Flyover Friday, March 1, 2024

A flyover from this weeks top heartland stories including:

Texas Is On Fire | Colorado Oil Wells Are Not So Well | Missouri Meat Packing Ponds Stink | Kansas legislators behave like bullies | Texas AG Making Lists Of Undesirables 

SOURCES: The heartland collective, Missouri independent, Kansas Reflector, Colorado Sun, Associated Press, Advocate and journalist - Erin Reed’s blog, Erin In the Morning

1. Every thing is bigger in Texas, Including The States Largest Ever WildFire
   1. https://apnews.com/article/texas-panhandle-fire-evacuations-cbbb6a279bef1bd020722ed48927114a
   2. STINNETT, Texas (AP) — A dusting of snow covered a desolate landscape of scorched prairie, dead cattle and burned out homes in the Texas Panhandle on Thursday, giving firefighters brief relief in their desperate efforts to corral a blaze that has grown into the largest in state history.
   3. The Smokehouse Creek fire grew to nearly 1,700 square miles (4,400 square kilometers). It merged with another fire and is just 3% contained, according to the Texas A&M Forest Service.
   4. Gray skies loomed over huge scars of blackened earth in a rural area dotted with scrub brush, ranchland, rocky canyons and oil rigs. In Stinnett, a town of about 1,600, someone propped up an American flag outside of a destroyed home.
2. Colorado Oil Well Eye Sores Subject of new law suit
   1. https://coloradosun.com/2024/02/24/colorado-orphaned-oil-wells-cleanup-lawsuit/
      1. It is just one orphan well among an estimated 1,800 in Colorado, but a lawsuit filed in Adams County District Court contends it is part of a large, fraudulent scheme to dump old, played-out wells onto the state.
      2. Adams County leads the state in orphan wells with 318. “It is a serious concern for the county and a growing concern as the number keeps increasing incrementally,” said Gregory Dean, the county’s oil and gas administrator.
      3. The lawsuit, in which McCormick and her husband, Ronald, are among the plaintiffs, focuses on Denver-based HRM Resources LLC, which was the recipient of hundreds of low-producing oil and gas wells from some of the state’s largest operators.
      4. For Adams County, orphan wells have been a big problem. Since July 2021 there have been 75 leaks and spills from orphan wells and 92% of the orphan well sites checked by county oil and gas inspectors were out of compliance.
      5. The lawsuit is seeking monetary damages. HRM currently has no active wells, according to the Colorado Energy and Carbon Management database, and in the last four years produced the equivalent of 550 barrels of oil.
      6. The company has been financed by Los Angeles-based Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, which according to its website manages $34 billion in investments, many in niche areas including oil and gas fields. The company is mentioned but not named as a defendant.
      7. https://www.coloradoan.com/story/news/2017/05/02/cut-abandoned-gas-line-caused-firestone-home-explosion/309230001/
      8. In April 2017, in nearby FIRESTONE CO — A home explosion that killed two people was caused by unrefined natural gas that was leaking from a small abandoned pipeline from a nearby well, fire officials said
      9. The April 17 explosion in Firestone about 30 miles (48 kilometers) north of Denver happened when the odorless gas in the old line leaked into the soil and made its way into the home's basement, Ted Poszywak, chief of the Frederick-Firestone fire department, said Tuesday.
      10. Investigators do not know how or when the small pipe was cut. The house was within 200 feet (60 meters) of the well, and the pipeline was buried about 7 feet (2.1 meters) underground.
3. Missouri Meatpacking Plant Lagoon Wretched Stench
   1. https://missouriindependent.com/2024/02/29/missouri-house-bill-takes-aim-at-cesspool-of-meatpacking-sludge/
      1. Between Vallerie Steele, her seven siblings and their children, there’s always a birthday or anniversary to celebrate on the family’s southwest Missouri farm. The summer months are typically a parade of pool parties and barbecues.
      2. Until last year. 
      3. The stench coming from the lagoon across the road from Steele’s home has become unbearable. It holds waste Denali Water Solutions collects from meatpacking plants before spreading it as free fertilizer on farmers’ properties. 
      4. The smell from the “cesspool of rotting flesh” has forced the family inside, she said. 
      5. “Nobody wants to eat a burger or a hot dog if it smells like rotten crap in the air,” Steele said in an interview with The Independent. “It’s just disgusting.”
      6. She tried to stain her porch three times last summer but couldn’t stand to be outside because of the smell. One of her sons was bullied at school because the stench of the lagoon clung to his clothes. Children at her younger son’s combined elementary and middle school beg their teachers to stay inside during recess.
      7. “It literally burns your lungs, your chest,” she said. “I’m an ICU nurse — like, I know this isn’t normal.”
      8. Steele leads a coalition of southwest Missouri residents fighting for more regulation of Denali’s — and similar — lagoons. She implored state lawmakers last month to pass legislation meant to protect rural neighbors and impose more regulations on wastewater sludge haulers.
      9. And on Thursday, the Missouri House voted 151-2 to pass legislation that would require companies like Denali to have water pollution permits and follow certain design requirements for its facilities. 
      10. Facilities like Denali’s would have to be at least 1,000, 2,000 or 4,000 feet from the nearest public building or home depending on the size of the lagoon. And the state would have to establish sampling rules for the basins and require groundwater monitoring in hydrologically sensitive areas.
      11. Sponsored by state Reps. Ed Lewis, a Moberly Republican, and Dirk Deaton, a Noel Republican, the legislation now moves to the Missouri Senate for consideration. The House attached an emergency clause, meaning if it clears the Senate and is signed by the governor the new regulations would go into effect immediately. 
4. Kansas Lawmakers School Yard Bully Routine with LGBTQ+ persons
   1. https://kansasreflector.com/2024/02/29/legislative-bullies-target-kansas-lgbtq-kids-for-harassment-with-anti-trans-bills/
   2. When Kansas GOP leaders consider three bills Thursday targeting transgender kids in the state, they might as well file into a local high school and line the hallways. From their posts, leaning arrogantly against lockers, they could yell slurs and throw elbows at beleaguered LGBTQ+ kids trying to make their way through the day.
   3. They’re bullying our fellow Kansans.
   4. If lawmakers actually behaved like that at high school, they would face discipline and possibly suspension. In the Kansas Legislature, however, they will revel in news media coverage and behave as though they’re protecting someone from something nefarious. You know, the same way a high school bully “protects” a target in P.E. class by shoving them to the floor.
   5. These lawmakers will profess to be concerned about gender-affirming care for those younger than 18. Here’s the truth: They don’t give a rip about gender-affirming care guidelines. If they did, they would listen to the bevy of medical experts, families and trans folks who explain the lifesaving necessity of this treatment.
   6. As American Academy of Pediatrics CEO Mark Del Monte put it, his group wants to “ensure young people get the reproductive and gender-affirming care they need and are seen, heard and valued as they are.”
   7. Forget expert opinion. These lawmakers want to harass and exclude kids who look and behave differently.
   8. They’re bullies, no matter their age.
5. Not To Be Outdone In Texas They Are Making Lists
   1. https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/retaliation-texas-ag-paxton-demands?publication_id=994764&utm_campaign=email-post-title&r=1n4up&utm_medium=email
   2. In a legal filing Thursday, PFLAG (National sought to block a new demand from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton that would require the organization to identify its Texas transgender members, doctors who work with them, and contingency plans for anti-transgender legislation in the state. The civil investigative demand, issued on Feb. 5, calls for extensive identifying information and records from the LGBTQ+ rights organization. PFLAG, in its filing to block the demands, describes them as "retaliation" for its opposition to anti-transgender laws in the state and alleges that they violate the freedom of speech and association protections afforded by the United States and Texas constitutions.
   3. Founded in 1973, PFLAG is the first and largest organization dedicated to supporting, educating, and advocating for LGBTQ+ people and their families.
   4. The demands are extensive. The letter to PFLAG National demands "unredacted" information around claims made by Brian Bond, PFLAG's Chief Executive Officer, in a legal fight against the ban on gender-affirming care in the state. Bond's claims highlighted that PFLAG represents 1,500 members in Texas, many of whom are seeking contingency plans if SB14, the ban on gender-affirming care, takes effect.
   5. Per the lawsuit, PFLAG National states that it would be required to disclose Texas trans youth members, including "complete names, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, jobs, home addresses, telephone numbers, [and] email addresses." It also states they would need to hand over documents and communications related to their medical care, hospitals outside the state, and "contingency plans" discussed among members for navigating the new laws on gender-affirming care in Texas.
   6. Learn more and support PFLAG at PFLAG.ORG

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Outro Song: “The World Is On Fire” by American Aquarium 

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