When Hollywood comes a knockin’ to make a movie in your state about a vitally important issue, you gotta say thanks. Opposition to Fracking, once you recognize that unconventional shale gas drilling cannot be done safely – not in the long-term or short-term – becomes like common sense, and you wonder why more people don’t share it. You hope they will, before it’s too late, and it really helps to have people as talented as Matt Damon and Gus van Sant around to help tell the story of Pennsylvania’s Gas Boom. I’m thankful that “Promised Land” – hailed by The Huffington Post as an “anti-fracking movie” – began filming in the Pittsburgh area in April, no doubt much to Corbett’s jowly chagrin. It’s all good, babe. (more…)
Archive for the ‘fracking’ Category
“Promised Land” Casting Call in Pennsylvania
May 4, 2012Vote Pro-Earth in The PA Primaries – Tues 4/24
April 20, 2012Don’t Forget to Vote on Tuesday!
Here’s the list of pro-Earth candidates we need to support. They have vowed to stand firm against the gas industry in PA. Democrats, one and all!
For the most current list, please visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/VoteProEarth/docs/ (more…)
Giant Solar Spill at Marshall University
April 14, 2012Just when I’m despairing (again) that today’s college campuses have become hotbeds of gas industry indoctrination, I come across this excellent guest editorial by Katie Quinonez in The Parthenon, the student newspaper of Marshall University, a 175-year old liberal arts institution in Huntington, West Virginia with over 10,000 students.
Natural gas: Ruining Your Drinking Water and Livelihood
A carnival will take place today on Buskirk Field with the purpose of “educating” the student body and faculty about natural gas. BeHerd Marketing Agency, America’s Natural Gas Alliance, EdVenture and the World’s Strongest Man 2006 are responsible for this misleading event. (more…)
PA’s Deadly Secrets & “Shale Gas Porn”
April 1, 2012“If you were looking for a way to poison the drinking water supply, here in the Northeast you couldn’t find a more chillingly effective and thorough method of doing so than with hydraulic fracturing,” wrote Paul Hetzler, a former environmental engineer with the NY Department of Environmental Conservation in The Watertown Daily Times in December, 2011.
Paula Clair of Garrison, NY cites Hetzler in her thoughtful Op-Ed piece, Don’t Sacrifice Water For Profits, in TimesUnion.com on March 31, 2012, writing: “Water is life. There is no life without it. Don’t let big oil/gas sacrifice our state, our homes and our health for their profit.” Clearly, Clair gets it. She’s awake, and questioning the source of her water. Her words reflect the growing public concern for watersheds, fresh air and food supplies. The Natural Gas Industry may be saturating our commercial airwaves with slick ad campaigns, but we the people have YouTube!
An Anti-Fracker’s Playlist… (more…)
The Uncensored Consensus: Fracking Really Is a Bad Thing
March 25, 2012I’ve been called every nasty name you can think of, in the Comments sections of articles about Fracking that is. Epithets hurled at me include: tree-hugger, Chicken Little, anti-, Leftie, kool-aid drinking hippie and – my personal favorite – a nimby. I’ve also been called a liberal, idealistic, elitist, obstructionist and a dumb Democrat. Those are the accusations that actually make me stop and think. Have I somehow gotten this “frac’ing” thing all wrong? Is it possible that drilling for shale gas is the best thing since sliced bread? Maybe I’m merely raging against the machine, opposing something that truly is a “blessing under our feet”?
Most recently, in the Comment section of Lucia Graves’ Huffiington Post piece, Josh Fox Condemns Fracking About-Face By USDA, I was called a “green zombie” by someone named Oil Patch. (more…)
Aqua PA Gives 32 Families The Boot
March 21, 2012UPDATE On The Residents of the Riverdale Mobile Home Village from Judy Morrash Muskauski: “A Bryn Mawr-based Aqua PVR LLC has decided it will give most residents of Riverdale Mobile Home Village until June 1 to move.The company received permission from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission to withdraw up to 3 million gallons of water per day from the site. The company plans to build a pump station on the site. The water will be transported via pipeline to gas drilling sites. The residents’ leases have been terminated.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZL9wgGqJk1s
ORIGINAL POST: Displacing a community of 32 families from the Riverdale Mobile Home Village in Piatt Township, PA is just another day on the job for Aqua PVR LLC. For 38-year resident, Doris M. Fravel, however, the news is devastating. The company, owned by Bryn Mawr-based Aqua America, plans to eliminate her neighborhood and build a water withdrawal facility for the Natural Gas Industry.
“I could sit down and cry my eyes out,” the 82 year old widow told David Thompson of The Williamsport SunGazette in his article, 32-Unit Village No More.
Loretta J. Gary, POWer extraordinaire, called attention to the story which has quickly become emblematic of the way pro-gas interests are cramming drilling-related activities down Pennsylvania’s collective sore throat. It’s on anti-fracking organizer Alexander Lotoro’s considerable Facebook radar, too. (more…)
Shale Gas Realities
March 16, 2012PA Watersheds Further Imperiled …
- SRBC Approves Massive New Water Withdrawals
Yesterday, the Susquehanna River Basin Commission approved 48 more water withdrawal permits despite vocal protests and the lack of public comment. According to StateImpactPA, there were Protests, But No Arrests at the March 15, 2012 Hearing in Harrisburg. The Wall Street Journal also picked up the story by the Associated Press.
Unlike other utilities and recreations large-volume water uses, withdrawals for unconventional gas drilling – fracking – become permanently toxic and are largely un-returned to the watershed. They forever deplete the hydrological cycle. (more…)
Fracking Scrapples On Philly’s Main Line
March 16, 2012Clean Water Action Gas Drilling Discussion Series at Radnor Memorial Library on Mon, March 26, 2012
PennEnvironment Marcellus Shale Citizen Empowerment Project Comes to Bryn Mawr College on Thurs, March 28, 2012
Sixty-five percent of the U.S. public favors greater regulation of hydraulic fracturing, according to a Bloomberg News National Poll conducted March 8-11, 2012. Pennsylvania now leads the nation in unconventional gas production. The shale gas boom effects us all. Learn from a local perspective at two upcoming local events where experts will lead public discussions on the environmental and economic impacts of industrial shale gas drilling in our region.
Have You Joined The Great Statewide Debate?
DEP Water Tests Aren’t “Naturally Occurring”
March 13, 2012Dimock… Butler County… and now Franklin Township, PA… Whose water will be polluted next?
UPDATE [March 22,2012]: Marcellus shale driller offers water to Franklin Homes by Laura Legere, in The Times-Tribune, Thursday, March 22, 2012.
UPDATE [March 15, 2012]: DEP announces sampling of Franklin Township water wells DEP tracking-source-of-more-methane-in-wells by abc27.com
[Original Post]: Gas drillers want you to think Pennsylvania’s water supply was rife with shallow methane before they began fracking the Marcellus Play. Obviously methane deposits can migrate, but why would these towns have been settled in the first place if the water table was bad? Listening to residents in these Northern and Western gas drilling locales, you hear recurring themes about a whole new kind of water problem.
“Up until November, I could drink my water.”
“It’s black.”
“It’s really slimy.”
“Up there, a coupla houses, they’re starting to have some issues.”
“It won’t freeze.”
“Now, there are elevated chemicals…” (more…)
If The Delware River Had Exxon’s Ad Budget
July 25, 2011Anti-Fracking Slogns, Help Yourself! Feel free to share yours in the Comments.
“Hey, Liz, Exxon called, they said Frack You!” My mom is giggling like a naughty kid, and while I know she thinks she’s being clever, I’ve heard that one before. Fractivists are way more highbrow than that! Here are a few of the best slogans I’ve seen:
Hey Obama: Don’t Pass Gas!
Frack is Wack
Methane Blows
Solar Doesn’t Spill
Drill, Baby, Burn!
Get The Frack Out!
They Get Rich. You Get Cancer.
Can’t Drink Money
Love Your River
Health Over Profit
Don’t Be Fracking Crazy!
Fraccidents Happen
Solar Now!
Save Philly Water Ice!
A River Is A Terrible Thing to Waste
NOPE: Not On Planet Earth
Thank You for Not Leasing
Stop Fracking US!
Fracking: F-Bomb of the Future
Water & Fracking Don’t Mix
Not So Fast, Natural Gas
Keep Tap Water Safe 