Gas Industry Still In Denial
Shale gas extraction isn’t simply dangerous, it’s toxic. Uninsurable. And it’s not just Nationwide who denies rig operators commercial coverage. Fraccidents and industrial workplace accidents related to fracking have spiked. (more…)
Archive for the ‘fracking’ Category
Fracking Lawsuits Pile Up in Pennsylvania
July 14, 2012Memo To Gas Guys: Nationwide’s Not On Your Side
July 13, 2012This is big. When Nationwide Casualty Insurance Company, a large US commercial and personal insurer said the risk involved in underwriting fracking operations is “too great to ignore,” the gas industry’s fangs came out.
Energy-In-Depth spokesperson, Simon Lomax, emailed Associated Press reporter Rik Stevens, snarking, “Practical implications aside, the fact that the company would send out a statement this reckless, and this uninformed, should tell us a lot. For starters, it tells me that I won’t be buying home and car insurance from this company.”
Nationwide‘s “recklessness” does say a lot, but not what Willy Loman, er… Simon Lomax would have us believe. The insurer simply cannot afford to clean up the gas industry’s toxic messes. Maybe if producers are forced to self-insure, in the same way they are encouraged to self-regulate, they’ll be more careful. I understand that US shale gas production is already the most regulated in the world, better than OPEC nations, but when our air, land, water and health are routinely damaged by a single industry, and DEP enforcement is feeble at best, you certainly can’t blame Nationwide for doubting that gas industry assurances will cover it. Insuring fracking operations is too much of an unknown. (more…)
‘Mystery Moratorium’ Sticks In Pennsylvania’s Craw
July 12, 2012“Democrats Exploded”
Gotta hand it to our sneaky, fathead governor. The ban on unconventional gas drilling in the South Newark Basin has been as divisive as a new Duke water study.
Since the Bucks and Montgomery county moratorium was tucked into the new state budget, which was signed on July 2, 2012, the articles, posts and Op-Eds decrying the hypocrisy of the measure have been proliferating like crazy. The Inky editorial, Fracking Ban Is About Our Water, says it all. Turns out, when you slyly slip seven all-important paragraphs into a late draft of an already cumbersome state budget, as did Sen. Chuck McIlhinney [R-Bucks], the body politic leaves for summer recess with a sour taste in its mouth. Reporters Michael Macagnone and Angela Couloumbis lay out the details in Local Drilling Moratorium Rankles Rest of State on Philly.com. (more…)
Drill, Baby, Drill?
July 11, 2012
Not In Anyone’s Backyward!
Health is the Number One Concern of people opposed to fracking. If you have concerns about the potential adverse health effects resulting from unconventional gas extraction, visit The Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project at environmentalhealthproject.org for valuable tips and clinic information. Read more about this landmark project in Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project To Address Fracking Health Concerns from the Associated Press via HuffPost Green.
An In-Depth Look at Energy-In-Depth
July 10, 2012And Plenty of PA Politics, Too
You may have noticed a new approach by the Gas Industry to reach out and touch us with their concern. The Marcellus Shale Coalition has taken to the radio to promote its new online forum. Their new web-effort, which runs until July 20th, focuses on Southeastern PA, and was created “to better understand the questions residents of greater Philadelphia have about natural gas development in Pennsylvania.” Another major industry lobby group, Energy In Depth, has been busy debunking Gasland with all its might, along with all the other documented evidence which proves shale gas development pollutes land, water and air. If all this makes you uneasy, then your instincts are right on. Writer Dory Hippauf takes a good look at this latest industry tack, delving into the people and companies behind it, in Energy-In-Depth: The Dots. (more…)
Just Ask A Pennsylvania Politician
July 8, 2012Natural gas drilling is complicated. I’ve been known to go on about it long past the point of being polite. Woe to those who ask a simple question because there are no simple answers. Yet if you care deeply about our environment, about public health and the health of future generations, it’s difficult not to get a little impassioned when the subject comes up. Thankfully, it comes up a lot more often. When I’m fortunate enough to have the ear of a state official, I keep it brief but I let them know I’m alarmed by specific impacts of Shale Gas Production. I stick to the facts, and mind my manners of course.
FACT 1: (more…)
Gas, Lies & Videotape
July 7, 2012Wanna see a gas industry executive lying like a dirty rug to an understandably concerned citizen at public Zoning Board meeting in Pennsylvania? Watch.
“Shouldn’t have any in it,” drones Chief Gathering’s expert witness, an employee whose name is not readily apparent, in response to questions about specific toxins from a resident concerned about the air impacts of a newly permitted Glycol Dehydration Unit near her home in Monroe Township. She wanted to know if Chief’s new unit would emit benzene, toluene or formaldehyde. He said the station will emit only methane. She also asked if the emissions would affect her children’s asthma. She was told, simply, “I don’t believe it does.”
Something smelled off to Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition Luzerne County, who picked up on Chief’s misinformation right away. They submitted data, along with the gas guy’s testimony, to two highly regarded experts seeking their take on this brand of bullshit from industry boots on the ground. GDACLucerne then posted the responses with the video on YouTube. It’s footage like this that makes the gas industry wince, and want to ban citizens from videotaping public township meetings. (more…)
Bucks & Montgomery Get Gas Drilling Moratorium
July 1, 2012Political Powder Kegs For Pennsylvania’s Other Sixty-Five Counties
A 6-year unconventional gas drilling moratorium in the little-known South Newark Basin… Few saw it coming. Iris Bloom did. She immediately mobilized Protecting Our Waters and its allies to help stop the measure which was slipped into the Pennsylvania Fiscal Code Bill, HB1263, in the eleventh hour. Laura Olsen reports on Sen. Chuck McIlhinney’s [R-10th, Bucks] successful, powder-keg provision in Oil and Gas Permits on Hold in Southeastern Pennsylvania in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Bloom’s email alert, sent early Saturday afternoon, was the first many had heard of this extraordinary measure. It was extraordinary because McIllhinney is the among the self-same legislators who, only four months ago, crammed The Marcellus Shale Act down the Commonwealth’s collective throat – all in the name of “consistency” and “uniformity.” Now, McIllhinney is seeking exemption from the very zoning restrictions he would impose on the rest of Pennsylvania. (more…)
Postcards From Pennsylvania’s Sacrifice Zone
June 22, 2012Grace Under Extreme Fracking Pressure
In case you didn’t notice, Pennsylvania already has a “Sacrifice Zone.”
Don’t believe it? Then I suggest you ask Rebecca Roter, who discovered months ago that her home is to be engulfed by the heavily industrialized business of shale gas production. Since then, Roter has been doing everything possible to obtain information on the scope and nature of a planned, GP-5 permitted compressor station project near her home in the Susquehanna region. She’s determined to protect the land she loves from air pollution, pipelines, noise, clear-cutting and truck traffic, but so far her efforts have only been stymied by the PA Department of Environmental Protection and other state agencies.
Roter recently initiated the Facebook Group, Constitution Pipeline Ferc Comments Needed NOW! PA NY eminent domain is coming! which is devoted to finding a path to real environmental protection from this project for her region. The group is currently petitioning the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to mandate Dispersion Studies and regular ambient testing for this facility. (more…)
That’s What She Said…
June 16, 2012Listening to Pro-Drilling Landowners in Northeastern PA
Since Tim Darragh’s article, Pennsylvania Lobbying for DRBC Fracking Rules appeared in The Allentown Morning Call on thursday, there’s been a surprising dirth of Comments on the topic. StateImpact gave Darragh’s piece a shout out yesterday, and hopefully that will help raise awareness that the Delaware River is still very much endangered. Maybe it’s an apathetic readership? Or perhaps Patrick Henderson is effectively skirting media radar detection in their outright determination to drill in the Delaware right now, literally at any cost. (more…)
Shale Gas vs. “Dirty” Coal
June 6, 2012This week, one of EcoWatch.org’s Most Read Items was a post by Andy Rowell of priceofoil.org entitled Fracking Boom Kills Renewable Energy Industry. Commenting on a trio of pithy headlines from The Guardian newspaper, Rowell concludes, “Gas, especially shale gas, is likely to undermine renewable investment. Anyway, gas is now being seen as low carbon by the EU, and will receive subsidies that should have gone to kick-start the clean, renewable revolution. This is despite the fact that shale gas is no cleaner than dirty coal.” (more…)
Can’t Get No Protection
May 26, 2012Anti-Fracking Petitions Proliferate in PA and Around the World
There are tons of anti-fracking petitions floating around these days. A few years ago, it would have been a challenge to find one, but now they’re like fish in a barrel. Some have gained heavy traction, like PennEnvironment’s “Protect Pennsylvania from Marcellus Shale Gas Drilling” which has more than 35,000 signatures, yet lawmakers of both parties regularly remark that they tend to pay “internet petitions” scant notice.
“Nobody pays attention to them,” confirmed State Senator Daylin Leach [D-17th] at an informal discussion on gas drilling issues hosted by PennEnvironment in Upper Merion earlier this year. I guess I already kinda knew that but I’m optimistic by nature and, after all, it’s only a few clicks, right? If nothing else, I’ll lend a little moral support to the petitioners? Leach recommends letters and petitions on paper, and calling on your legislators.
Still, maybe lawmakers ought to at least take note of the sheer number of online anti-fracking petitions. If nothing else, it’s an indication that the public is trying to tell them something. There are way more petitions than I could possibly list here, of course that didn’t stop me from trying! Please let me know if I missed yours.
Say No To Shale Gas! Current Petitions:
Upgrade The Delaware River to Exceptional Value Status (Delaware Riverkeeper Network)
Protect the Susquehanna River Basin (Protecting Our Waters)
No New Permits – A Moratorium for Pennsylvania (Pennsylvanians for Clean Land, Air and Water)
Tell Governor Corbett to Provide Water for Fracking Victims (Water Defense)
Tell Congress to Ban Fracking Now! (Food and Water Watch)
Tell State Legislators to Ban Fracking Now! (Food and Water Watch)
Save the Clean Water Act from Attack by Gas Drillers (Sierra/PA)
Stop Fracking in Bucks County PA and Repeal Act 13! (Concerned Bucks County Pa Family)
Battle Ballads: Alerte Schiste Lists Hundreds of Anti-Fracking Songs
May 26, 2012It’s too easy to waste time on Facebook, yet every once in a while you find something big and beautiful. So, while I hope Mr. Zuckerberg’s new marriage goes more smoothly than his recent IPO, and I was initially daunted by Timeline, I had to share this recent fb discovery, which I happened upon via Alerte Schiste via Fracking Hell UK via Protecting Our Waters via …
Anti-Fracking Songs Version 2.1 (24.3.12) No. Entries 233
If you’ve got the music in you, be sure to send your anti-fracking tune to alerte.schiste@gmail.com.
Moms In HazMat Suits
May 24, 2012Families fracked as threat of shale gas pollution hits home…
WTFrack.org, an impressive anti-fracking organization in Colorado, recently reposted this item from The Denver Post. The story made me mad. Madd mad.
“DENVER — A small group of mothers and children from Erie marched into the building that houses Encana Corp.’s Denver headquarters this morning to present a petition signed by 21,000 people demanding that the energy giant forgo a planned natural gas drilling site near elementary schools and an adjoining neighborhood…”
Why should these women have to fight for their children’s right to clean air? Probably because adequate zoning restrictions don’t exist in their neighborhood. And thanks to Act 13, they don’t exist in my Pennsylvania neighborhood anymore, either. I applaud these moms for organizing a direct action. I’m certain they have plenty of other things to do. (more…)
Don’t Be A Schmoe, Joe Scarborough!
May 17, 2012Fractivista 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
What’s In Your Water? Chloramine.
May 17, 2012Drinking water disinfection is among the most important technological advances of humanity, yet like every major historic development it has a downside. Today, we run the risk of over-ingesting the disinfection chemicals used in public water treatment, along with their dangerous disinfection bi-products. It’s a bummer to know what’s really in our water – everything from naturally occurring radioactive contaminants to anti-depressants. Some toxins, such as chlorine, are relatively easy to filter out. Others, like chloramine, and disinfection biproducts (DBPs) such as chloroform (CHC13), are much slower to dissipate and far more difficult to remove. These are the toxins believed to cause cancer.
Vermont Bans Fracking
May 16, 2012Governor Shumlin signs new ban, on track to become law…
From Vermont Fracking Ban Poised to Become Law by the AP via Huffington Post:
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) — Vermont appears on the verge of enacting the nation’s first statewide ban of a hotly debated natural gas drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing. (more…)
NPR Drills Into Marcellus To Find “Missing Answers”
May 14, 2012In Case You Missed It…
The Fracking Boom: Missing Answers is a Special Series airing all week on NPR (WHYY in Philadelphia). According to the promo: “The natural gas boom is under way in the United States, with more than 200,000 wells drilled in just under a decade. But people living on the front door step of the natural gas bonanza have a question: Are these wells creating harmful pollutants? NPR explores why there isn’t an answer yet.” (more…)
Unearthed: The Fracking Facade
May 6, 2012Landmark Video Exposes Unconventional Gas Drilling Facts
PLEASE HELP UNEARTHED KEEP UP ITS INVESTIGATION: http://igg.me/p/67361?a=406499
Un•earthed: Setting the track record straight – (more…)
Keep Tap Water Safe 