Families fracked as threat of shale gas pollution hits home…
WTFrack.org, an impressive anti-fracking organization in Colorado, recently reposted this item fromThe 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…)
Angela and Wayne own and operate a farm in Clearville, PA. They candidly share their experiences with the Natural Gas Industry in this short video. (more…)
Governor 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…)
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…)
Anti-Fracking Rally in Washington DC – Saturday, July 28, 2012
Contact: Your Legislators! Ask Them To Speak Out Against Unconventional Gas Drilling in Pennsylvania atStop the Frack Attack
May 3, 2102, Fracksylvania, USA: At long last, a date to focus on, and work towards. A time to make our objection to filthy shale gas drilling known. Hurray. Sign up now for the rally, get updates and information, and get psyched. Or simply save-the-date and be there to make history on July 28th and protect our human right to clean air, land and water. (more…)
The Clean Air Council Is Having a Frack Attack in Pennsylvania
Clean Air Council (CAC) has launched a legal blitz to force EPA engagement on the critical air issues associated with natural gas operations in Pennsylvania. Frank Finan breaks down the issue with infrared footage from a compressor station in Northeast PA, appropriately set to “Power” by Kanye West.
Untold Emissions
CAC is focused on forcing full compliance with the Clean Air Act from the Fracking Industry. The Frack Attack Objectives:
Emissions inventory
Repeal of major exemptions
Proper permitting
Meaningful air monitoring
Enforcement of permits
“PA DEP: Your authority to forsake Pennsylvania’s air quality lies on shaky ground.” – Your Friends at The Clean Air Council
Follow Frack Attack actions at cleanair.org. For more information, contact CAC staff attorneys Jay Duffy, judffy@cleanrair.org or David Presley dpresley@cleanair.org.
PA Act 13 Puts Gas Drillers Between Doctors & Patients
Less than a week after Governor Corbett signed Act 13, The Marcellus Shale Act, in February 2012, Dr. Walter Brasch posted his seminal three-part paper, FRACKING: Pennsylvania Gags Physicians, on EcoWatch.org. As PA Act 13 transformed the outmoded PA Oil and Gas Code, Brasch shed light on the fact that Corbett’s new rules compel doctors to withhold vital information from patients in their care, inhibiting recovery, in order to keep Gas Drillers’ trade secrets. The Fractivist drumbeat has been banging on the issue ever since. Mainstream media, and state legislators, have certainly heard the noise. (more…)
[Original Post]: Once fresh water is used for fracking, it can never be safely returned to the watershed. You simply can’t filter out heavy metals and radioactive isotopes like Radon 226. The only thing the water is good for is more fracking. Permanently removing many millions of gallons of fresh water from the Susquehanna and Delaware River basins will leave our region more vulnerable to drought. Small streams, the water tables they inform, and the many private wells which rely on them, will dry up that much faster. Depleted water tables may also contain heavier concentrations of naturally occurring substances already present. (more…)
Just 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…)
“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!
Everyone cares about water. Luckily, there’s new information on watershed protection everyday, making it relatively easy to comprehend the urgent issues confronting the 15.6 million people who rely on the Delaware River Watershed. The “Little Giant” generates $22 billion in revenue for eastern Pennsylvania each year, according to The University of Delaware, and gas drillers should not underestimate how much the City of Brotherly Love loves this 333-mile long river.
I’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”?
[UPDATE: APRIL 5, 2012] Visit shaleshockmedia.org for full-length video of keynote speech by Dr. Anthony Ingraffea, Cornell University, and other highlights from the conference.
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[Original Post] Marcellus Shale Exposed: A Symposium for Truth and Action onFri., March 16th & Sat, March 17th at Northampton Community College, Bethlehem, PA is a great place to get informed and involved in the effort to protect our land, air and water from the ravages of Unconventional Gas Drilling. Presenters will include: Jeff Schmidt, Sierra Club * Tracy Carluccio, Delaware Riverkeeper Network * Karen Feridun, Berks Gas Truth * Deborah Rogers, Energy Policy Forum.
Ads Cost Money But The Truth About Shale Gas Drilling Is Free
I laugh a little when I hear Gas Industry folks complain about how well-funded the anti-fracking movement is. To which groups are they referring? I’m a fractivist. I volunteer, and I’m in very good company. The organizations I support are transparent about their funding, too, even if it’s the wrong brand of donor, as was recently the case with Sierra Club. Difficult as it must have been, Sierra came clean about Chesapeake Energy underwriting its Beyond Coal campaign. Now, I suspect, they’re working doubly hard to get beyond Gas.
It’s true, there’s a growing list of major environmental groups who want to ban or limit Unconventional Gas Drilling, (more…)
I started this blog a year ago, freaked over Fracking and the hydrological catastrophe coming to Pennsylvania. I was determined to reach one thousand people with the message that industrial shale gas drilling will forever destroy beautiful, economically struggling regions of rural PA. I wanted them to know that the unchecked, under-regulated shale gas industry is already polluting the water we drink and the air we breathe.
Mostly, I wanted people to Take Action to protect the imperiled Delaware and Schuylkill River watersheds. (more…)
Rep. Greg Vitali Seeks to Close Gas Industry Air Pollution Exemptions with House Bill 2113
Here’s an interesting fact: On March 1, 2012, the PA Department of Environmental Protection is required to submit a 2011 Air Emissions Inventory for “unconventional drilling” operations in Pennsylvania to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. They will be reporting on Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emissions, Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs), like benzene and toluene, and Particulate Matter from internal combustion engines which contributes to Ozone counts, among other things.
Since it’s not feasible for the DEP to test the air everywhere, reporting data is provided by gas industry operators, who derive their numbers from the specifications manuals of the equipment they use. This is where the drillers’ exemptions come into play. (more…)
NOAA’sAir Sampling in Colorado Shows Methane Measurements that Disprove the Gas Industry’s “Cleaner Burning Fuel” Claim
While natural gas may be a cleaner fuel to burn, here’s more proof that it’s a particularly filthy fossil fuel to extract from the earth. A 2011 study by The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was recently published in Journal of Geophysical Research and covered in the international journal, Nature. (more…)
Is frack waste in the soil sickening Lower Saxony?
The otherwise bucolic north German region of Neidersachen has become the epicenter of coal bed methane gas drilling activity – or “fracking” as it is known there, too. Sadly, ARD Munich reports that Benzene leakage from Exxon Mobil’s waste pipelines may be causing cancer clusters among residents in nine households. Since 2007, the company has known of problems with the PE pipelines used to transport produced frack waste water underground. Over the span of four years, ExxonMobil has remediated over 2,500 tons of highly carcinogenic, polluted soil yet waste transport continues unabated as Germany, like so many other nations, strives for Energy Independence. (more…)
It’s not 10am on the East Coast, yet much has been made of President Obama’s State-of-the-Union address last night. The president not only promoted Natural Gas, he essentially gave the government credit for developing Fracking technology! OMG. If there was one line that gave me Hope…
“America will develop this resource without putting the health and safety of our citizens at risk.”
Sooner or later, President Obama will have to recognize the fact that Fracking is already putting the safety of our citizens at risk. (more…)
Keep Tap Water Safe 