Congressional candidate Mike Bost says fracking is safe but environmentalists want people to die

Illinois Republican Congressional candidate Mike Bost has some unusual beliefs about environmentalists and fracking. In a recent radio interview, Bost said about environmentalists:

"...if it was up to them, people should die and everything else should exist. Now, I know because I was in the negotiations with them."

Bost was referring to his role negotiating the law that will open Illinois to fracking. Several groups based in Chicago, including Faith-in-Place, NRDC, and the Environmental Law & Policy Center participated in negotiations and supported the law over the objection of environmentalists in areas that will be most impacted.

Now, I wasn't present for negotiations but I've never heard staff for any of those groups suggest anything remotely similar to the opinion that people should die and everything else should exist. In fact, most climate change and anti-fracking activists are involved to save human life.

Many of us noticed that fracking made North Dakota the deadliest state to work in.

We're bothered that fracking operations use chemicals known to cause cancer respiratory problems, birth defects and other health impacts.

We know the massive increase in trucks transporting dangerous chemicals is yet another unavoidable deadly hazard, especially since toxic spills shutting down I-57 in southern Illinois is already a regular story.

Since fracking contributes to climate change we're also working to reduce climate disasters like extreme flooding in southern Illinois.

But Mike Bost is excited about fracking because it will bring tax revenue and jobs. He's willing to sacrifice human life for the sake of transient temp jobs that will mostly go to out-of-state workers for the profit of out-of-state companies. And he has the balls to accuse environmentalists of not caring about human life?

Surprisingly, this is considered a competitive race. Fracking is highly controversial in the district. A poll taken last year showed southern Illinois evenly split on whether fracking should be allowed, with 54% of independents opposed. That's remarkable considering the same poll claims 80% support coal mining. Opposition is growing but there's a conspicuous absence of regional or statewide polls on the topic since then. His support for fracking will cost Bost support among moderates and independents.

Because I'm pretty certain no real-world environmentalist ever expressed to Bost the views he claims, I have to wonder what imaginary tree-huggers he was negotiating with. Do other people see them? Do they always take human form? Does he typically win arguments with his imaginary enemies or lose? Hopefully someone on his staff can help if these mysterious negotiators make more demands.

Fracking Industry Uses Tobacco Playbook to Defend Birth Defects

Bloomberg News reviews studies on the link between birth defects and living near fracking sites. It's compelling. Multiple studies show increased rates of congenital heart defects, low birth weight, and stillbirths.

A spokesperson for the fracking industry propaganda outfit, Energy in Depth, responded.

“The body of scientific knowledge has to advance gradually and you have to look at all of these things and the full spectrum. You can’t just look at this one individual or this group of studies.”

How many studies do we need? How long will it take?

"We also believe that until scientific research can establish what actually causes the diseases with which smoking has been statistically associated, it would be unfair to advocate any law prohibiting the sale of cigarettes"

That's what the tobacco industry was still arguing in 1987, many years after the link between cigarettes and multiple deadly health problems was clear.

To use another example, the fossil fuel industry continues to cast doubt on the scientific evidence behind climate change almost three decades after James Hansen first testified on the problem to Congress. There will never be enough conclusive evidence for those who profit from human suffering.

This is the fundamental flaw with how we regulate public health and safety in the United States. Some nations use the precautionary principle that puts burden on polluters to show they can operate without harming the public. In the United States we use that approach for prescription medication but not with polluting industries.

Several studies focus on the impacts of air emissions from fracking sites. Clearly, they aren't well regulated at the federal level. In Illinois, the fracking law doesn't address air emissions from well sites. Governor Pat Quinn and the legislature have decided that Illinoisans should be forced to participate in a potentially deadly science experiment while we wait for conclusive proof that people living nearby are harmed.

If you want to understand how environmental justice principles apply to low-income, rural extraction regions, this is a good example. The Illinois fracking law was negotiated in closed door sessions between industry lobbyists and representatives of a few environmental groups headquartered in Chicago, hundreds of miles away from any expected well sites. They got a seat at the table by showing they're willing to compromise over the objection of environmentalists in impacted areas.

The big green group staffers who negotiated the fatally flawed Illinois fracking law won't have to live anywhere near air emissions from wells. But some of us will. That's why the movement to stop fracking in Illinois continues to push on.

The Southern Illinoisan Gives Up On Journalism, Bends Over For Oil & Gas Industry

The Southern Illinoisan has a long running competition with the Belleville News-Democrat over which Illinois newspaper has the strongest bias in favor of the coal industry. So I was pleasantly surprised last year when I saw the Southern Illinoisan doing good reporting on the fracking issue, even giving frequent voice to the opposition. That changed.

A recent article in the Southern is so ridiculous, so over the top misleading, it looks like they've given up on doing real journalism about fracking.

Southern Illinoisans Against Fracturing our Environment (SAFE) sent out a press release last week full of facts and figures on worker safety problems in the fracking industry. Illinois' weak fracking law doesn't address the problem. The Southern fist responded with an article that gives more space to defensive responses from industry supporters than it does to citing facts and studies. That showed bias, but you won't believe what they published next!

The Southern ran an article titled "Fracking workers: It's safe, it's good" with anecdotal stories from two workers in the industry who have witnessed non-fatal accidents at fracking sites in North Dakota. There was no mention of the fact that North Dakota now has the highest rate of deadly workplace accidents, thanks largely to the fracking industry.

The article is no different than running anecdotal stories about two heavy smokers who lived past age 90 and failing to mention studies linking cigarettes to cancer. If it didn't hurt those two it must be safe, right? It's not journalism. It's propaganda.

Maybe tomorrow the Southern will feature an article about two people who haven't been in deadly traffic accidents, so clearly all roads must be perfectly safe! Don't worry about those pesky rumors and studies on how many people die in auto accidents each year.

The Southern published good coverage of issues related to fracking for a while. I've watched as their bias has grown more obvious. When hundreds of people attended the two southern Illinois public hearings on fracking, they scrubbed any mention of the repeated calls by multiple members of the public for non-violent civil disobedience to stop the industry. When Josh Fox spoke to a crowd of over 600 locals, they did no follow up story at all.

The paper has good reporters clearly capable of doing honest journalism. I hope their professional reputations aren't irreparably damaged by the embarrassing decisions of their editors.

People were shocked earlier this year when two southern Illinois newspapers announced they were banning letters, articles, and even paid advertisements opposed to fracking. They instituted the blackout just weeks before the public voted on a local referendum to ban fracking. In a way, I have to respect the honesty of those papers admitting to their decision. It's almost better than the Southern's attempt to maintain the facade of an honest news organization while giving people an inaccurate picture of fossil fuel news.

The oil & gas industry have a problem. The more people learn about fracking, the more opposition grows. Too much accurate reporting resulted in a powerful anti-fracking movement. Industry already have politicians like Brandon Phelps singing their song after hundreds of thousands in campaign contributions. Now they're targeting southern Illinois news outlets that print too many pesky facts.

A free press is essential to democracy. The oil & gas industry are attempting to rig the public debate in favor of a law that was negotiated by lobbyists behind closed doors and rushed through the legislature with less than an hour of public debate. Some legislators openly admitted knowing very little about the issue before casting their vote. This isn't just an attack on the environment. It's an attack on informed, democratic decision making.

Illinois Coal Campaign Cash Scandal Reveals Culture of Corruption

The Chris Cline coal campaign contribution scandal has grown bigger than I ever expected. CoalGate is getting wide press coverage and resulted in a second acting director of Mines & Minerals being removed for the same actions as Tony Mayville. Here's a rundown of the press coverage and expanding consequences since I first wrote about a former mine regulator taking campaign contributions from a coal industry billionaire.

Patrick Yeagle at Illinois Times was the first reporter to give the story the full journalism treatment. IT reported that Tony Mayville was placed on unpaid leave and an investigation is underway.

Jim Tenuto, spokesman for the Illinois State Board of Elections, says a state law on official misconduct may make the contributions a criminal act, though that’s up to a state’s attorney or the attorney general to decide. Under the state law, if Mayville solicited the contributions, it would be a class A misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine.
Chris McCloud, spokesman for DNR, said the contributions to the committee controlled by Mayville came to light when Mayville sought permission from DNR director Marc Miller to run for elected office. 

The trouble is that Mayville was already taking contributions from the coal industry to his Washington County Democratic political fund when he was made acting director of the Office of Mines & Minerals in 2012. It was public information easily accessible by a simple web search. It was no secret that Mayville was chair of a county political party. Did no one bother checking at the time or did no one care? Or both.

WSIL TV news interviewed Mayville for their story. He tried to keep the focus on a contribution to his State Representative campaign fund instead of the additional contributions he was taking to his political party fund since 2008.


His defense says it all. He argues that the contributions are no big deal because the company representative is a good friend he used to work with anyway. Think about that for a minute. The guy who was in charge of mine safety for Illinois, and the entire Mines & Minerals Office for a time, is saying that campaign contributions from the industry he regulates can't influence him because he's already such good buddies with industry officials. He actually argued that!

That shows exactly the problem I set out to highlight. There's a cozy good ol' boy network among DNR regulatory staff and their friends and former co-workers in the industries they regulate. A top Illinois regulator just said so!

In case it wasn't obvious enough that this is part of a broader problem within the agency, the current acting director of Mines & Minerals was jut caught doing the exact same thing. I first read at Capitol Fax, and then the News-Gazette that Douglas County Democratic Party Chairman Michael Woods Sr. was removed from his position for accepting political contributions from Foresight Energy, a company owned by the Cline Group.

Within a few days of Foresight's $10,000 donation to the Douglas County Democrats, officials disbursed much of it to Democratic candidates and other party organizations outside of Douglas County.
The largest sum — $5,000 — went to Gov. Pat Quinn's re-election campaign. Another $1,200 went to the Illinois Democratic County Chairmen's Association. And $250 went to the campaign fund of state Sen. Mike Frerichs, D-Champaign.
The Douglas County Democrats also gave $1,000 to the campaign fund of Tony Mayville, a Democratic candidate for the Illinois House in the 115th District in southern Illinois. 

Douglas county Democrats had a sleepy little campaign fund until Wood got his promotion at IDNR. Then, what do you know, Foresight Energy gave them a $10,000 political contribution. It's a pattern.

Chris Cline is not an insignificant donor. He massively expanded his Illinois coal holdings in recent years to make him one of the top energy players in the state. His companies have had many issues pending before DNR and will have many more. He's making ginormous contributions through multiple subsidiaries to Illinois politicians. Billionaire Chris Cline is attempting to purchase control of the state's political and regulatory systems.

An excellent video about a recent hearing on a Cline mine near Hillsboro reveals the dysfunction of the current system.



Pat Quinn and Mike Frerichs donated the campaign funds they received from the Douglas County Democrats to charity. But, they're keeping hundreds of thousands they've taken directly from Chris Cline and his coal empire. It's a nice attempt to avoid controversy, but keeping their other Cline donations sends the message that they're still available for purchase.

It would be a disservice if Governor Quinn is allowed to deflect attention from this scandal after two personnel changes at IDNR. This is a systemic problem about the culture of a crucial regulatory agency full of political hires leftover from the Blagojevich administration. People deserve to know whether Chris Cline companies were regulated to the full extent of the law in both the permitting process and with mine safety. Fatal mine accidents and cancer-causing pollutants make this literally a life and death issue.

Illinois Mine Safety Head Took Thousands in Campaign Contributions from Coal Baron Chris Cline

My latest piece is at EcoNews. This is an outrageous scandal that I hope will be picked up by major news outlets. I was at public hearings on Illinois coal mines without knowing that the companies asking for permits had given political contributions to a top IDNR official. And this is the agency Governor Quinn trusts to making fracking safe?

Illinois Mine Safety Head Took Thousands in Campaign Contributions from Coal Baron Chris Cline

Washington County Democratic Party. He has also supervised the Mine Safety division and served as acting director of Mines and Minerals at the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. Over several years, including time while Mayville was responsible for regulating Illinois coal mines, he collected thousands of dollars in campaign contributions from companies owned by billionaire coal mine operator Chris Cline. In November 2013 a fatal accident occurred at a coal mine owned by Chris Cline and regulated by Tony Mayville. 

Mayville chairs the political fund of the Washington County Democratic Party Central Committee. Their campaign finance reports show the committee raising thousands of dollars from multiple companies owned by the Cline Group at least since 2008 through 2013.

The impossible task of making fracking safe

The hearing on Illinois' proposed fracking rules at Rend Lake Community College featured two speakers who support fracking and an evening full of residents determined to stop fracking from coming to their communities. I'll post video and a summary soon, but for now, here are the comments I delivered at Tuesday's hearing.

Fracking regulation comments to IDNR made by Will Reynolds, December 3, 2013

I'm going to comment on several sections, including 310 on permit denial, section 1120 on penalties and 240 and 260 on public participation.

First, I’d like to say that I have sympathy for DNR today because you've been charged with an impossible task. You've been asked to make fracking safe, as Governor Quinn promised his inadequate fracking law would do, but we all know there's no evidence that fracking can be made reliably safe. You truly have an impossible task because the best practice is to not frack at all.

We also know that fracking causes more frequent earthquakes, as several studies have shown. An earthquake doesn't care what regulations you pass. We don't know what happens when you frack in major seismic zones like the Wabash and New Madrid fault lines. That means Illinois is being subjected to a massive science experiment with hundreds of thousands of area residents being used as human subjects.

Fines
Many citizens have expressed outrage at the puny fines proposed in these rules. But, there’s more cause for alarm. The section on penalties makes frequent use of the word “may.” The director of DNR or his designee may revoke permits and may impose fines. The words “shall” or “must” are conspicuously absent. This means companies with multiple violations may face little or no penalty at all.

That would not be unusual for this agency. Based on DNR’s cozy relationship with industry, and history of waiving penalties, there's no assurance that meaningful fines will be collected. Even when a fine is recommended, companies will have another chance to have it reduced or waived for a long list of easy excuses. What you're telling the public is that a multi-billion dollar industry that loses $1,000 in change between the seat cushions may not be punished at all.

Public Process
Section 240 says notices of public hearings for well permits will be posted in newspapers near the hearing site. There’s no requirement to post hearing notices online. I'd like to let the agency know that Nirvana’s first album was released over 20 years ago and that means it’s way past time to put everything on the internet.

Section 260 states the public comment period will only last 30 days, even though there’s a 60 day window to approve a permit. After a public hearing, comments can only be given on evidence presented at the hearing. That means people who find out about a proposed well after news coverage of a hearing, or after the 30 day time limit, will have no opportunity to present comments on new issues. Those restrictions needlessly make participation more difficult for the average citizen who doesn’t spend every day watching for permit filings.

In order for a public process to be meaningful, there must be a reasonable chance that the public can change the outcome of a decision. I don't see that in the rules. I see a hamster wheel that keeps people running in place, going through the motions while getting nowhere.

Reasons for denying a permit
Section 310 lists only four reasons to deny a permit. It does not list previous violations of Illinois regulation as a reason to deny a permit.

Some of us have seen how this game works before. For example, when members of the public point out that a company applying for a mine permit has a long list of violations, we’re told that old violations from other sites can’t be considered during the permitting process. There’s no accountability for past bad behavior when companies seek new permits.

The scenario we’re facing is that, at DNR’s discretion, a company may rack up hundreds of environmental violations, pay zero penalties, and still receive new permits to do even more damage. If these regulations are going to be meaningful then DNR will have to put on your big boy pants, finally stand up to industry and start saying "no" to permits for bad actors.

Southern Illinois Unprepared for Social Costs of Fracking Boom

There's an excellent piece on Huffington Post by...oh wait...it's by me! I'm on HuffPo! Woohoo!

Yeah, I'm pretty excited. I have a favor to ask, but first a clip.

The Illinois Coalition Against Domestic Violence is concerned southern Illinois is unprepared for the social costs of a potential fracking boom. Most attention is given to the environmental consequences of fracking, but a Pennsylvania study by Food & Water Watch is bringing focus to social impacts on rural areas. Arrests for nuisance crimes, drug use and sexually transmitted disease rates went up disproportionately in fracking regions.

I spoke with ILCADV's executive director, Vickie Smith, who says that law enforcement and social service agencies in fracking areas, such as North Dakota and Montana, have struggled with increases in domestic violence, sexual assault and other crimes that come with fracking booms.

Dickinson, N.D., for example, saw a 300 percent increase in assault and sex offense cases. The sheriff of Williams County, N.D., saw crime spike so sharply in three years he was forced to double the number of patrol deputies. The mayor of Sydney, Mont., became so concerned about rising violent crime, including a murder, after the fracking boom hit, he held a town meeting where women were offered tae kwon do classes and pepper spray.

I'm excited about this piece because it's an important problem I haven't seen anyone else in Illinois write about yet. Since I'm new at HuffPo I'd like to show them I can draw an audience. So, if you like what I wrote, please go to the page to read the rest and share it on facebook, twitter, give it a like, or leave a comment. Thank you!

Moderates and Independents Oppose Fracking in Southern Illinois

A new poll by the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute shows surprising levels of opposition to fracking among southern Illinois residents. Despite using the cliche, false choice narrative of "jobs v. the environment," poll respondendents were evenly split on whether fracking should be encouraged.

Surprisingly, moderates and independents are more opposed to fracking than either Democrats or Republicans. Among moderates, 47.4% believe the state should not encourage fracking while 33.0% believe we should. Independents are against fracking by an even wider margin with 53.7% against and 28.2% for.

As someone who has worked on coal issues in southern Illinois, I'm surprised to see the region so divided over another fossil fuel extraction industry. A minority know how the coal industry is a drain on both the regional economy and environment. The Simon Institute poll has a whoping 80.9% with a favorable or very favorable opinion of the coal industry. That level of support doesn't extend to fracking, despite almost universal support from local state legislators and news outlets.

Some of Illinois' conservative political establishment still hold to the outdated view that the environment is a special interest for hippie tree-huggers. This poll gives a reality check that fracking is a wedge issue which could be exploited by candidates in either major party. People react when you threaten their water supply and the places they love, no matter what their party affiliation.

Many state legislators voted for the fracking regulatory bill earlier this year believing it was a consensus issue. Lobbyists from industry groups and a few statehouse green groups agreed to a regulatory bill that allowed fracking to move forward. This poll shows that the few Chicago-headquartered environmental groups which advocated for the fracking bill didn't represent the views of many southern Illinoisans, much less environmentalists in the region who demand a moratorium. State legislators may find that their vote to launch the fracking assault will be more controversial among swing voters than they were lead to believe.

The Woodbox Gang Headlines Frack Free Fest October 12

Southern Illinoisans Against Fracturing our Environment (SAFE) is sponsoring Frack Free Fest October 12th in beautiful Cobden, Illinios, featuring regional favorites, the Woodbox Gang.

The benefit will also feature performances by Hobo Knife and County Graves, a live auction, food, beverages, on-site camping, and information about how to save Illinois communities from the oncoming fracking assault. The concert is free but they'll accept a $10 suggested donation, and you can donate in advance (whether or not you're able to attend) at SAFE's website. SAFE is fighting on the front lines of the soon-to-be-launched Illinois fracking assault and they need your support.

They invited me to give a barn-burner speech in between band sets, but don't worry, the focus will be on the music. The the fall colors are spectacular in the Shawnee so I'm excited about making it a weekend hiking trip! Here's a picture I took the last time I visited the Shawnee in October.

Dear Chicago, SPRINGFIELD IS NOT IN SOUTHERN ILLINOIS. Let me show you.

I love Chicago. It's a magnificent city full of beautiful people. But, without going into any details, I was again reminded today of the propensity of my friends in the Chicagoland area to view anything south of their city as "Southern Illinois." For example, the time I heard a top legislative leader from Chicago refer to a crowd in Springfield as "Southern Illinois Democrats."

Wrong!

I marked up this map of Illinois to help illustrate. You can click to get a larger view on Flickr. Pay attention, because this is something I've gotten consultant money to explain to people in Chicago. I divided a state map into equal thirds marked by blue lines. The red line is the halfway point between north and south.



You'll notice that Springfield is right there in the middle. That makes it Central Illinois. Cities in the northern half of the state, like Champaign and Springfield, are not in southern Illinois just because they're a long drive from Chicago. No, it really doesn't matter that it took you over three hours to get here. It's still not appropriate to describe anyone or any town near that red line as being part of Southern Illinois.

I remember how amazed many Southern Illinois University at Carbondale students who had recently arrived from Chicago were upon learning that Illinois borders a town as far south as St. Louis. You could really blow their mind by pointing out that, from Carbondale, it's a shorter drive to Memphis than Chicago.

Many people believe the divide between central and southern Illinois is somewhere around Effingham where the regional cultural differences start to become more pronounced. People who live farther south sometimes argue that it's Mount Vernon. The blue line on the map is between the two.

To use a purely hypothetical example, it would be in no way appropriate to say that Congressional candidate David Gill is from southern Illinois, since he hails from the central Illinois town of Bloomington/Normal, which is almost in the northern third of the state. It would also not be accurate to say that anything but a small portion of the new 13th Congressional district is in southern Illinois. It's mostly a central Illinois district which extends down to the edge of southwestern Illinois.

Let's say you're a first-time candidate for statewide office from Chicago or its suburbs, and you mistakenly tell an audience in Springfield, Peoria, or Danville that they're from Southern Illinois. This will be translated in the minds of the audience into something like, "I think the entire world revolves around the city of Chicago, I have no clue about the rest of the state because I've never been here before, and I will immediately forget your podunk town ever existed as soon as I'm elected statewide."

Of course, that candidate probably won't be elected because, believe it or not, it's difficult to win statewide if you don't at least make a fair showing in downstate. It might also help if they learn the correct Illinois pronunciation of towns such as Athens, Cairo, Pana, and Lebanon, among others.

Where then, is downstate Illinois? That's a dispute no number of farm town bar fights will ever settle. Many Illinoisans, myself included, use downstate as a catch-all term for anything outside the Chicagoland area. That would make someplace along the Mississippi, like Rock Island/Moline, part of downstate even though they're in the north.

I hope this blog has been helpful. If you're from Chicago and you disagree with what I've written then please realize that you are wrong. Just accept that you're wrong. :)

Here's Ryan Adams singing Dear Chicago.