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BLM grants permits for new Ozone plants

A new company, O-Zone Air Products Inc, has been permitted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to build six new ozone harvesting plants around the Upper Green River Valley in Wyoming.

In a statement issued today, the BLM is calling for the removal of all NOx and VOCs reduction devices on equipment operating in the Pinedale Anticline Project Area (PAPA) and Jonah natural gas fields south of Pinedale.

These devices are used to capture and neutralize combustion emissions which are released into the air in the natural gas drilling and production process. These chemical compounds then react with sunlight and oxygen to create ozone, commonly known as smog. Repeated incidents of high ozone levels in the Upper Green River Valley have caused the BLM and the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to place more and more restrictions on industry to eliminate ozone, because exposure can cause health issues in sensitive people. Reversing years of increasingly tighter restrictions, the BLM has ordered the removal of Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) equipment from natural gas drilling rigs and processing facilities in Wyoming and is now allowing, and encouraging, those emissions to occur.

“Who would have thought the government would ask us to make MORE ozone in the Upper Green River Valley,” a gas industry representative said. But that’s exactly what is happening.

Thanks to a new process that uses ozone to make energy, the Bureau of Land Management now sees ozone as an resource with economic value and of national importance, rather than a pollutant. Scientists are calling ozone “the energy source of the future.” It is renewable and nothing has to change from the way the industrial world operates today in order to produce more of it. Ozone is expected to replace nuclear power for energy production.

“The ozone you have here in Sublette County is very special,” the industry representative said. “It is different from ordinary big city smog. There is something about the high altitude and cold weather formation that makes a particularly pure form of ozone that packs an incredible energy punch. The BTUs from that stuff is astonishing and the profit margins are ten times that of oil or natural gas.”

"We have a lot of experience now in 'doing it right' in energy development, so we are confident this won't be a problem," a BLM spokeswoman said. "Sublette County has always been a big player in helping to meet America's growing demand for energy. These new plants will go far to help make the country more energy independent."

Ozone harvesting plants, commonly called "sponge plants," will be located just upwind of Boulder, Pinedale, Big Piney, Daniel, Cora and Bondurant. Each plant will employ 60 workers to monitor the ozone collection equipment and fill the storage tanks. The ozone will then be pumped into tanker trucks and shipped to ozone power plants which are being built around the world. The plants are able to use the ozone, combined with certain other ingredients which are proprietary, to make heat and power. Initially, the ozone will be shipped out by truck. Eventually, new pressurized pipelines will be laid to pump the ozone to central collection facilities located closer to major transportation corridors.

The O-Zone Air Products plants will be designed to suck the ozone directly out of the air and process it. Strategically located, they will purify the air right before it reaches population centers. "They are like giant ozone vacuum cleaners," the BLM said.

With the construction of the new sponge plants in high ozone areas, EPA has announced new "geographic-based" acceptable air quality standards for ozone levels, which are adjusted according to proximity to populated areas. "This is truly Adaptive Management," the BLM said.

Estimates for tax revenue generated to the Federal, state, county and local town government coffers are still very preliminary, but it is expected to dwarf what is currently being brought in from oil and natural gas production in the area.

“This will bump oil and natural gas down to secondary products for us," the industry spokesperson said. "Like many other resources in this special valley, Sublette County has a world-class ozone resource right in its own backyard,”

Sublette School Boards agree to combine Districts 1 & 9
The combined schools mark a new era of harmony between the formal rivals

The School Boards of Sublette County School Districts #1 and 9 have agreed to merge the two school districts into a single district. This comes after a firestorm of accusations and hard feelings over what is believed to be an unfair distribution of tax revenue between the two districts.

The Big Piney/Marbleton/LaBarge schools will be called collectively "Sublette-South" and the Pinedale schools, which includes students from Daniel, Cora, Boulder and Bondurant, will be called "Sublette-North". The new combined district will become Sublette County School District #19. A new administration office will be located in Sand Draw, halfway between Pinedale and Big Piney.

The schools will continue to be in their present locations for class purposes, but they will combine all their sports teams. Practices will be done together, alternating between the school's facilities, and they will play as a unified team against other teams in the area. The new school colors will also be combined into a lovely red and green plaid for new sports uniforms and cheerleader outfits.

The team will drop their old mascots of the “Wranglers” and the “Punchers”. Since the natural gas industry funds 95% of the school's revenue, the new combined team will be renamed the “Frackers”.

Both schools will receive full size-drill rig towers to accent the fronts of their school grounds in recognition of their primary funding benefactor.

The high school students generously gave up their parking lot for placement of their new drill rig monument. The students told the School Board they were giving up their cars and switching to walking and riding bikes because they didn't want to be contributing to the ozone problem in the county.

School Districts vote to acquire "Pedal-Power" School Busses
"Participatory Transportation"

Sublette County School District #19 School Board stated in a media release recently they believe they have found an answer to the issue of fat school children and rising fuel prices.

They have placed an order for the state's first “Pedal-Powered” School Bus. The first bus is set to arrive ready for use for the fall 2012 school year. School officials hope to have 90% of their school bus fleet converted over to Pedal-Power by the 2013 school year.

The concept is based on Roman galley ships, which thousands of years ago used human power to propel their fleet of imposing war vessels through the water.

Instead of being passive riders in the bus, students will become active participants in getting themselves to school and back home. The concept has been dubbed "Participatory Transportation.” Each able-bodied student will sit in a specially designed seat outfitted with bicycle pedals and revolving handlebars. The students’ pedaling and arm action will be combined to provide the power to the internal mechanisms which in turn propel the bus. With all students participating, the bus is engineered to have highway speed capability, thus allowing the school to maintain the current bus schedules.

Over time, it is hoped and expected that Sublette County students will be in excellent physical condition for local teams to participate in the regional and national pedal bus competitions. Some school board members have even set their sights on the Olympics.

The best part, which has delighted school officials clear up to Washington D.C., is the beneficial health effects the new transportation program will have on the students. “We can eliminate a lot of PE classes now,” one administrator said. Instead of being wasted travel time, the students will get their Physical Education activity as they go to and from school. That will free up class time to focus on more of the student’s academic lessons to meet testing requirements.

Some students that live farthest away will see the most health benefit from the new program, pedaling for as much as an hour to arrive to and from their homes. Battery back-ups, charged by the student power and solar panels on the roof, will kick in when the empty bus needs to travel with only the driver on board.

Although more expensive initially than standard diesel busses, the cost savings in fuel in one year's time will more than make up for the additional cost of the greener, people-powered mass transit vehicles.