OKLAHOMA CITY - In the rotunda that predominate above lawmaker at the Oklahoma State Capitol , the names of oil and gas companies past and present are inscribed . Conoco . Halliburton . Phillips .
The oil and gasoline diligence is the fundament upon which Oklahoma was build up . Drilling get here in the 1800s , well before statehood . In peak years , the industryaccountsfor almost one - fifth of the state ’s overall economic system .
Sometimes , that chronicle can move political science in alarming ways . News report have longhintedthat Oklahoma officialsturned a blind eyeto the proliferation of quake activity for protect the oil and gaseous state industriousness . too , the longstanding ties between industry leadership and former Oklahoma lawyer full general ( now EPA executive ) Scott Pruitt have been well document . Butemailsand court document obtained by Fusion ’s The Naked Truth fact-finding team allow a rare look at how some of the most striking industry voices responded to the grow temblor crisis in actual time . These documents show how — sometimes with the help of nation officials — industry sought to distance rock oil and gasoline output from the earthquake , despite mount scientific evidence linking the two .
This level is part of a year - recollective investigation into EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt ’s environmental legacy in Oklahoma by Fusion ’s Naked Truth documentary squad . WatchThe Naked Truth : WastelandDecember 19 at 9 p.m. ET , only on Fusion TV .
It was in tardy 2011 when the issue of seism became a live topic in Oklahoma . In many ways , the quake in the townsfolk of Prague — a 5.7 order of magnitude effect , the most powerful earthquake on platter for the res publica — was the wake - up call . Sandra Ladra and her Word Ryan were sit in the living room of their home when the ground started to judder .
“ There was no warning , there was no rumble , there was no clunk , then shaking . It was just instant tawdry , ” Ryan said . “ I jumped straight up and run over to the corner to get out from underneath anything that could come . ”
Ladra was still sit on the couch when a chunk of her cap break off and crashed down on her knees . She was rushed to the hospital . Her aesculapian expense roll up costing ten-spot of thousands of dollars , and the house was leave behind with about $ 200,000 in damages .
In the contiguous wake of the seism , Oklahoma ’s governor downplayed the connection to industriousness - related activities . month later , the U.S. Geological Survey published preliminary finding for apaperthat would link the 2011 Prague quake to industry , and in finical , towastewater injectionsthat often keep company the extraction of rock oil and gas . But amid other scientific reports saying as much , land officials publish widely - report program line that the 2011 quake was likely a “ result of born cause . ”
What was n’t reported in the year come after the quake was how the oil and gas industry react internally to the initial scientific report . The Oklahoma Energy Resources Board is a quasi - public state agency , voluntarily fund by the industry . Its total dining table is made up of industry leaders , appointed by the regulator and legislative body . It ’s also the primary group that manage environmental white - ups related to oil well in the state . The billet is strange but not unequalled : Ohio , Kansas , andIllinoishave similar set - ups .
In 2012 , the board ’s Executive Director , Mindy Stitt , solicit talking points about earthquakes from the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association , according to emails obtain through a public records request . Those talking point were specifically aimed at address two pieces ofnewresearchon the connexion between the tremor and industry - related activities .
Among the 2012 talk points shared between the lobbying group and the federal agency official were statements that minimize the sincerity of the quakes , and their connective to diligence . The first suggestion , in extra heavy font , was that the condition “ seismal action ” should be used or else of “ earthquake . ” And , although a marked increase in Oklahoma quake had accompany the res publica ’s crude boom in recent years , the talk points say : “ The country where the seismic activity was recorded has a history of seismal bodily process and has been one of the most dynamic areas in the body politic . ”
Prior to the uptick in earthquakes in the former 2010s , the state averaged about two quakes per year that registered over 3.0 on the Richter scale , the point at which a seism is noticeable by humans , accord to the U.S. Geological Survey . In 2015 , the state averaged that number per daylight .
Thefracking summons is often tied to seism , but these are typically microquakes that are seldom felt by humans . scientist now saywastewater injections , which became more vulgar during the early 2010s petroleum boom , are relubricating ancient mistake , causing seismic activityin areas that have long been hibernating .
Other emails and internal documents show how industry figures were n’t felicitous hearing from grammatical constituent concerned about the earthquake , and in some case tried to block their electronic mail or make light of them with the help of state officials .
In 2014 , former Petroleum Association president Mike Terry inquire an functionary at the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board for help blocking communication from Oklahoma occupier Daryl Rossi , who was sending him report about the link between oil and gasolene activity and increase seismicity .
“ This hebdomad I ’ve been receive multiple emails from this crazy environmental activist about fracing [ sic ] and seism , ” he wrote . “ Is there a way to block these emails ? ” Carla Schaeperkoetter , the music director of educational activity for the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board , forwarded direction on how to close up an email address .
“ Of course that means that he is avoiding the verity , ” Rossi say in an email when we told him Terry blocked his message . “ That is the loose style to invalidate a tough discussion . ”
Terry did not respond to multiple request for gossip . After months of test to speak with staff at the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association by sound and email , our efforts were mostly ignored . One connexion executive we met at a conference wane to speak to us .
interior communications from 2015 show that official at the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board were also poking fun at concerned citizens who were making noise about earthquakes .
The e-mail we obtained show that stave considered doing a Jimmy Kimmel - mode “ Mean Tweets ” video , dwell of public officials read angry tweets from residents . Their concept seemed shoot for at spend a penny light of concerns about human - caused earthquakes . functionary at the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association were copied onto the thread .
“ Even though I detest being on photographic camera .. I opine this could be will be really rummy so I ’m in ! ” write one Resources Board staff member .
A sample tweet , fit in to internal emails , take : “ Do n’t ever know in Oklahoma . Fracking causes seism and contaminated water . Ai n’t ever gon na stop . Might as well deepen @OKCThunder to OKC earthquake , ” referencing Oklahoma City ’s basketball squad .
A spokesperson for the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board said the video was never produced after the mathematical group ’s ad agency “ decided it was n’t a direction they wanted to go . ”
Mickey Thompson , a former top petroleum and flatulence lobbyist who helped institute the panel , was by this point in time worried about what he examine as a lack of response to the seism . He ’d initiate the guinea pig with industry officials , but enounce he image fiddling stake in gravely addressing the issuing .
“ I was consulting for two unlike companies here in town in Oklahoma City , trying to blab out about that internally , in meetings have-to doe with to the labor I was working on , ” recalled Thompson . “ And it was almost , I call it , a gag guild . Not from the governing but from the legal departments in oil companies . ”
One of the industry figures he inspire to speak up more was Kim Hatfield , the president of Crawley Petroleum , and an Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association gameboard member . In an email to us , Hatfield pushed back on Thompson ’s asseveration that he had not done enough to publicly address the connectedness between seism activity and manufacture . “ I have given myriad interviews , spoken at legion public gatherings , direct up a research project with the [ Oklahoma Geological Survey ] , ” he said .
But Hatfield also warn his colleagues to talk with caution about the connections between manufacture - related activities and earthquakes . In a 2015 e-mail we obtained , part of a thread among lobbyists and top industry figures after ascientific reportwas released , Hatfield accent that top researchers were not in concord with every point on the theme , and that , “ We have to be careful about how we discuss this issue to check that we do n’t get beat to death with our own news . ”
Hatfield tell us in an email that he was simply trying to insure good intentions did n’t go cockeyed . “ It was my concern that an too broad inductive reasoning or inadvertent mistatement [ sic ] would be seize upon and used to characterize the verbalizer and the industry as being duplicitous , ” he wrote .
Around that time , Oklahoma crude baron Harold Hamm , who would go on to advise presidential candidate Donald Trump on vim , became part of the story .
In 2015 , Bloombergreportedon internal emails from the University of Oklahoma that suggested Hamm was trying to get scientist at the Geological Survey who were connect earthquake to oil and gas activity usher out .
In a recent deposit from former Oklahoma Geological Survey state geologist Austin Holland , Holland state he feel pressured in meetings with people like Hamm and state officials to alter his enquiry on human - get earthquakes . The deposition was taken for an ongoing case brought against companies by homeowners whose dimension were damaged in the 2011 earthquake .
Holland put most of the blame on commonwealth official . He left the state when he finger his scientific wholeness was being compromise .
“ I was n’t being hale by industry , I was being coerced by my superiors . I did have people in the manufacture say , ‘ Well , you ca n’t say that ’ or ‘ You ca n’t say this , ’ ” Holland testified in the recent deposition . “ But the ones that actually write the paycheck control what I say in the public eye , and what I do n’t . ”
In a assertion to The Naked Truth , Holland ’s honcho , University of Oklahoma president David Boren , whom Holland name in his deposition , say he made it clear to the scientist that “ our commitment to donnish exemption is predominant . ”
manufacture was n’t just look to sway the minds of the state ’s elector . Email exchanges show staff of the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board were thinking of using a public education program to direct children toward information that seemed to downplay scientific finish on the connexion between earthquakes and diligence action .
The educational arm of the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board furnish public school instructor with training and materials to teach children about the energy industry .
In a 2011 email to colleagues , Terry happily describe watching hundred of schoolchildren learning about crude oil and gas action , and said he hoped to reach 20,000 educatee per yr through the programme .
“ Guys , I ’m telling you this scholar erectile dysfunction computer program is a well oiled simple machine , ” he wrote to other lobbyists and top manufacture figures . “ We are easy but surely winning the war ; at least in Oklahoma ! ”
But an email exchange from 2016 between members of the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board and the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association shows that the information warfare was not over . Jeremy Fitzpatrick , a board penis of the lobbying group , was alarmed that his six - year - older daughter came back from school talk about the link between industrial activity and earthquakes .
“ We need to deploy our troop , ” he wrote .
In reception , Resources Board head Mindy Stitt wrote that she would examine to mobilize the educational programme used in near all of the state ’s territorial dominion , to adjudicate to get alternate information to schoolchildren .
“ We have a scholastic outreach commission get together coming before long , ” Stitt wrote , adding she would bring it up to see if they could vamp the classroom curriculum “ to tot up some factual information about seismicity . ”
Former Petroleum Association President Terry also chime in , complaining “ the problem is not the students , it ’s the parents and the teachers . We also need something for teachers so they wo n’t just vomit up what they read and see in the mass medium . ”
In an email , Stitt tell The Naked Truth : “ The [ Resources Board ] has not ever and does not include anything regarding earthquakes ” in its classroom programme . She said her response was regarding data campaigns for the broader public about what the industry is doing to reply to earthquakes , foundon the office ’s website .
Officials and industriousness leaders have lately begin to acknowledge links between earthquakes and industry . Oklahoma now has acouncilon seismal natural process , purport at flourish enquiry on the issue . Once again , though , the group consists of United States Department of State office and industry lobbying groups , including the Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association . A Resources Board video key out the council notes : “ diligence has been a fantastic partner in this matter , ” adding , “ No one ’s trying to underwrite it up . ”
In 2015 , the state commission that handles oil and gasolene regulations created a Department of Induced Seismicity . It received funding for one year .
The Naked Truth producers Connie Fossi and Kristofer Ríos and pressman Natasha Del Toro contributed to this story .
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