Mr. Walsh

In most reservoirs, oil, gas, and water are intermingled. So, the water is already in oil & gas reservoirs. It's been there for millions of years. It did not seep down from today's lakes and rivers.

I've done some basic analysis for a lot of oilfield waters. The salinity is anywhere from 10,000 to 200,000 ppm NaCl. There are other ions present like Mg+2, Ca+2, SO3-2, and SO4-2. This is not water that comes from lakes and rivers. Or from clouds.

The petroleum industry uses people like you to make the point that activists don't know what they are talking about. Hence, the governments tend to ignore the activists.

The petroleum industry needs lots of regulations. It does not like these regulations, but if they are enforced with stiff penalties, most of the players comply.

And this industry needs more regulations. Unfortunately, it takes about two decades for governments to catch up with new regulations to address the changing nature of this industry. The industry gets a free ride in this time.

The main topic of my article was about the apparent subsidies to the petroleum industry. I noticed that you did not address my points in any meaningful way. Either you agree with my main points---or you are one of many activists who believe the government pays the industry to drill wells. I cannot tell from here.