GIRARD, Kan. — A Southeast Kansas oil field was the backdrop Thursday for U.S. Reps. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan., and Billy Long, R-Mo., as they promoted domestic oil and natural gas production.

Morris Energy Co., owned by Derek Morris, of Weir, was their host on the 160-acre parcel between Girard and St. Paul on Kansas Highway 47. Morris estimated a million barrels of oil are under the ground on the site. The wells were drilled 70 years ago, with the most recent pump installed 30 years ago.

He told reporters that he expected to produce between 1,800 and 3,600 barrels of oil per year.

Oil is a $4.3 billion annual industry in Kansas and a $9.5 million industry in Missouri.

“The U.S. does have vast resources in this area, and with new technology, it could lead to a manufacturing renaissance,” Jenkins said. She pointed to estimates by the U.S. Energy Information Administration that the U.S. in a few years will challenge Saudi Arabia as the world’s top oil producer.

“I think our future is bright in Southeast Kansas,” Jenkins said.

Long said Congress has to do everything it can to promote energy independence.

“You can either pay ‘all of the above’ lip service, or you can have an ‘all of the above’ energy policy,” he said.

He said products in stores come in trucks, so fuel prices are passed along to consumers.

“We can’t drill in this country, but we can loan money to Brazil to drill,” Long said.



‘DREADED FRACKER’

“It’s very possible the energy industry could lead us out of this economic downturn,” said David Bleakley, executive vice president of Colt Energy, of Iola.

He said regulation needs to be left in the hands of the states, not the federal government.

“Fracking is a safe technology,” Bleakley said of hydraulic fracturing, a controversial method of breaking through rock to get to oil or natural gas. “It’s a safe process.”

He said President Barack Obama needs to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline.

Jenkins said science has proved “over and over and over again” the safety of fracking.

“Are we saying we’re not ever going to have accidents?” Bleakley said. “Of course not. Whenever there are mechanical systems and people operating them, there will be accidents.”

After the oil field event, there was a lunch in Pittsburg with other oil company people.

Long told them that Obama is stuck between the unions, which want him to approve the Keystone XL Pipeline, and environmentalists, who don’t. He said that after November, Obama may no longer have anything to say about it, a sentiment others around the table endorsed.

Steve Stanfield, of Consolidated Oil Well Services, of Chanute, introduced himself as a “dreaded fracker.” He also said it is a safe procedure. He said water tables are hundreds of feet deep or less, while the fracking takes place at a depth of one to three miles. He said there are multiple levels of protection between the two. He said special interests have targeted fracking because it’s difficult to understand.

Bleakley said fracking has been done without incident in Kansas since 1947.

Bob Eberhart, of Bobcat Oil Field Service Inc., of Louisburg, said he has heard about oil company subsidies, but he has received only the tax deductions available to any other company.

“There are no oil subsidies,” Long said.

Jenkins said many people don’t make a distinction between so-called “big oil” and the small, independent oil companies like those represented at the table.

“If we are subsidized, I wish you guys would pass on the message that we’re missing some checks,” Stanfield said.



VISION

Joe Spease, a Kansas Sierra Club official, said by phone that Thursday’s event was a horrible idea.

“I think it’s really misguided,” Spease said. “We need politicians with vision to develop new technologies, not this 19th century technology that is doing our environment great harm.”

He said politicians with vision are needed to focus on renewable energy sources.

“What we’re doing is prolonging our dependence on foreign oil and gas, when there are better options that are cheaper and cleaner,” he said.

Spease said no matter how much oil or gas is produced domestically, Americans use so much oil that they will never be free of foreign imports.

He said the idea that fracking is safe is “ludicrous on its face.” He said the procedure is virtually unregulated by the state of Kansas.

“What you’re seeing in every state where fracking is being done is cries for more regulation,” Spease said.

He said Vermont has banned fracking, and that it has created serious air problems in Colorado. Spease pointed to a study by Duke University, which found high levels of methane in well water collected near fracking sites.



‘PANDERING’

Those at the lunch at the Lamplighter Inn said the claims of environmentalists can be hurtful.

“When we get portrayed as being environmentally unfriendly, that bothers me,” Stanfield said, adding that oil producers are hunters, fishers, farmers and ranchers. “We’ve lived on the land our entire lives.”

“We all need to be environmentally conscious, but we need to be pragmatic about it,” Long said. “We need to use common sense.”

“I think we have a long track record of being friendly to the environment and taking care of business,” Stanfield said.

Spease, by phone, said Thursday’s event was designed by the politicians to pander to their biggest campaign contributors.

The oil and gas industry is Jenkins’ top contributor, but it’s not among Long’s top contributors, according to opensecrets.org, operated by the Center for Responsive Politics.

Responding to Spease’s criticism, Jenkins said the event was designed to educate people about the importance of domestic energy production, versus foreign imports.

“The future to me looks pretty bright, if the government will leave us alone,” Stanfield said.





Oil county



VERNON COUNTY in 2011 produced 24 percent of Missouri’s oil — 27,400 barrels — valued at $2.2 million.