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Oklahoma Earthquakes Are a National Security Threat (bloomberg.com)
An anonymous reader writes: A Bloomberg article makes the case that the U.S. must consider the earthquake situation in Oklahoma a national security threat. The town of Cushing, OK is small — fewer than 10,000 people. But enough oil is stored there at times to eclipse the entire U.S. daily usage. "The oil in Cushing props up the $179 billion in West Texas Intermediate futures and options contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange." In the wake of the September 11th attacks, government officials posted guards near the giant storage facilities; they're that important to the U.S. economy.
Unfortunately, the rising seismic activity in Oklahoma is putting those tanks at risk. The article argues that if a terrorist attack would threaten national security, so must an equally devastating natural disaster. This raises major questions for the legality of fracking, which has been linked to the increased number of earthquakes striking Oklahoma over the past decade. "Last month the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which oversees oil and gas, ordered wells within three miles to shut down entirely and those between three and six miles from the town to reduce their volume by 25 percent."
Unfortunately, the rising seismic activity in Oklahoma is putting those tanks at risk. The article argues that if a terrorist attack would threaten national security, so must an equally devastating natural disaster. This raises major questions for the legality of fracking, which has been linked to the increased number of earthquakes striking Oklahoma over the past decade. "Last month the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which oversees oil and gas, ordered wells within three miles to shut down entirely and those between three and six miles from the town to reduce their volume by 25 percent."
A large oil tank farm is an example of infrastructure that can be threatened by a number of disasters, from tornados to terrorism. But as soon as you say "fracking", the swarms of small earthquakes that lubrication of shallow rock strata can create suddenly become much more important than other threats that are historically worse in the region. You can get the same effect by dropping "nuclear" into any discussion.
Its a problem. A big one.
But are we going to start arresting earthquakes and sending them to Gitmo now?
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Those 2-3 richter scale earthquakes could cause devastation. The security guards' "best Dad" coffee cups might fall onto the floor and break.
The 4.5 scale quake might even set off the alarms!
Duh. Because we know the fissures could rupture a portal and release the Kaiju. Read. Your. Bibles.
Pretending this is my office full of bitter coworkers..
I give this troll 4/10. If it had tied in climate change, maybe I'd bump it up to 5/10. Who knew a bunch of small earthquakes was so bad?
How much did THAT cost? It's got to be more expensive to force the EPA to lie.
I think you're telling more literal truth than you anticipated.
Fracking may or may not be of negative environmental consequence, but it is the reinjection of production water into formations through SWD (salt water disposal) wells that is being blamed for the uptick in small earthquakes.
The floating top tanks are surrounded by earthen dams and the pipelines can be shut down almost instantly, so a disaster from earthquakes is pretty much FUD> don't panic.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
This raises major questions for the legality of fracking, which has been linked to the increased number of earthquakes striking Oklahoma over the past decade.
This isn't true. Even the EPA has been forced to admit that freaking is safe.
Pumping the used fracking water into wells might not be. When they do the drilling and fracking, they put chemicals in the water - some to make it slippery to aid in the fracking. There's no reason to believe they don't retain the same properties. Lubricate a fault line, don't be too surprised if it moves.
Fracking is almost certainly pretty safe. What I mentioned above might pose a problem. We've been doing fracking for a long time, and I think the big push now will be to research more environmentally safe or easily recyclable fracking fluid. Injection wells are just accidents waiting to happen.
Side note: After WW2, there was a lot of napalm left over, and they used it as a lubrication agent in fracking solutions for some time. I suspect a blowout could be pretty exciting.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
This isn't true. Even the EPA has been forced to admit that freaking is safe.
Well, as long as we get our freak on in a responsible manner.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
"The oil in Cushing props up the $179 billion in West Texas Intermediate futures and options contracts traded on the New York Mercantile Exchange."
This single sentence is all you need to know about the motivations behind the article. We wouldn't want the speculators, I mean investors in the oil industry, risking their money would we?
What cheek! How dares that planet threaten our national security! It's time to declare a War on Earth!
Wait... haven't we already?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
These are private oil storage facilities. If they are being threatened by human activity, this can be sorted out in the courts. If they are being threatened by natural disasters, insurance and diversification can sort it out. Furthermore, we have insane amounts of oil in the "strategic petroleum reserves" all across the country, which could easily absorb even a total loss. There is absolutely no reason for the US government to get involved in this; it simply amounts to crony capitalism. It is even more idiotic for a president and administration intending to reduce carbon emissions to subsidize the oil industry in this way.
Fracking is absolutely safe. There is no way you could possibly get hurt by it.
As long as it's done far enough away, of course.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The EPA also said that sulfoxaflor was safe.
http://www.reuters.com/article...
You are welcome on my lawn.
Oklahoma earthquakes are abotu as much a security threat as Oklahoma drivers. How much sensationalization and overreaction can people tolerate?
Oklahoma Earthquakes are caused by wastewater injection wells, which are in need of regulation. Since the U.S. Congress are a bunch of weenies and won't pass anything rational, and since the Oklahoma government is largely owned by Oil and Gas, there won't be much done to resolve this until there is an expensive earthquake. It's not rocket science.
Perhaps we should take oil off the futures market?
That way, if the worst happens, we won't have to worry about it collapsing, because it won't be there to collapse?
And in 20 years, everyone will wonder why nobody saw the end coming.
That is because they had their heads stuck up their ass.
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
Y'know, people were saying this when my daughter was a kid 20 years ago.
And they were saying this when I was a kid 40 years ago.
Hell, from what my Dad has told me, they were saying it when HE was a kid too....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
Could we please begin to distinguish the activity of underground wastewater injection from fracking, the actual extraction of oil & gas?
As I understand it, the scientific consensus is that these earthquakes are the result of the former (which I consider the ultimate in 'sweeping under the rug'), not the latter.
Mission: To provide products that consume time and energy as entertainingly as permitted by the laws of thermodynamics.
Whether it is oil or coal we rarely hear any good news. We are building such a complex and interwoven national structure that we are ever more in danger from minor issues causing a cascade of very harmful events. Obviously we need to get both oil and coal out of our way of life as both lack any way to control their negative effects. Keep in mind that the city always spreads like a cancer ruining the more rural areas. It seems that we must consider making energy consumption a very local affair so that when system failures do occur in order to have an energy system that we can actually protect.
The summary doesn't say it, but the issue here is fracking. This talk of "National Security" is a diversion from that. They're shutting down wells near a storage site because of fear of earthquakes. That should be national news and cause a complete re-evaluation of the dangers of fracking. It's similar to how Wall Street executives spend billions lobbying against climate change while publicly acknowledging it in their SEC filings. It's about carefully controlling a narrative.
I hate to admit it but I can't complain too much. I live in a major city. Fracking doesn't effect me. My drinking water's clean and it doesn't hurt my property values. Meanwhile if I adjust for inflation gas is as cheap as it was when I was in high school. That's the only thing that's kept my head above water inflation wise. I know I'm being a NIMBY, and I should probably do something about it, but hell, what am I suppose to do? What I really wish is we could get the "Save the Whales and the Rain forests" idiots to shut up long enough to talk about environmental issues that impact us immediately. Like smog that causes asthma.
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You can get the same effect by dropping "nuclear" into any discussion.
I wish people would take the threat of gigantic boulders from outer space more seriously. The very existence of the human race is at stake.
Go to Hell... all of you. I have lived through them
5 out of 6 people enjoy Russian Roulette & 6 out of 7 Dwarfs are not Happy
Somebody will be right at some point!
Yes, the idea goes back to Socrates and beyond. There are probably prehistoric cave drawings depicting the same thing.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
It seems like the much greater danger is the huge impact from the gigantic leap you took from fracking quakes (still unproven) to anything near a quake powerful enough to disrupt tanks strong enough to hold thousands of gallons of liquid - not to mention how much inertia those tanks have that is it's own resistance to quake damage.
A leap of that magnitude much have incalculable waves of every released on landing - thus I think we can all agree the frothing anti-fracking mind is the real danger here.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
And in 20 years, everyone will wonder why nobody saw the end coming.
That is because they had their heads stuck up their ass.
Ostriches with their heads stuck in fracking well holes ...
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
It's as if the oil disasters across the US just magically never happened.
Tell us about these "oil disasters" and we'll see if you're an idiot or not.
Liberals... grow crops...?
You can't eat marijuana, dude. Other crops require more than lamps, you know.
Tell us about these "oil disasters" and we'll see if you're an idiot or not.
Fucking hell. You're an idiot before we need to discuss anything.
ATTENTION, it is of ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL importance that NO ONE make a joke on this MOST DEADLY SERIOUS of issues. If you can't discuss this HORRIFIC RISK to my PRECIOUS PRECIOUS LIFE with all the seriousness of a HUMORLESS ASSHOLE about whose OPINION nobody CARES, well then.
Although to be fair, freaking has been known to cause an earthquake or two in MY house. OH BITCH NO I DIDN'T!!!
Guess you would know more that the Smithsonian, right, professor?
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
So we shouldn't build huge cities out in the middle of tropical oceans? Okay.
Terrorists can be marginalized. BP, Shell, and Chevron's fracking? Well, that's a trade secret. Their advice is to f* off.
I do play in the markets but I don't speculate on commodities. I think it would be interesting if those who speculated had to accept and store the commodities, however. That might help. I imagine you'd be less likely to speculate on hogsheads if you had to accept delivery and store 1,000,000 pounds of the stuff - same for oil.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
You're an idiot before we need to discuss anything.
Since I'm not an idiot, I guess we'll just have to end the discussion then.
"Something is eating my cookies"
Well, obviously, you have a Cookie Monster infection....
Donald Trump, on a crusade to make Nixon look respectable
While the greed pigs make money hand over fist before stealing away in the dead of night, leaving nothing but destruction (and dead-end, labyrinthine LLC shell companies) in their wake.
Great plan!
Actually it's not. What the intro blurb utterly failed to mention is that the the US petroleum pipeline distribution system is set up on what is essentially a spoke and hub system with the Cushing facility as the central node, and there is no redundancy. Catastrophic damage to Cushing shuts down the entire pipeline system and forces the products to be moved by truck and rail which is literally about an order of magnitude more expensive and there is not even close to enough rail and road tanker capacity to handle the demand. Losing the facility for a few days will cause a short term spike in prices which we can handle due to the current low price of oil. Lose it for a time span measured in months or years, and the entire country is in fairly severe economic trouble.
You're missing the point, Rat. I don't trust the EPA, because the EPA pretty consistently comes down on the side of green kooks who think fracking causes earthquakes. The science is 100% against that position, so the EPA parted ways with the green kooks on this and says that fracking does not cause earthquakes.