<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">16 Cattle Drop Dead Near Mysterious Fluid at Gas Drilling Site<div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px; ">April 30, 2009</span></div><div><br></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="helvetica" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; ">[bold added]</span></b></span></font></div><div><br></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="helvetica" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; line-height: 14px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 10px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 10px; "><p style="background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.4em; background-position: initial initial; ">Sixteen cattle dropped dead in a northwestern Louisiana field this week after apparently drinking from a mysterious fluid adjacent to a natural gas drilling rig, according to Louisiana's Department of Environmental Quality and <a href="http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20090430/NEWS01/904300327/1060" style="background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-family: inherit; font-size: 100%; font-style: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(20, 61, 141); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; ">a report in the <i>Shreveport Times</i></a>. At least one worker told the newspaper that the fluids, which witnesses described as <b>green and spewing into the air</b> near the drilling derrick, were used for a drilling process called <a href="http://www.propublica.org/feature/buried-secrets-is-natural-gas-drilling-endangering-us-water-supplies-1113" style="background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-family: inherit; font-size: 100%; font-style: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(20, 61, 141); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; ">hydraulic fracturing</a>. But the company, <a href="http://www.chk.com/" style="background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-family: inherit; font-size: 100%; font-style: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: transparent; color: rgb(20, 61, 141); text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; background-position: initial initial; ">Chesapeake Energy</a>, has not identified exactly what chemicals are in those fluids and is insisting to state regulators that no spill occurred.</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.4em; background-position: initial initial; ">The problem is that both Chesapeake and its contractor doing the work Schlumberger, say that a lot of these fluids are proprietary, said Otis Randle, regional manager for the DEQ. "It can be an obstacle, but we try to be fair to everybody," he said. "We try to remember that <b>the products they use are theirs and they need them to make a living</b>."</p><p style="background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.4em; background-position: initial initial; "><br></p><p style="background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.4em; background-position: initial initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; "><i>Few trends could so thoroughly undermine the very foundations of our free society as the acceptance by corporate officials of a social responsibility other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible.</i><i> - Milton Friedman</i></span></p><p style="background-image: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; -webkit-background-clip: initial; -webkit-background-origin: initial; background-color: transparent; border-top-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-left-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-color: initial; font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1.2em; margin-left: 0px; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.4em; background-position: initial initial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana; font-size: 14px; line-height: normal; "><i>The key to sound environmental policy is respect for private property rights.</i><i> - Ron Paul</i></span></p></span></b></span></font></div></div></body></html>