Victor Furman
Upstate New York Landowner Shale Gas Activist at NYRAD-R
Age and and military experience have taught Vic Furman a thing or two about energy and he offers his top 10 reasons fractivists are losing the fracking war.
You might say I was involved in the fracking debate long before anti-fracking organizations popped up and the fracking war began.
I lived through fuel shortages in South Korea in 1973 where I spent a year in the service of my country on the border of North and South Korea. I remember, all too well, “gas rationing,” and how it crippled our military in its preparedness of war. Gas in 1973 in Korea was $2.50 a quart. Kerosene was more expensive. Perhaps, however, you’re wondering why a lowly corporal in the Army would worry about what the military had to pay for fuel?
Fracking War Began on the DMZ for Vic Furman
Well, when gas is rationed, the first to feel its effects in the military are the troops. Korea was no place to spend a winter without a way to keep warm. The coldest months of my life were spent huddled in a “mummy bag” along the DMZ line separating North and South Korea, with my M-16 16a1 fully automatic rifle, also known as the lady of my life. For those of you who don’t know what a “mummy bag” is it, is the goose down bag that is inserted into your goose down sleeping bag to help keep you warm in area’s where you experience artic-like winters.
Back here in the states, as I understand it, you were paying about $0.70 cents a gallon and could only buy gas on odd and even days. If your license plate ended in a six that was even; if it ended in a 5 that was odd and you could only buy gas on your day, every other day.
Well, in Korea, a 25-man base tent, which was approximately 20 feet by 30 feet in size, was only allowed five gallons of kerosene a night and that equated to about four hours of heat. The Army rationalized that, because the sun was up during the day, the first shift didn’t need the fuel, even though it would only warm up to about -30 degrees during the day. The second and third shifts would get to fire up the heater and use the five gallons of kerosene up between 5:00 AM to 8:00 AM when temperatures hovered near -50 degrees below zero.
Many of you might think that’s not so bad because we at least got to warm up for a few hours a day. However, sometimes a man would decide to sleep on top of an armored personnel carrier that had a 3′ by 3′ exhaust on the top that expelled warm air while it was running, just to get warm. You can imagine the impact the cold had on soldiers when you consider we could not build a fire because the fire light would draw gun fire from the North Korean troops camped out on the border just 300 yards from us.
It was those moments in my life that got me thinking about where our energy comes from and what we, as Americans, can do to make sure we never run out. Ever since, I have followed the debate over our non-existing energy policy here in the United States wondering when and what in hell we were going to do if the Middle East were to shut us off.
The Fracking War Is About Energy Independence
Now, let’s jump forward to today. Thanks to fracking we are already freeing ourselves from the bondage of Middle East control of our fuel use and consumption. Our national energy independence is no longer a distant dream but, rather, a reality in the making.
Those who fight against fracking because some pompous ass from NYC is lining his pockets with green money or feeding his ideological ego, are the products of fear mongering and misinformation. That misinformation is debunked on a daily basis only to be kept on life support by fractivist foundations who spend millions to sway public opinion through useful idiot agitators who, in turn, deliver apocalyptic visions of no water and no air.
Source: “Cartoons by Josh” (See http://www.cartoonsbyjosh.com/index.html)
Rest assured they are losing and getting desperate, even telling the new EPA Administrator she’d better hurry back to Dimock, as the people are dying and most likely by the coming weekend. It is time these anti-frackers put up or shut up. Enough with the stupid petitions signed by out-of-towners. Let’s see an agreement not to drive, heat or use anything connected with fossil fuels whether it be delivered to their homes via pipeline or truck. They should immediately discontinue the use of their vehicles and anything and everything connecting them to fossil fuels. After all, for almost seven years they have declared the technology is here and ready so, my message to them is this; please, if you want a fracking war…lead the frack-free way! Stop preaching and start doing!
Instead, despite all the evidence fracking doesn’t contaminate water supplies, acknowledged by the EPA and state agencies, these fractivists choose to put their faith in movies made by extreme environmentalists and other hustlers. We still, in fact, see scenes and hear claims of people lighting water from the faucets in their homes due to the presence of methane gas, it being wrongly blamed on fracking. While any any drilling, including drilling for water wells or those geothermal wells at that Owego school, can occasionally cause methane migration, the record is also clear fracking has zero to do with it. The purpose of these misleading movies is to generate fear, nothing more and nothing less.
Realville Intrudes Again
Here, in fact, courtesy of a recent article in Power for USA, is a picture of a homeowner lighting the water coming from his faucet.
This picture was published in the August, 1980 issue of National Geographic magazine, long before fracking was a household word anywhere in the world. It was also taken in Minnesota, a long way from any drilling activity. It demonstrates natural gas often flows naturally into water wells, without any fracking whatsoever, as recent reports from the Southern Tier have also noted.
The Power for USA article further noted:
The latest studies from Southern California and the UT/EDF are more proof that fracking isn’t a threat, and that the benefits, in terms of new supplies of oil and natural gas, and the ability of North America to become independent from foreign oil, and to drastically cut the United States balance of payments, vastly outweigh any potential, and as of yet proven, threat from fracking.
The author of that statement, like my friend Dick Downey, lives in what Dick calls “Realville.” We are seeing a lot more of Realville these days because some of us have lived through previous energy crises that forced us to face reality. Our fractivist friends have enjoyed the luxury of not having to do so until know. But, the facts are catching up with them and they’re becoming more bizarre by the day. I decided, in fact, to create a tongue in cheek Top 10 list of their ever more apoplectic statements (only slightly exaggerated). Here it is; the Top 10 claims demonstrating fractivists are losing the fracking war:
10 – “My bird has diarrhea”
9 – “Josh Fox said so”
8 – “My phone bill is peer-reviewed”
7 – “I get my data from Wolf Eagle Engineering”
6 – “Don’t drink that tea…errr, I mean water”
5 – “I knew my water was damaged but, to prove it, I had to add my own gas”
4 – “I would have gone on that Citizens Truth Tour, but I didn’t have the $15”
3 – I’d have solar by now but the government won’t approve my subsidy”
2 – “As God is my witness, I didn’t know tattoos had benzene in them”
1 – “I need an answer by Friday, as the world is about to end”
Reflect a little on each of these, all of which are based on the unreality of the fractivist pitch. For them, it’s all about anecdotes, movie claims, junk science, brown jugs, falsified claims, “truth tours” conducted by fantastic liars, subsidies and fear. They have no grip on the real world, the kind you get when you’ve spent hours facing the DMZ in weather so cold you needed a “mummy bag” to avoid freezing your important parts.
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Vic, how do you handle the likes of influential celebrities like Willie Nelson and Neil Young? Neil was on the Howard Stern Show earlier this week and put the exploration and use of fossil fuels in a very bad light. Naturally, Howard went along with him and what Howard thinks does have a lot influence on what eduated people as well as politicians think, including Republicans. Neil is not your typical socialist and did invest his own money in Lionel Trains. He brought a company back from disaster which it is a vital part of our North American Heritage.
To be fair, Neil did cop to the fact he does use fossil fuels but only because he HAS to. He is equally critical of both Democrats and Republicans and believes that both sides are just puppets of large corporations. He supposedly retrofitted a Lincoln (did not mention the exact model or year but did note it was a “big” one) and it ran across the country on something other than fossil fuels. He eluded to “solar” but I am not so sure.
Unlike other celebrities that are just in it to “be scene”, Neil does the have support of farmers in both the USA and Canada. John Mellencamp is another supporter as well and is currently tour.
The gas industry, even if it does everything “right” cannot afford to go against the Agricultural community in any shape or form. This is something that I believe you and your compadres must address somehow before you all expect to move further.
Just my .02
Chris
Holding up Keystone XL is what’s hurting farmers. Their grain bins are full with no rail cars available due to crude being shipped from Canada and other places in the states. The ones hurting the farmers is Willie and Neil and other idiots like them. And these farmers know that.
Grey,
I would not be surprised if what you say is true. However, what is the industry going to do to counter that perception put forth by likes of John, Neil and Willie?
What can you do, lower ourselves to their level and spread lies and misinformation. We are dealing with a completely brain washed group of people with no real moral values to speak of. But remember even these nuts like to stay warm and most of the people that go to these rallies wouldn’t last a day without power to feed their fat asses. Maintain the high ground these people wouldn’t know what to do with it.
what makes you think Vic Furman is an creditable source for a story on Frackivist’s and their position .He’s just a bias gas lover .Guess you’re running out of material !!
No Bildo we don’t love gas, we love staying warm in the winter, cool in the summer and eating when we are hungry. Don’t you Bildope? Too bad your expert wizard Oil baron Al Gore’s voodoo tricks never work, he promised an end to winters.
Grey …..rationalizing NG drilling by using ” staying warm ” doesn’t work here .Yes we all like to “stay warm “( there are better and safer means ) HVHF is not and never will be a Safe process and all the other nuisances that come along with it tip the balance to the negative .Oh stop with the names (because I know a few and will use them ) Mr Ignorant ! ..OK !!
Gee, Bill, you told us before you weren’t worried about HF but, rather, other things. Make up your mind, will you? Keep your claims straight.
Tom don’t play word games with me .You know exactly how I feel about this whole process.Not just the chemicals,spills,pollution ,silica dust ,pipelines ,compressor stations ( that ruin our quiet ) trucks traffic etc ,but all of it ,including all the manipulation of leases I have experienced .You know nothing of this ! Nothing .You just see and want the moeny you thing you’ll make .There’s a lot more to it and we lose much more than we gain most of the time ! At one time my position was like your’s (when I was completely ignorant of actual occurrences ) now I fight to protect what I have ….you decide !
On December 12, though, you said “Those that are well (get it!) informed know it’s more than the fracing operation it’s the drilling that in most cases has caused the related issues.” Also, I’ve seen it all up close and talked to numerous neighbors and none of our experiences are anything like your description.
So you burn trees also Bildo. A solid fuel a 1000 times dirtier the NG. Denuding the countryside and washing away top soil.
Kind of interesting when Al Gore’s grandfather reaped millions as one of the heads of Occidental Coal and helped destroy the Blue Ridge Mountains region of the USA. His father was the architect of the funding for the Interstate Highway System…how’s that for a tainted lineage?
Bill as long as there is opposition to progress like the anti energy zealots one can never run out of energy.
Vic you seem to never run out of the same gas tring to promote something you really don’t know that much about.You think you know what really goes on ,but buddy you have No idea of the inside details of how drillers operate and how they manipulate leases and terms .After 5 yrs I have hands on on this .You have nothing but dollar signs in your head ! I too at one time thought this was a Get rich thing but now I know better.Just a few words of reality .
Ya poor sour grapes Bill, got greedy, made some bad decision now he has dipped himself in green out of spite. Sad.
Bill it is to bad your having difficulties where thousands of others in pa are rejoicing. Yeah I know Chesapeake screwed a bunch of people out of royalties and their in court over it now hopefully the landowners win. That being said many pa residents jumped in without a lawyer and signed company leases that’s why we in NY are lawyered up coalition strong. As for your statement about what I know or don’t know about gas drilling obviously you haven’t been paying attention but was probably in NYC hollering for renewables that just are not their yet. you antis want to pour a gallon of milk in an 8 ounce glass and it just wont work.