I've blogged before about how the oil and gas industry claims to learn lessons from its mistakes. Just earlier this month, one oil and gas CEO claimed that the industry has solved its problems.
Sadly, a new article reports that, during the first eight months of 2011, Pennsylvania found 65 violations of law due to faulty casing and cementing practices in natural gas wells - one more than was recorded in all of 2010.
The CEO mentioned above is reported to have stated that people who raise concerns about the risks of oil and gas production and call for safer drilling and fracking processes have a low level of intelligence. He also claims that no one has been hurt and there has been no environmental damage by methane migration into drinking water aquifers. I think there are many people who would disagree. And it's important to keep in mind that, in addition to methane, there may also be other contaminants in drinking water affected by oil and gas operations.
The industry and its supporters often claim that operations are improving and everything is safe. The latest news from Pennsylvania about dozens of gas well problems, and from Colorado about hundreds of spills from just four companies, leads many people to believe otherwise.