WOLF DANCE IN GASLAND CAN'T CURE FRAC FLUID NIGHTMARE

Debra Winger’s Film Uncovers Problem That Kevin Costner’s

 Centrifugal Pump Can’t Filter

by H. D. Thoreau for CPW News Service 

     The film, Gasland, directed by Josh Fox and produced partly by actor Debra Winger documents the nightmare of the U.S. water supply polluted by the hydraulic fracturing process refined by Halliburton and now used by most horizontal gas well drillers across the U.S..

     “I don’t know what else to call it but a nightmare,” said  Rufus “Frackhappy” Rumbledown.  Rumbledown sold his company Frack-Happy LLC after seeing the Winger film and reading an article on the inability of Kevin Costner’s pump and pumps purchased by BP to the tune of $50,000,000 after the BP Gulf of Mexico spill, to clean water.  “Costner's pump could not extricated all toxins from polluted water as we were led to believe following the BP’s Deep Water Horizon disaster,” said Rumbledown.  “Humpty Dumpty is broke and can’t be fixed when it comes to fracking,” he concluded.

     Former Vice President of Mitchell Energy, Dan Stewart, has chronicled the development of the frack fluid  noting that the U.S. government started exploring the fracking of shale back in the 1970’s.  Then it handed off the process to the “entrepreneurs” like those that Mitt Romney said worked independently of anyone else and with no help from others.

    Stewart notes that his company’s founder did not apologize for the help he received from the U.S. Government’s Department of Energy or DOE nor from the suppliers of increasingly efficient, if more toxic, fracking fluids.  Stewart said when asked “where did your fracking method come from?" replied... “Mitchell got the slickwater frack from UPR (Union Pacific Resources).  They developed it.  Nick Steinburger, one of our engineers, who was working on the Barnett, asked to talk to UPR about Barnett if they would share slickwater, and UPR was fine with that, and he went to talk with them about slickwater, and in May of 1997 we did our first slickwater frack and it had cut our costs down, it had been $375k per well, and our first slickwater was $85k.”

   “This means, of course,” said Rumbledown, "that Union Pacific created the fluids for fracking that it hauls on its own rails.  So it’s making a killing in both slurries, fracking chemicals and transportation….and of course also on the polyurethane and other plastics that it hauls from the petro-chemical refineries to make bottles to hold the water made by the distilling and reverse osmosis water purification companies that will be needed because Costner’s miracle pump can’t get the chemicals out like we were led to believe it would.  You want to drink a glass from Costner's pump water with Corexit, the oil dispersant dumped on the Deepwater Horizon spill, in it?" asked Rumbledown noting the work of Wilma Subra in better understanding the toxins dumped on the Deepwater Horizon spill.  "I don't!" he said.  "Meanwhile with drought conditions in the U.S. the fracking across our nation's 'bread basket' goes on and on and no one's telling us what that's doing to cattle, other live stock and crops since 2005 we frackers were exempted from water quality regulation....thank you Mr. Bush and Cheney!"

     “There’s an even bigger issue,” said Rumbledown.  “The planet is two-thirds water and the natural choice for future power is hydrogen.  Well if the oil cartel…and it’s a cartel…. was willing to derail the development of nuclear energy because it was potentially less expensive….why else were their biggest weapons….atomic subs and gigantic aircraft carriers powered with nuclear reactors?  If they were willing to derail nuclear energy claiming its dangers on the one hand while selectively using it on the other, can you imagine the threat of ubiquitous hydrogen to their business model?"

   “I ran across the following letter shortly after Austin, Texas began building a motor speedway for Formula I race cars that use high octane fossil fuels….the high octane fuels like the ones the president of Rice University was developing as aviation fuel for the oil industry.  That was at the same time he served as a witness for the panel that stripped the head of the Manhattan Project, J. Robert Oppenheimer, of his national security clearance because he favored the peaceful use of nuclear energy.  The Robert Oppenheimer Security Hearings were chaired by Gordon Gray, father of George Herbert Walker Bush's chief legal council, C. Boyden Gray.

Gordon Gray, chair of the Oppenheimer
Security Hearing and father of
George Herbert Walker Bush's chief
legal counsel, C. Boyden Gray

     This letter indicated that there was a professor at the University of Texas who was working on the permeable membrane used in hydrogen fuel cells and that his death may not have been accidental,” said Rumbledown.  I contacted the letter’s author and he shared all of his contacts with Professor Gardiner’s colleagues.  Also at Rice University is the James A. Baker Center for Public Policy and Bakers’ father and grandfather worked for the Union Pacific Railroad of E.H. Harriman who employed Prescott Bush, father and grandfather of two U.S. presidents.  Union Pacific....fracking fluids….Halliburton….follow the money,” said Rumbledown.

     Rumbledown noted that in his letter the author reveals that while the mysterious bicycle death of Dr. William Gardiner was explained as an accident created by the misplacement of metal plates covering a road repair, there were no witnesses to his accident which led to his subsequent death.  While the jury was deciding the verdict in a law suit by the Gardiner family against the City of Austin another cyclist, an Austin environmental activist named Keith Vick, was run down by a truck as he stood directly in front of the same courthouse where the jury was in deliberation on the Gardiner case.  “The impact of that event was inestimable, both in the determination of the verdict, the amount of the settlement and in soothing the feelings of those who might otherwise have suspected something far more sinister at work,” said Rumbledown who first noted the author’s letter to another Austin environmental activist named Stefan Wray.  The author was also concerned because his son frequented the Hyde Park Bar and Grill which was also a favorite jaunt for Dr. Norman Hackerman and Dr. Gardiner and owned by Corpus Christi native, “Bick” Brown.

Dear Mr. Wray:

     My name is Will Carr. I live in Corpus Christi, TX. I read your letter to the police re. Keith Vick's story. I may have spoken to your wife about my concerns, but I never heard back from you so I can't be sure.I lived in Austin while at Austin Seminary. I am a retired Presbyterian minister.  My son who died in 2000 was an avid cycler in Austin so this is where my interest in the Austin cycle scene comes into play.
     I was investigating his death and exploring possible connections to family members in Texas which led me down many trails and to a chemistry researcher (not a suspect) in Austin named Adcock who was on  staff at UT with another chemist who was working on fuel cell technology named  Dr. William Gardiner. Professor Gardiner apparently was studying the increasing efficiency of the fuel cell polymer membrane that is essential in creating electricity from oxygen and hydrogen. Anyway, I'm no scientist, but his death on Congress Ave. that was blamed on the joint between two steel road plates came at a time when his research could have been at a pivotal point. His daughter in Houston, Grace Baker, is, I believe, married into the James A Baker family, which could explain some of Gardiner's connections with fellow chemistry professor, Norman Hackerman, who like Kenneth Pitzer, was a former President at Rice University. Rice is home to the James A. Baker Center for Public Policy. It was Kenneth Pitzer's congressional testimony that stripped J Robert Oppenheimer of his national security clearance when he was pushing for peaceful uses of nuclear energy and a larger share of the fossil fuel market. Pitzer's testimony against Oppenheimer came at a time when Pitzer was working on aviation fuel for the petro-chem industry.
     The timing on Mr. Vick's death could not have more serendipitous to the Gardiner law suit....days before the jury considering the award in the Gardiner case reached a decision ....and RIGHT OUTSIDE the Travis County Courthouse....with....as with Dr. Gardiner.....no witnesses....save in Mr. Vicks case the driver....Clarence Ray Rivers. No juror's sympathies would have gone unmoved.
     Did anyone look into Mr. River's background? Did he have a history that might shed light? How do you explain the police report discrepancies? Were there any witnesses?
     I'd love to talk with you about this....especially given your concern about Formula One racing in Austin. Maybe you should help sponsor a e-car road race to off-set their plans....using electric cars that outpace Formula One racers.
     The problem in getting anyone from the Gardiner family interested in these questions is the size of the award in his law suit, but it still begs the question. Yes? No?

Will Carr

     In addition to the letter to Stefan Wray, the author sent queries to Dr. Gardiner’s colleagues in the UT Chemistry Dept.

From: Steve Webber

To: Will Carr

Monday, August 23, 2010 10:29 AM

     Please excuse the slow reply but I was out of the country (and email contact) this past month, returning late last week.
     The memorial honoring Bill Gardiner was written by several of us (and I confess I do not have the final version) and I was not aware that he was preparing a book on the subject you mention (which would not be a typical research topic for him, but Bill was interested in everything).
Sorry I can't be of more help.

Best wishes,
Steve Webber
Professor emeritus
UT-Chemistry

From: William Carr

To: JF Stanton
Sent: Sun, July 25, 2010 6:56:23 PM
Subject: William Gardiner

Dear Dr. Stanton:
I read with interest your eulogy of Dr. William Gardiner. I have read elsewhere that he was about to release a book just before his death. Do you know if he was working on the permeable membrane used in hydrogen fuel cells? Was this book ever published? Under what title?

Dr. William H Carr
Corpus Christi, TX.

From: John Stanton
To: William Carr

Sent: Sun, August 15, 2010 8:40:30 PM
Subject: Re: William Gardiner

Dr. Carr,

My apologies for the late reply. I was just going through my spam box (gmail) to see if there was anything that didn't belong there and, uncharacteristically for google, there was. Your email.

I do not know about any book that Bill had in the works. Nor do I think it likely that there was one, because Bill and I talked a fair amount (probably he spoke to me more than anyone else on the faculty except perhaps the late Mike White), and I know nothing about it.

He did, of course (and you probably know this), write a well-known book on chemical kinetics.

John

ps. Where did you find this eulogy? Is it online?

On Sun, Aug 15, 2010 at 11:06 PM, William Carr wrote:

Dear Dr. Stanton,

     Thank you for responding. Yes, I found the eulogy online by Googling. I was aware of his book on chemical kinetics. If he was working on a break through in fuel cell efficiency for commercialization would his colleagues have likely known about it? Would this have been dangerous knowledge?

WHC

One day later on August 16th, 2010 after considering his earlier response, Dr. Stanton wrote.....

From: John Stanton

To: William Carr

RE: William Gardiner

Monday, August 16, 2010 11:47 AM

   I suspect he wouldn't have talked about it. Bill was something of a polymath, and I wouldn't have been a bit surprised if he had been working in that area. He had a good nose for science.
       
     John

 

Gas-Phase Combustion Chemistry by
W.C. Gardiner, Jr., not the
book on hydrogen fuel cell membranes, but
representative of Professor Gardiner's
work in chemistry.

     "And so it goes," said Rumbledown.  Since then, Lou Kilzer and Andrew Conte of the Pittsburgh Tribune have reported that while the gas well drillers claim to be contributing to the nation’s energy independence, China is purchasing an ever increasing share of the nation’s Marcellus gas reserves. The same will be true of the Texas Eagle Ford field where an increasing number of patriotic land men working for companies like Chesapeake Energy are jumping ship while decrying the abandonment of America’s traditional patriotic values.  One land man said “I wouldn’t mind selling to a free country, but China isn’t free.”

     The colleague of Dr. Gardiner, Professor Mike  White who died in 2007 at the age of 68 while visiting his son, was working on Interfacial Catalysis for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratories that led to the establishment of the Department of Energy's Institute for Interfacial Catalysis.  "I'd want some brilliant fearless scientist to explain the connections of Interfacial Catalysis and Gas-Phase Combustion to the permeable membrane in hydrogen fuel cells," said Rufus "Frackhappy" Rumbledown who noted that he had just read that the Pacific Northwest National Laboraories or PNNL Labs where Mike White worked in addition to UT, just announced that they have a high effeciency fuel cell that uses the by-product of the nation's polluted water supply.....CNG or compressed natural gas. 
     In August 2008 the PNNL labs hosted a symposium in Mike White's honor and in memory of his contribution to hydrogen fuel cell development, stating...."One way PNNL scientists are harnessing the power of catalysis is through hydrogen oxidation and production, two processes necessary for fuel cells to function. So far, however, such chemical conversions are expensive, requiring the precious metal platinum. DuBois is exploring how to design alternative catalysts that use inexpensive metals such as nickel and cobalt."
     The symposium summary said of William Gardiner's close colleague in research, Mike White...."White, a Robert A. Welch Chair of Materials Chemistry at the University of Texas at Austin and founding director of the Institute for Integrated Catalysis, passed away unexpectedly on August 31, 2007. White was internationally recognized as a pioneer in many areas of surface chemistry, catalysis, the dynamics of surface reactions, and light-stimulated surface reactions. White had published more than 700 research papers in a career that spanned more than four decades."

     "Attempts to move public opinion away from hydrogen toward fossil fuels are no more clearly seen than in the Ford Motor Company CEO's confession that he manipulated the media and gave plausible deniability to President George W. Bush when Bush was being shown a hybrid hydrogen/electric automobile at the White House.  In reality, the President's family generations of historical investment in oil and rail, specifically Union Pacific, had predetermined this course, along with Mr. Henry Ford's close friendship with Thomas Alva Edison, whose technology will use fracking assisted, water polluting, CNG, and which now is even finding a use in hydrogen fuel cells which don't need it," said Rumbledown who continued...."This is one frackin' mess."
     Rumbledown was fascinated by the work of Regina Monaco, Gardiner's wife and a former NASA scientist with great interest in the Cassini Mission which revealed that the Saturn moon, Titan, may have a methane-based life form that lives on hydrogen.  "Would that give a kind of justification for methane to be a catalyst in hydrogen fuel cells here on earth contributing to the argument for CNG in hydrogen fuel cell efficiency?  Is that a distant stretch?" asked Rumbledown as he watched a Youtube about who killed the hydrogen car. 
     Highly efficient hydrogen splitting devices have already been produced without the unnecessary step of buring CNG.  Stanley Meyer's work in this field has been both remarkable and then invisible.  As with the oil cartel's silencing of Robert Oppenheimer through Kenneth Pitzer and William Liscum Borden, Joseph McCarthy and others, someone has silenced Meyers and now two fuel cell scientists at the University of Texas, home to the most powerful fossil fuel coalition and cartel in the world and oil's official shadow capital.

     "Allowing our best scientists to do their work without fear or intimidation would be the equivalent of the Pope releasing Copernicus and Galileo from house arrest.  If they aren't freed, history has a way of invalidating the authority of the tyrants that imprison them.  I read somewhere that Momano, the cave dweller who invented the first wheel, was eclipsed by others who wished not to use his invention for its original purpose....flattening the bodies of his human sacrifices," said Rumbledown.