PITTSBURGH – Environmental concerns and national security were at the forefront of conversations during the second and final day of the 2018 Shale Insight Conference, put on by the Marcellus Shale Coalition, the West Virginia Oil and Natural Gas Association and the Ohio Oil and Gas Association.
Here are some snippets:
— Paul Ziemkiewicz, director of WVU’s Water Research Institute, was on hand for the University Research Showcase and offered a offered a morning greeting to open the day.
He briefed the attendees on the MSEEL project – the Marcellus Shale Energy and Environment Laboratory – under way at well pads in Morgantown and western Monongalia County.
Northeast Natural Energy – the operator involved – used a green drilling mud to drill its well bores, he said. The drill cuttings were tested for radioactivity to address concerns about the safety of the cuttings.
“We found that they’re not radioactive.” So doesn’t see why they have to go into a special, segregated landfill instead of being used for other needs, such as fill.
— Former Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum moderated a panel on cybersecurity. Intelligence leaders say it’s the top threat to America today, he said.
The gas industry, he said, shouldn’t rely on the government for protection. Cyberterrorists will go for the easy targets.
“The government is prepared,” he said. “The government is spending lots of money to protect the government; a little money to try to inform the public on how to protect themselves. But the responsibility to protect your business is with you.
“You are the soft underbelly of our national security and we’ve got to get you hardened. We’ve got to enlist you as cyber minutemen to protect America from these threats.”
— Kevin Mooney, an investigative reporter for The Daily Signal and the Heritage Foundation talked about foreign money – particularly Russian – backing anti-fracking campaigns in the U.S.
A few years ago, he said, central and eastern Europe derived about 70 percent of their energy from Russia, while two thirds of Russia’s exports were for crude oil and natural gas. The government and the government-backed oil company want to protect their interests.
He outlined his investigation into disruptive activity spurred by the Keep it in the Ground Campaign, which has 400 member organizations.
“As I followed the money flowing from international sources back into the United States, those groups figured very prominently into the equation.” He said he wasn’t implying that they’re collaborating, but that they’re being used for Russia’s benefit.
— O’Brien is president and CEO of cybersecurity firm @RISK Technologies. He talked about the financial motivation of cyberterrorists and hackers.
A United Study showed that the mean annual income of families worldwide is $9,700, and $3,700 for individuals. Take out U.S. which skews it up and an exceptionally poor country that skews it down and the figure comes to $4,400 for families and $2,200 for individuals.
“We’re up against people that are broke and they look at us as extremely wealthy,” he said. Many of them are poor students and others are retired foreign intelligence analysts living on pittance pensions. They happily get paid to employ their expertise against the U.S.
“We as Americans have to take off the lenses of the way we look at the world. … They’re broke and they’re experienced,” he said.
— Former National Security Agency director Admiral Michael Rogers also addressed what he saw as head of the nation’s largest intelligence agency. “There shouldn’t be any doubt – energy infrastructure, from production to distribution, remains a target of high interest to some nation states.”
