Over a Barrel

“By gnawing through a dike, even a rat may drown a nation.” – Edmund Burke

Over a barrel is a phrase used to describe a hopeless condition, being under someone’s power. Mainstream media decides what you need to know. If you watch Fox News, you are over a barrel.

Oil flows

Back in 2002, Tom Mast wrote a book, Over a Barrel: A Simple Guide to the Oil Shortage, and dedicated it to his grandchildren. Tom was concerned we were running out of oil. Tom wrote, “alarmingly, we have not even settled on the technologies for oil alternatives.” Energy experts at the time said, “our rate of oil discovery has reached its peak, we have developed lifestyles firmly rooted in the promise of an endless, cheap supply.”

Shale Frackers

Shale oil is different from the oil in Tom’s book. The 1900’s Texas oil game was simple: drill holes in the ground until you run out of cash or find oil. Sometimes the oil would burst out of the ground and your troubles were over.

Shale plays are rare; the geological formations have to be just right. Shale is the name of a soft rock, found deep in the ground. Oil shale, the new black gold, is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds from which liquid hydrocarbons, called shale oil, can be obtained. Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) uses millions of gallons of freshwater mixed with toxic chemicals to extract the chemical compounds out of the ground.

What used to be fresh water is now a toxic soup known as wastewater. Frackers don’t have a process to treat this water. Millions of gallons of wastewater per day are injected deep into the ground, hoping the “injection wells” won’t contaminate groundwater or create earthquakes. To solve the problem, the name has changed to “produced water.”

The September 3, 2016, 5.8 Oklahoma earthquake, the strongest in state history, was due to fracking. The earthquake was felt as far as San Antonio, Texas; Fargo, North Dakota; Memphis, Tennessee and Gilbert, Arizona.

Oklahoma uses 1.5 billion gallons of freshwater per year, creating 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater. Tap water is no longer safe in Norman and other Oklahoma towns. High levels of Chromium-6 and cancer deaths are kept out of the news.

How much for a barrel of oil?

No one knows, and that is a big problem. The U.S. Economy, according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is driven by the price of oil; the Chamber sided with Exxon and wants to give them a free pass for the 2013 Mayflower (Ark.) spill.

Like a classy cup of coffee, crude oil comes in many flavors: sweet, sour, light, medium, heavy – depending on the sulfur content and density relative to water. Each crude has a name: Brent, West Texas Intermediate, Bonny, Maga, or Oriente. Pipeline corrosion is caused in part by the amount of water in the crude. Oil refineries are like cheap hot dog factories; they take any toxic chemical to make gasoline, and other products.

There are many ways to dispose of wastewater, including dumping it in the ocean with EPA blessing. Like coal ash and carbon dioxide pollution from power plants, the main costs are ignored to pretend the cost is low.

How much for a barrel of water?

Standing Rock South Dakota Warriors, our Water Protectors, know water is priceless. The most important story is not in the news. Instead, everybody talks about Trump.

How much for our Planet?

In 2009, Dr. James Hansen wrote Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity, a terrific book about threats to people and habitability for life on Earth from global warming. Dr. Hansen’s warning went ignored. Looking back, it is easy to see he was right on target.

The rest of the story will change the way you think about the Diamond pipeline. How cash, not oil flow, is driving frackers, how Master Limited Partnerships used to finance oil pipelines are Ponzi Pyramids and why we, the people, need to take charge.

Dr. Luis Contreras