What does this mean for us in Wisconsin, who watch big trainloads of our farmland shipping out of state on gigantic railcar shipments, often with over 100 cars to a shipment?  Will the frac-sand mining industry start to die?  And will we muster the political will to kill off that industry before too more more devastation goes on?

Stay tuned. Look up Frac Sand Industry Awareness in Wisconsin, a facebook page dedicated to the people and disappearing lands of western Wisconsin.

From the Director’s Cut
Producing Wells
November 13,100
December 13,119 (preliminary)(all time high was Oct 2015 13,190)
10,756 wells or 82% are now unconventional Bakken–Three forks wells
2,363 wells or 18% produce from legacy conventional pools.
–
Permitting
November 125 drilling and 0 seismic
December 95 drilling and 0 seismic
January 78 drilling and 0 seismic (all time high was 370 in 10/2012)
–
ND Sweet Crude Price
November $32.16/barrel
December $27.57/barrel
January $21.13/barrel
Today’s $16.50/barrel
(lowest since February 2002)(all-time high was $136.29 7/3/2008)
–
Rig Count
November 64
December 64
January 52
Today’s rig count is 41 (lowest since July 2009 when it was 40)(all-time high was 218 on 5/29/2012)
The statewide rig count is down 81% from the high and in the five most active counties rig count is down as follows:
Divide -85% (high was 3/2013)
Dunn -76% (high was 6/2012)
McKenzie -75% (high was 1/2014)
Mountrail -88% (high was 6/2011)
Williams -90% (high was 10/2014)

The rest is on Peak Oil Barrel. Now you go read that

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, February 16th, 2016
CONTACT: Kerry Schumann, Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters, 608-208-1123
(office)
Kerry@conservationvoters.org

Death by a Thousand Straws (AB 874)
Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters Statement

MADISON, WI -- Today, the Assembly Committee on Environment and Forestry held an
executive session committee vote on Death by a Thousand Straws, AB 874. The high
capacity well bill was voted out of committee by a 7-6 vote, and will be on the floor of the full
Assembly on Thursday. In response, Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters Executive
Director, Kerry Schumann, issued the following statement:

"From the start, the intent of the Death by a Thousand Straws Bill has been
clear. Big Ag has lobbied legislators to advance the interests of their thirsty
clients at the expense of the states valuable groundwater and the many people
who rely on it.

"Today, in the year 2016, there are people whose drinking water wells are
running dry and lakes and rivers are drying up because high capacity wells are
over pumping our groundwater supply. Yet, Death by a Thousand Straws
moves forward and heads to the floor of the Assembly later this week.

"We are very concerned that, despite an outpouring of opposition from
thousands of Wisconsinites, including many who are directly impacted by loss
of groundwater, legislators chose to listen to special interests rather than their
constituents. We have a real groundwater crisis in this state and Death by a
Thousand Straws not only refuses to address this problem – it makes it so we
can never reach a commonsense, bipartisan solution.
The people of Wisconsin -- especially those affected by careless and
irresponsible groundwater management -- deserve better."

Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters was disappointed to see Representatives Mursau,
Krug, Czaja, Kitchens, Swearingen, Edming, and R. Brooks vote in favor of AB 874 during
the executive session committee vote. Representatives Mason, Milroy, Hebl, Stuck,
Considine, and Allen voted against the bill.

Full Press Release as PDF File

Re-blogging a couple key paragraphs from a longer piece by Chris Martenson, from Peak Prosperity… Here’s the takeaway:

Let me be blunt: this next crash will be far worse and more dramatic than any that has come before. Literally, the world has never seen anything like the situation we collectively find ourselves in today. The so-called Great Depression happened for purely monetary reasons.  Before, during and after the Great Depression, abundant resources, spare capacity and willing workers existed in sufficient quantities to get things moving along smartly again once the financial system had been reset.

This time there’s something different in the story line: the absence of abundant and high-net energy oil. Many of you might be thinking “Hey, the price of oil is low!” which is true, but only momentarily. Remember that price is not the same thing as net energy, which is what’s left over after you expend energy to get a fossil fuel like oil out of the ground. As soon as the world economy tries to grow rapidly again, we’ll discover that oil will quickly go through two to possibly three complete doublings in price due to supply issues. And those oil price spikes will collide into that tower of outstanding debt, making the economic growth required to inflate them away a lot more expensive (both cost-wise and energetically) to come by.

With every passing moment, the world has slightly less high-net energy conventional oil and is replacing that with low-net energy oil.  Consider how we’re producing less barrels of production in the North Sea while coaxing more out of the tar sands. From a volume or a price standpoint right now, the casual observer would notice nothing. But it takes a lot more energy to get a barrel of oil from tar sands. So there’s less net energy which can be used to grow the world economy after that substitution.

Read the whole thing: The Return of Crisis