Have You Been Reading the Governmental Update Section?

Letter from the Editor
Have You Been Reading the Governmental Update Section?Probably many of you are aware of the “Governmental Update” column by Henry Wise and Arlin Howles that appears each month in the Bulletin. For those of you who have not read this column, make a point to take a look at it this month. Wise and Howles work very hard to find and present governmental goings-on at both the state and national level that have relevance to our community in general and geoscientists in the HGS in particular. This month they describe and summarize a large number of issues including the recent Bureau of Land Management ruling granting leases to Shell, Chevron and EGL Resources for oil shale test pilots in the Green River Formation in the Piceance Basin of northwestern Colorado. This effort is noteworthy because there is an estimated 800 billion barrels (or more) of oil equivalent locked in the shale. Unlocking this geochemically immature resource could mean energy independence for this country and all that would imply. The companies taking this risk should be applauded for their initiative and their trust that technology both old and new will make the oil shale economic.Wise and Howles provide an extensive summary of the changes in the various House and Senate committees that resulted from the democratic victory in the November elections last year. They profile the new committee chairs and discuss what we can expect from them in the coming months. They then go on to discuss the lawsuit brought by the State of Massachusetts against the Environmental Protection Agency for changing its position in concluding that the EPA lacks legal authority to regulate greenhouse gasses. This suit is now being considered by the Supreme Court. Political observers will appreciate the questions asked and statements made by justices from the liberal, conservative and moderate factions of the court.I’d also like to call your attention to an article by Alison Henning on the excellent community service work that she and other HGS members have done to clean up, map and document the Evergreen Cemetery, an abandoned and neglected cemetery just east of downtown Houston. They are working with Project RESPECT and 17 local teachers to provide the information they hope will result in an official designation for the cemetery as a historical landmark. A ground penetrating radar system and GPS units loaned by Rice University are being used to locate and map the true boundaries of the cemetery and the unmarked and long-buried graves that date back to the 19th century. The HGS’s involvement in this project benefits the community in a number of ways; it helps recover a lost part of our rich history, it gives the teachers valuable hands-on experience in the scientific method that they can bring back to their classrooms and pass on to their students, and it demonstrates how the activism and skill of a few individuals can energize the HGS membership and other elements in the community to undertake a project that will benefit all of Houston. Alison, Steve Levine and all those who volunteered for this project are to be applauded. All of you out there with just a little free time and energy are encouraged to get involved in this and other programs sponsored by our society. We can make a difference!
Companies taking this risk should be applauded for their initiative and their trust that technology both old and new will make the Colorado oil shale economic.