Illinois Issues Long-Awaited Fracking Rules For Oil And Gas Companies

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — The Illinois Department of Natural Resources released a long-awaited plan Friday to regulate high-volume oil and gas drilling that supporters hope could bring an economic boost to southern Illinois but environmentalists fear may be too lenient.

The lengthy report follows months of delays and complaints over the process to draft rules governing hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in Illinois. Industry officials say southern Illinois has rich deposits of natural gas, but a final draft of the rules — initially touted as a national model of both sides working together — has taken months for the agency to produce as industry groups warned the state was losing business.

A 150-page report was given to the 12-member Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, which has 45 days to act, or the rules can take effect. Environmental groups, industry experts and lawmakers also got their first look at the report Friday, and some said they expect to spend hours, possibly days, combing through the details.

"These are highly technical rules that will require a really close look at the details," Josh Mogerman, spokesman for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said earlier Friday. "Our experts are going to be spending their holiday weekend going through these rules with a fine tooth comb."

The new rules would require companies awarded drilling permits to submit lists, some of them redacted, of the chemicals used in fracking. The redacted list would be made available to the public by department and be submitted to the public health department. The industry says releasing the full list would expose trade secrets.

In issuing drilling permits, the department would be required to determine within one day whether an applicant had fully completed the necessary forms. The department would then have 60 days to approve or reject an application.

Hydraulic fracturing uses a mixture of water, chemicals and sand to crack open rock formations thousands of feet underground to release trapped oil and gas. Opponents fear it will pollute and deplete groundwater or cause health problems, while the industry insists the method is safe and will cause the same economic surge that oil booms have created in other states.

Illinois was praised last year for passing legislation seen as a compromise between industry and environmentalists on how to regulate the practice, while other states have declared moratoriums or adopted less comprehensive regulations. But the implementing rules proposed by the DNR were criticized by environmentalists as weakening the agreed-on provisions. Industry officials, in turn, said they would stall permits.

"Our hope is that the rules implement the law that was negotiated in all sides in good faith," Mark Denzler, chief operating officer of the Illinois Manufacturer's Association, said ahead of the report's release Friday.

Agency officials spent months pouring over the more than 30,000 comments in response to the first draft, at the same time coming under increasing criticism by fracking supporters who had hoped that drilling would begin this summer. Backers say allowing more drilling could bring thousands of jobs to the rural area.

The panel reviewing the rules is made up of a bipartisan group of lawmakers from the Chicago area and central Illinois tasked with evaluating state agencies' rules. It has 45 days to sign off on the suggested rules, change them or prohibit their filing. It is also allowed to ask for a 45-day extension in making its recommendations.

The department faces a Nov. 15 deadline for the rules to be established.

Whole Foods Is Taking This Kale Thing Way Too Far

We've officially reached an unhealthy level of kale obsession. Here's proof:

Visiting #wfmfamily @WholeFoodsCRP - they have a great event coming up 9/6 #backtoschool! Funding #wholekids pic.twitter.com/kjpE3VvXaC

— WFM_Newtonville (@WFMNewtonville) August 21, 2014

Perplexed? We were too.

It turns out Whole Foods' "Kalegating" event, taking place at one of the chain's locations in Boston, is the high-end grocery store's spin on good old American football tailgating. Of course, "tailgating" usually involves eating chips, hot dogs and other heavy meats out of the back of a car or truck while chugging copious quantities of beer. There's also usually a football game at some point.

Whole Foods' party will serve...“a lot of kale,” a company marketing rep told Boston Magazine, which first wrote about the event. The rep said they'd also serve some “normal” football foods like wings and dip too.

As for the kale pong? Apparently that's sort of like beer pong, but with kale smoothies instead of beer, according to Boston Magazine. In other words, it's nothing like beer bong.

Apparently the winner of the tournament will win a $100 Tailgating Essentials Gift Basket, which we can assume probably will include include everything but what most people would consider tailgating essentials. It probably involves lots and lots of kale.

To play in the kale pong tournament, you'll have to pay $10. The money will be donated to the Whole Kid's Foundation, which aims to end childhood obesity by improving kids' nutrition and wellness. Whole Foods did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Are Corn Flakes Republican? This App Will Tell You

The cereal aisle could be the new ballot box.

A new app called BuyPartisan scans barcodes on thousands of supermarket items and displays color-coded charts that break down the manufacturers’ political donations by Democratic, Republican or other.

“We’re billing this as the nutrition label for your conscience,” Matthew Colbert, a former political operative and founder of app developer SpendConsciously, told The Huffington Post on Thursday.

The app uses data from the Center for Responsive Politics, the Institute for State Money in Politics and the Sunlight Foundation tracking donations by corporate boards, employees and political action committees.

It has bugs. Scan the sticker on a Chiquita banana, for instance, and the PAC segment lists donations by a realtor, a restaurant and a supermercado all bearing the name “Chiquita.”

Colbert said the app only has complete data for about 100 different companies. When it can't find specific information on a company, it searches all its databases to fill in any information with numbers that could possibly be related.

“We apologize for that,” he said. “We’re fixing that now -- it should be fixed in the next couple of weeks.”

But Colbert guarantees the accuracy of the app’s “compare” section, an encyclopedia of more than 100 major companies. It lets you select up to five companies from the list and see their political contributions side by side. Say you were torn between a box of Kellogg’s Mini Wheats or General Mills’ Wheaties. For both companies, donations lean Republican -- but Kellogg’s CEO John A. Bryant gave more to Democrats than General Mills CEO Ken Powell.

“This is just one small snapshot of who that company is,” said Colbert, a native New Yorker in his 30s, “and if you make a decision based on that, that’s cool. If you don’t, you don’t.”

For users worried about exposing their political preferences to the world, the app doesn’t collect any data about individual users and won’t without first asking for consent with a privacy policy, Colbert said. There is no mobile payment component to the app, so it cannot track purchases.

Eventually, he hopes SpendConsciously will develop a product that lets users scan their bank statement, determine what causes or parties their money inadvertently supported, and donate to organizations that reflect their values.

“You know how you have a carbon offset? What if you could have a guilt offset?" he said.

Colbert, who worked as a campaigner and Capitol Hill staffer, declined to name the politicians he worked for or give his party affiliation, saying the app’s reputation as a nonpartisan tool was crucial to growing an audience. His app is one of the latest in a string of new issue-based shopping apps, such as 2nd Vote -- which guides shoppers to companies with conservative values -- and 2AO, which lists businesses that welcome firearms.

Though The Washington Post hinted that Colbert could be related to a comedian who shares both his last name and his interest in money's role in politics, the politico-turned-entrepreneur laughed off the question to HuffPost.

"Not to my knowledge," he said.