police officers in protest groups caused a furore last month and led to four official inquiries into their activities.

Now a Guardian investigation has shed new light on the surveillance of green campaigners by private security firms whose intrusive operations include posing as activists on mailing lists and infiltrating full-time agents into campaign groups over many years.

Multinational companies, ranging from power producers to arms sellers, hire these firms to try to prevent activists running campaigns against them or breaking into their sites.

The leaked documents lay bare the methods of one firm, Vericola, run by 33-year-old Todd. Based in Canterbury, Vericola, according to Todd, is a "business risk management company" offering a "bespoke" service to clients "regarding potential threats" to their businesses.

Over the past three years, Todd, using different email addresses, has signed up to the mailing lists of a series of environ-mental groups organising major demonstrations such as the G20 rallies in London, demonstrations against E.ON's Kingsnorth power station and the expansion of Heathrow airport, giving her access to communications and advanced notice of demonstrations.

Last July, she forwarded details about Climate Camp campaigners to two company directors she called "the usual suspects".

One was Gordon Irving, the security director of Scottish Power since 2001 after spending 30 years in Strathclyde police force. The other was Alan Somerville, then a director of Scottish Resources Group which produces a large amount of Britain's coal.

Todd highlighted a call from campaigners to submit more objections to coal-producing developments which needed planning permission.

Activists say she regularly attended meetings of an environmental group, known as Rising Tide, for around a year in 2007/08.

The documents also show her advising a colleague on how to fit in with the other activists at meetings held to organise future protests. One tip was that he should not mention he was flying to Germany as "obviously" the environmentalists "hate short-haul flights".

Todd, who says she is not a corporate spy, told the Guardian that all the information she acquires comes from public sources such as subscribing to emailing lists through the websites of the environmental groups.

Despite emails revealing how she repeatedly tried to find ways for her agents to access protest gatherings, Todd denied her company "infiltrates" meetings of protest groups as they are open to any member of the public.

The environmental activists are angry that, by posing as a supporter, she has gained access to emails and meetings where tactics and strategies are discussed. Eli Wilton, a Climate Camp organiser, said: "It's frightening that in a meeting about how to stop the fossil fuel industry, the person sitting next to you might be a spy paid for by the energy giants themselves."

He said Todd and her colleagues "couldn't have gotten subscribed without attending our meetings. These were internal lists where, for example, we strategised about how to stop new coal-fired power stations being built by E.ON."

E.ON said it had hired Vericola and another security firm, Global Open, on an "ad hoc" basis as its executives wanted to know when environmentalists were going to demonstrate at or invade its power stations and other premises, as they had done in the past.

The E.ON spokesman said it asked Vericola only for publicly available information and if Todd and her colleagues had obtained private information, they had done so "under their own steam".

SRG and Scottish Power did not comment.