CAP AND TRADE? LET’S USE FREE ENTERPRISE INSTEAD

Once upon a time, when the word “global warming” entered our vocabulary, a federal government program was developed called Cap and Trade, in which your “carbon footprint” (emissions from home or business) would be taxed. This was to incentivize reducing said footprint. It never got a solid hold at federal level, but some states have adopted it. 

We’re thinking that a voluntary, free enterprise system, which doesn’t add layers of lobbyist-funded bureaucracy and policies, is a better way to reduce emissions and put the money back where it belongs – to the landowner who is doing the hard work of sequestering carbon through improved soil health. With some additional revenue, that landowner can increase the carbon being pulled out of the air and increase oxygen being released. Just good old photosynthesis at work.

We’re working with a new group that will soon be announced. This Network will bring individuals, families, and businesses that want to voluntarily increase carbon sequestration in or around the amount that they are emitting. 

Stay tuned. An announcement coming soon. 

Want to talk about it now? Give a call, 307.369.4444.

WHY “DISPOSAL” COSTS LESS THAN DISPOSAL

At Encore Green Environmental, we “dispose” of your water by putting it to beneficial use. Not by throwing it away.

Your disposal end is achieved, you’ve safely (more safely, actually) gotten rid of your by-product produced water.

We can do this for 25 to 30% less than the cost of injection. And less is good, especially these days. We can do this through our patent-pending Conservation By-Design™ system, which safely treats the water for land application. 

It’s a better way than disposal. Unless you mean, “disposal.”

Let’s talk about it. 

HOW’S THAT “OUR WAY OR THE HIGHWAY” THING WORKING FOR YOU?

Okay, we get it. You like to be right. You see your point of view perfectly. And you won’t try to work with those of the opposite point of view. Yes, we’re looking at you, environmental and energy communities.

You’ve each dug your collective heels into the dirt and won’t budge. Unfortunately, here in the arid west where you both work, that dirt is dry and not very healthy.

But if the two of you worked with us and each other, we could safely take care of the by-product/produced water issue, improve the soil health, make the air more clean, and turn the landscape green. Figurately and literally.

But we need you to open your mind to a new way of doing things. You each are leaders who can find a way of progress instead of stuck in the past with old feuds. You can do it.

Let’s talk about it. 

307.369.4444.

GOING GREEN SAVES YOU GREEN

Right now, it’s all about green -- as in meeting ESG goals AND green -- as in trying to save greenbacks. To keep the energy wheels turning, you’ve got to keep producing. To do that you’ve got to get rid of the water. At EGE, we can re-direct your total water disposal costs and reduce them by at least 25 to 30%. We “dispose” of the water by cleaning it and applying it to surrounding land for ag and conservation.

So, you save green dollars and make the process green at the same time. 

Give us a call. We’re Encore GREEN Environmental.

STOP TALKING ABOUT JUST ONE PIECE OF THE PUZZLE

We’ve tried to get the energy, ag, and environmental communities to understand that we all have to bring our puzzle pieces together or we won’t find a way forward. BUT, we’ve been holding on to our very own puzzle piece. We take it out, talk about it, shine it a little, but we never join it to someone else’s piece.

The last handful of decades shows that we’re aren’t making much progress.

We have to protect the environment AND keep energy going. Until we get the pieces to hook together, we won’t accomplish either. 

Let’s talk about it. 

LESS IS MORE. HOW DOES THAT WORK?

We hear that the air quality is improving because there’s less travel. That’s good. But the cost of that is the worldwide economy is struggling because travel fuels business. 

So we got less right now. But we don’t have nothing. At Encore Green Environmental, we know that as long as we have something, we can build a way forward. In fact, sometimes we’ve found that limitations forces us to think smarter about our problems. 

Our goals are to help the environment while keeping business going. We’re launching the Carbon Asset Network and we’ll be talking about that more in the days ahead.

Can we find our way together to get business working and the environment thriving? Yes, we CAN.

HOW WE DO WHAT THEY SAY WE CAN’T

We get asked, How can we at Encore Green Environmental do what everyone else is only talking about, since we’re not engineers or scientists. So, how can we safely re-purpose by-product/produced water?

Well, to answer the how, we have to go back with me to a night at PRCA rodeo. I had driven all night to get there. Yes, I was a professional rodeo barrel man and entertainer. That all-night drive and late arrival meant I didn’t have time for a run through beforehand.

Showtime comes and at the high point of my act, Sunny, my trick horse doesn’t run through my legs. This is the big finish. The act kind of fizzles at the end and I exit as best I can.

As I walk off, I mutter under my breath, “The first night’s always practice.” 

Just then a man changed my life. Billy Minick, the Texas cowboy. He puts his big hand on my shoulder, turns me around to face him, and says, “Professionals don’t practice with paying people’s money.”

At EGE, that’s our motto. We do it right and keep doing it right. If you have water to put to beneficial use or technology you need to prove up or help get to market, contact us. 

We can help because, Professionals Don’t Practice with Paying People’s Money.
#sustainability #doitright

IT’S OKAY. MOTHER NATURE’S GOT THIS.

For all of our attempts to help our environment, we have overlooked this principle:

Let’s let the expert do it.  

You see, whether you want to say it’s God, Nature, or Science, the process of photosynthesis is the natural, well-established way to put more oxygen in the air and take out more carbon. So, let’s cooperate with God/Nature/Science and do what drives photosynthesis – green, vegetative growth.

In the arid West we have an opportunity to do just that with a new source of water – the cleaned by-product/produced water from the oil companies. Want cleaner air? Grow more green things? What more green things?

Just add water. 

That’s how we let the expert do the job. We’re just here to help.

Let’s talk about it.

“BOOM OR BUST ISN’T WORKING. LET’S BUILD “STEADY AS SHE GOES” THIS TIME AROUND

After over a century of oil production, the energy community still treats it like a small startup operating out of a basement. The “boom or bust” mentality and volatility is actively maintained as the status quo. 

Maybe we need a new mindset when we have to now build (again) an industry trying to climb up from negative priced oil. But how?

Agriculture. 

First, we borrow the mindset of farmers and ranchers who are the steady hand on the plow (or combine). They don’t have boom and bust on their mind. A boom or bust says, “Let me get in, get it booming, and then get out before the bust.” But a farmer can’t do that. He still has to eat. And do the millions he collectively feeds. So, he keeps a steady-as-he-goes mindset.

We’re an agriculture company and can help you borrow these ag principles, starting with land and water stewardship. 

Let’s just talk. We can show you the way out.

If We Can’t Stop Squabbling, We’re Setting Wyoming Up for Devastation

John Robitaille, President of Encore Green Environmental in Wyoming has published a commentary in the Casper Star Tribune.

If We Can’t Stop Squabbling, We’re Setting Wyoming Up for Devastation

Currently, our world is economically crippled.  The pandemic of 2020 has demolished businesses and cut Wyoming’s most important revenue generators deeply.  Minerals, tourism, and agriculture are all suffering due to the current situation. 

For years, we’ve discussed the need to find new revenue sources for our state and now we are feeling the pains.  

Tourism will come back; our state is too beautiful, and our natural wonders are too plentiful for tourists not to come.  However, we still need to find ways to produce our bountiful mineral wealth and help our agricultural communities.   

I believe there is a way forward to keep oil and gas going, give agriculture additional water resources, create healthy soil, and continue to improve our air quality. Yet, all the stakeholders cannot see the way forward because of too much in-fighting.  I’ll be the first to admit, I’m guilty of this as well.  

What happens to Wyoming’s agriculture if we have a  drought?  How does our  now economically strapped state handle another hit? All aspects of agriculture are seeing declines in prices due to COVID19.  If we add a drought, will our ranch lands be sold to out-of-state owners? Will landowners go bankrupt? What all the  supporting businesses close? What about the US food supply chain? 

If we can use produced water from our oil and gas resources to irrigate, we can temper the effects on agriculture.  It’s Wyoming’s water, but since it’s being produced, it’s seen as a waste.  It’s Wyoming’s water, let’s use it for good, not just dispose of it.

Wyoming  receives tax revenue for each barrel of oil sold. Recently, due to oversupply and little demand, the tax revenues we’ve counted on has slowed, as wells are being shut in.  While the current situation should change, we still experience higher and lower  oil prices over time.  When this occurs we see production changes.  Some companies cannot justify producing at lower costs and shut in their wells. Other smaller operators, producing from low barrel per day wells can, however, continue to produce.

It is important to remember that these lower production wells, sometimes called stripper wells, produce a small amount individually, but when we add up all of them, it equals or exceeds the amount of oil from new production. Stripper well production could be the tax revenue that Wyoming needs in these difficult times.  Additionally, many stripper wells produce excess water, which can help our agricultural businesses receive water.

In order to keep stripper wells producing for as long as possible, we can explore ways to help them cut costs but not eliminate environmental responsibilities.  There are opportunities for lowering produced water costs, while helping the local ranchers achieve additional water for livestock watering or landscape irrigation.  This will help with operational costs, which we hope, will allow for longer production lives.  

Wyoming needs to look forward to opening new secondary and tertiary recovery efforts.  We have existing fields that could continue to produce, we have potential buyers for these fields, but the bonding requirements sometimes exceed the ability for purchase.  If the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission would allow idle well bond amounts based on engineering estimates, rather than a flat rate, purchasers may have more opportunity to open new projects.  Of course, the idle well bonds would have to comply with the existing rules, which read bonding levels will be up to $10 per foot.   This would allow additional production from fields that already exist, already have the required infrastructure and can continue to bring revenue to Wyoming, and in many cases bring cleaned produced water to agricultural operations.

If we believe we can wait for  previous oil consumption levels to see revenue from oil and gas wells, it will be too late.  The time to act is now.  Let’s be proactive, rather than reactive.

In my opinion,  energy and environmentalists must stop fighting or at least call a truce. In times of crisis, the two foes need to focus on the common enemy of economic survival. Once Wyoming and the world are back economically, the feud can start again.  

We love Wyoming.  We want Wyoming to be strong economically.  If we stop arguing and actually work together, we can find a way to make Wyoming the best she can be for all our residents, be it mineral or agricultural. 

Take a look:

https://trib.com/opinion/columns/robitaille-if-we-can-t-stop-squabbling-we-re-setting-wyoming-up-for-devastation/article_256855f1-0faf-5615-ba68-715b101b8267.html