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Fractivista Swears Off Morning Joe

This morning, T. Boon Pickens literally laughed off environmental concerns about Fracking on msnbc’s Morning Joe. Joe just sat on his moderately conservative ass, nodding in agreement, while Tom Perriello, former Virgina Representative [D-5th] and CEO of Center for American Progress offered very little by way of a Progressive rebuttal. Essentially, “Boon” was given a platform to assert the false choice between oil and gas, and there was nary a mention of Renewables. Pickens spoke about Saudi Arabia hoarding oil for their own air conditioning, driving up prices, but not the fact that Saudi Arabia is now heavily invested in solar. You can read more about that in a May 16, 2012 post by Travis Hoim, The Surprising $100 Billion Solar Investment, also on msnbc.

Don’t be a gashole, Joe! Ask Willie Geist, he’s the only one who questioned the environmental impacts though he wasn’t given time for a follow up. Here are some news items which for some reason have been routinely sidelined by the lamestream media. And this post was brought to you by organic, Fair Trade green tea.

• Toxic Contamination From Gas Wells – The New York Times Map
• The Harmed The Dead The Sickened and The Disappeared – AngerandCourage.wordpress.com
• Vermont Fracking Ban Poised To Become Law – Huffington Post
• Hydraulic Fracturing Myths & Facts – Earthworks
• Natural Gas: The Inside Story – EarthJustice Telebriefing
• EPA: Bringing Safe Drinking Water Act Tools To Bear – Clean Water Action

Toxic Contamination From Gas Wells – The New York Times Map

Admittedly it’s lamestream, but NYT is clearly left bank: “Toxic Contamination From Natural Gas Wells The New York Times collected data from more than 200 natural gas wells in Pennsylvania. Many of them are tapping into the Marcellus Shale, a vast underground rock formation. But a method being used to stimulate wells, called hydraulic fracturing, produces wastewater containing corrosive salts and radioactive and carcinogenic materials. In Pennsylvania, this wastewater has been sent through sewage treatment plants that cannot remove some of the contaminants before the water is discharged into rivers and streams that provide drinking water. The Times was able to map 149 of the wells.” Feb 26, 2011

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/02/27/us/natural-gas-map.html

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Anger and Courage

From Dr. Stephen J. Cleghorn’s blog, AngerandCourage.wordpress.com, commenting on his post, The Harmed, the Sickened, the Dead and the Disappeared: Accounts of the impacts of shale gas drilling on people and animals: 

“I think it’s helpful to see so much ‘preponderance of the evidence’ – that is, credible stories that tell us there is a serious problem, even if direct causation cannot be established in every case.”

There are, to date, over 118 individual accounts on the list, which was gathered from accounts in the public domain by Jenny Lisak for Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Water and Air.

http://angerandcourage.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/the-harmed-the-sickened-the-dead-and-the-disappeared/

http://www.pacwa.org/

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Vermont Governor Shumler Signs First State Ban On Fracking

ilovermont… Vermont Fracking Ban Poised to Become Law by AP via Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/04/vermont-fracking-ban_n_1478123.html

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Earthworks Takes Action

“Hydraulic fracturing fluids contain toxic chemicals and are being injected into and near drinking water supplies… These chemicals have known negative health effects such as respiratory, neurological and reproductive impacts, impacts on the central nervous system, and cancer… In addition to being injected into and near water resources, these chemicals are also being trucked through our communities and can spill and leak from trucks, pits, disposal wells, and flowlines. Aside from water contamination, communities are faced with public health threats from chemicals evaporating off drilling sites and residual chemicals that can spill or leak onto our soils.”

http://www.earthworksaction.org/issues/detail/hydraulic_fracturing

http://www.earthworksaction.org/library/detail/hydraulic_fracturing_myths_and_facts

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EarthJustice Atty Deborah Goldberg – Our Own Erin Brockovich 

“Fracking-driven gas development is poisoning our water, and threatening our health, land, wildlife and air. And it’s happening in thousands of communities across the United States at an alarming rate with totally inadequate environmental protections in place.”

There are cases in which hydraulic fracturing is suspected of polluting drinking water in Alabama, Colorado, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia and Wyoming. EarthJustice Super-Atty, Deborah Goldberg, is no doubt aware of every one of them.

http://earthjustice.org/features/campaigns/telebriefing-natural-gas-the-inside-story

http://earthjustice.org/news/press/2011/epa-announces-it-will-protect-rivers-streams-drinking-water-from-fracking-wastewater

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Clean Water Action

According to Clean Water Action PA in EPA Action on Fracking: Safe Drinking Water Act Tools Being Brought To Bear: “New technology allows for deeper wells and sideways drilling, and has brought explosive growth. Injection of water mixed with sand and chemicals, contaminated wastewater, and surface operations around wells are causing pollution and other problems across the U.S. So far, states have failed to protect affected communities or their water.”

http://cleanwateraction.org/feature/epa-action-fracking

http://cleanwateraction.org/pa

Tags: Deborah Godberg, Joe Fracking Scarborough, Saudi Arabia Solar, Shumler, Stephen Cleghorn, Willie Geist

This entry was posted on May 17, 2012 at 11:47 am and is filed under fracking, fresh water pollution. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.