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Hydraulic Fracturing

Wyoming, a bastion of conservative politics long influenced by the energy industry, is now the first state in the nation to say that the ingredients in hydraulic fracturing fluids used to rupture rock blocking oil and gas reserves will be public information.

In June, the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission unanimously ruled that ingredients would be reported to the commission – at the insistence of Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal, a member of that body. At the time, it was unclear how that would work and whether ingredients would be public.

In late August, Commission Supervisor Tom Doll clarified the situation, saying the ingredients will be public information and on Sept. 15, the commission’s new rules will go into effect, forcing companies to reveal new details about the chemicals used in a range of drilling fluids, including fracking fluids.

In a phone interview with New West, Freudenthal said he’d pushed a straightforward argument – that the actual formula or recipe for fracking fluid could remain a commercial secret, but that the ingredients had to be revealed to the state and, by extension, the public.

Several energy companies were not enthusiastic about this approach, said the governor, but none of them pushed back as hard as Halliburton, the leading developer of hydraulic fracturing technology.

“Halliburton sent a big-time lawyer to talk to us, but it didn’t go well for him,” Freudenthal said.

Politics

LARAMIE—Viewed from the disciplines of political science and history, Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal’s announcement today that he will not seek a third term, is not a big surprise.

That’s the assessment of two professors at the University of Wyoming—political scientist Jim King of and historian Phil Roberts.

“The only thing that surprised me is that the announcement came this week,” said King, who’d believed that it would happen next week when the current legislative session was finished.

New West News Brief

Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal announced this morning his intention to cast his superdelegate vote at the Democratic National Convention for Senator Barack Obama.

The governor praised both Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton for campaigning in Wyoming.

Freudenthal cited Obama's understanding of energy and environment issues; his ability to re-invigorate the nation and that "Senator Obama is the Democratic candidate with the openness, honesty and skill to end this vicious cycle of business as usual.” [more]

Hillary Draws Standing-room only crowd in Casper

Showing up more than an hour late to her Casper, Wyoming rally, Senator Hillary Clinton apologized to the audience standing in a single-court gymnasium at Casper College. She had started the morning in Mississippi and had a good rally earlier in the day in Cheyenne at Laramie County Community College.

“It took a little longer than anticipated,” she said.

At roughly the same time that Senator Barack Obama was speaking to some 10,000 people at the University of Wyoming’s Arena-Auditorium in Laramie, Sen. Clinton was speaking to about 1,000 people, jammed into the basketball court, standing room only. Some members of the audience had been standing in line outside, starting at 4:30 p.m., before getting into the gymnasium around 5:30 p.m. With no chairs available, the audience was encouraged to surround a raised stage where Clinton appeared shortly after 7:30 p.m. [more]

Update from Obama/Clinton Wyoming Sweep

The Barack Obama campaign came to Casper this afternoon, before it heads to the University of Wyoming Arena-Auditorium for what is likely to be the biggest crowd of the day.

Obama’s performance in Casper, before a 1,500-person crowd, covered most of the bases of his standard campaign speech, but still elicited half a dozen standing ovations from an appreciative audience.

In a question and answer session, Senator Obama was asked “What hope can I take back” to the Wind River Reservation, by Lander resident Michelle Skinner. She said the reservation is plagued by poverty and the twin scourges of alcoholism and methamphetamine addiction.

“I’ve talked to tribal leaders all over America,” Obama said, noting that Native Americans faced deeply rooted problems that have emerged from a tragic past. [more]

THE COWBOY STATE CAUCUSES SATURDAY

Normally, members of the Wyoming Democratic Party can grimly joke about holding party meetings in phone booths. Here, in the reddest of fire-engine-red Republican states, Democrats are still the minority party by a 2.3:1 ratio. But today, party officials and members are being courted by the Hillary Clinton and the Barack Obama campaigns, prior to Wyoming's Democratic caucuses on Saturday.

Although Wyoming has only 12 national delegates up for grabs, those dozen delegates are hyper-critical to both the Clinton and Obama campaigns that are running neck and neck for the party’s nomination. [more]

GOVERNOR'S GROWTH CONFERENCE

Something highly unusual happened Thursday morning in Casper, where Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal convened his two-day “Building the Wyoming We Want” conference at Casper College.

No one was shot, tarred ‘n feathered or invited to attend a Western necktie party.

And numerous people -- including the governor -- repeatedly uttered that communistic word “zoning” without being struck by lightning.
[more]

“We cannot let Gary Trauner win"

Representative Barbara Cubin, R-WY, announced Saturday morning that she won’t run for another term in the U.S. House of Representatives -- but not before she got one last zing at the news media, with which she has had a famously testy relationship during her political career.

After a blistering attack on the Democratic majority in Congress and Democratic candidate Gary Trauner, and a lengthy list of her accomplishments in Washington, Cubin noted the recent spate of news reports that predicted she would announce today that she’s not going to run for her eighth term.

“I am going to run again,” she said to a suddenly quiet roomful of Republican Central Committee members and assorted reporters. “I’m going to get this cast off my foot and get through physical therapy, and then I’m going to get in good shape again,” she said to rising giggles and laughs in the audience as they got the “gotcha” joke at the expense of the press. [more]

Politics: The West

The House voted 244-166 to reform a 135-year-old mining law Thursday afternoon that would force the hardrock mining industry to pay royalties on minerals extracted from public lands – just like the coal, oil and gas industries.

The Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act (HR 2262) requires miners on federal lands to pay royalties of 8 percent of gross income on new mining operations, four percent on existing operations.

[more]

Energy, Environment

The House voted 244-166 to reform a 135-year-old mining law Thursday afternoon, and force the hardrock mining industry to pay royalties on minerals extracted from public lands – just like the coal, oil and gas industries.

The Hardrock Mining and Reclamation Act (HR 2262) requires miners on federal lands to pay royalties of 8 percent of gross income on new mining operations, four percent on existing operations.

Republicans like Rep. Bill Sali of Idaho, predicted that the bill will destroy the American mining industry, exporting jobs and the industry to overseas countries that have little or no environmental regulations and have child labor in the mines. The White House has threatened a veto, saying that placement of royalties on existing mining operations invites lawsuits. [more]

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