BRISTOL PA – The Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN) announced the settlement of an appeal DRN filed with the PA Environmental Hearing Board concerning one of the first shale gas wells drilled in the Delaware River Basin. The well is a vertical gas well and was not hydraulically fractured.
The appeal — filed in coordination with Damascus Citizens for Sustainability and local residents — involved the Newfield Appalachia PA, LLC “Woodlands” well in Damascus Township, Wayne County, Pennsylvania. Read the rest of this entry »
When it comes to the pro-gas point-of-view, is there anyone worth listening to?
Last week, former DEP chief, John Hanger, earned props from the gas industry blog, Marcellus Drilling News, in a pithy post entitled, Former PA DEP Head Says Fracking Doesn’t Contaminate Aquifers. MDN, which is edited by Jim Willis in Binghamton, NY, was spotlighting Hanger’s comments in a recent New York Post article about “fracking hysteria.” From the start, that right-wing litterbox liner has been unabashedly anti-Environment in their coverage of issues surrounding Fracking. One can expect greater journalistic integrity from MDN, which simply distilled Hanger’s quotes to support their editorial position, that fracking is safe. My kinda of post, only ass-backwards. Read the rest of this entry »
Clean Water Action * Conservation Voters of Pennsylvania * Delaware Riverkeeper Network * Earthworks * PennEnvironment * Sierra Club, PA Chapter
February 8, 2012: PENNSYLVANIA SENATE AND HOUSE VOTE FOR PREEMPTION OF MUNICIPAL ZONING TO FAVOR GAS DRILLING AND OPERATIONS; INDUSTRY INTERESTS DOMINATE THE PUBLIC INTEREST Organizations decry lack of concern for communities, health, and property… Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
The Fracking Studies Drillers don’t want you to see…
On February 14, 2012 Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett signed the Marcellus Impact Fee bill (Act 13), which was on his desk before his new state budget address, as requested. Act 13 was his valentine to the Gas Industry. With it, state majority leaders carried Corbett’s methane torch, illuminating the notion that while Harrisburg may not sit atop the Marcellus Shale, it’s central to the nation’s Fact-Free Zone.
“We will restore Science to its rightful place,” stated President Obama in his 2009 inaugural address. A few days later, Stephen Colbert glibly asked Chris Mooney, author of The New York Times bestseller, The Republican War on Science in an interview, “Should we tax and spend our way to knowledge?” Unfortunately, in the ultra-polemic Marcellus, where gas drilling is ramping up at a sickening pace, state research budgets continue to be cut and science has yet to gain much of a foothold.
Good Science vs. “Bad” Studies Republican lawmakers repeatedly dismiss published, peer-reviewed studies while citing industry-friendly economic figures freely, as if their business acumen somehow compensates for a stunning dearth of facts. Because good science should never be dismissed by bad lawmakers, here’s the shortlist of landmark fracking studies that the Gas Industry would rather you didn’t see: Read the rest of this entry »
HB1950 is a weak cookie cutter mandate that will force local municipalities to allow “oil and gas operations” in ALL zoning districts. Fees collected with this unusual sliding-scale per-well fee will be far below the average lifetime per-well tax paid in other natural gas states.
Call your PA legislators today, and tell them they need to vote this bill down! Find their phone numbers visit: http://www.legis.state.pa.us/
State Senator Erickson Too Sensible for Harrisburg
It’s not everyday you meet a Pennsylvania State Senator. Rarer still do you have an hour-long discussion about Marcellus shale gas with a Republican who, along with eight members of his caucus, opposes key points in Governor Corbett’s Marcellus bill, SB1100. Read the rest of this entry »
High Volume Gas Metering Station to be a Stone’s Throw from Northeastern PA Elementary, Middle and High School Campus
Chief Gathering LLC is going to build a gas metering station 1,300 feet from the Dallas Township Schools in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, according to The Dallas Post on December 11, 2011, and much to the dismay of residents opposed to industrial gas activity so close their children’s schools. Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
“You Can’t Drink Money”
Our kids have these placemats with the world map, the flags and the presidents. One has a colorful map of the states, and it reminds me how big America is. Few values, beyond freedom, justice and democracy, are ubiquitous to us all. Apparently, the right to clean water is one them. As gas drillers and misguided public officials are now discovering, when you mess with this basic, unifying element, people push back. One thing all shale gas drilling states have in common is that the Clean Water movement is rapidly building momentum. Across the Union, opposition is springing from all quarters, growing deeper and more diverse. Anti-fracking groups may have differing ideas about what to do with all this shale gas, and if fracking is ever okay, but together they’re galvanizing new interest in the environment, and the level of government protection our shared natural resources receive.
One point on which all groups can agree is perhaps best put by Ohio fractivist, Jenny Morgan, when she sings, “You can’t drink money.”
“Colossal Failure” of Governor Corbett and The PA Department of Environmental Protection
The EPA began delivering water to four families in Dimock PA on Friday, January 20, while they conduct further testing on 61 more households. The move signals a failure of Tom Corbett and the PA DEP to safeguard the water supply of citizens. Peacegirl posted a video of the Press Conference on Sunday, January 20, 2012 in Dimock, PA. Among the speakers introduced by Julia Walsh of FrackAction were Craig Sautner, who will be receiving EPA water, and Victoria Switzer, who will not.
“Fifty Percent of Pennsylvania’s Land Mass (22,835 square miles) will become an heavily industrialized zone over the next fifty years…” *
“Wellbores, even perfectly sealed, will be thousands of times more porous than the rock between the shale and the surface, a multi-generational legacy of pollution could be the result.” *
“Three EPA studies have found that the migration of fracturing fluids into groundwater is unpredictable or has already happened.” *
POW! Bam!! Free Facts Fuel Democracy
Regularly circulating valuable links, articles and information, the venerable people at Protecting Our Waters are ever satisfying the public’s right-to-know about the impacts of industrial shale gas drilling on our fresh water supply. The group demonstrates that no matter how much money the gas industry spends on media and lobbying, they cannot captivate the national conversation. Read the rest of this entry »
Blue Monday
Pennsylvania has leased a full one-third of its 2.1 million-acre forest system for oil and gas drilling – that’s 700,000 acres – and more than 130,000 acres are for Fracking.
Nevertheless, Don Hopey reported in today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that Governor Corbett has pink-slipped the Executive Director of the PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Citizens Advisory Council, Kurt Leitholf, “having determined that determined this position was no longer needed.” Read the rest of this entry »
As Chevron Corporation moves in to frack the EU nation of Bulgaria, several thousands flooded the streets and squares of major cities, brandishing loaves of bread, beating drums and blowing whistles. The protest, which was organized by the grassroots environmental group, Fracking Free Bulgaria, was meant to be a wake up call to citizens: “No to shale gas, Yes to nature!” was the cry. Protestors were also calling on lawmakers to model France’s moratorium and “Ban Fracking Now!”
Spectacular.
A few days prior to the protests, I received this information from the group:
“The title of the nationwide protest is “Bulgarians, rise up and defend your land!” and aims to make a wake-up call to all of the Bulgarians that are still not aware of the rising environmental catastrophy. Read the rest of this entry »
On Tuesday evening, January 10, 2012 the PA Department of Environmental Protection Secretary, Michael Krancer, once again put the onus on gas companies to protect our land, air and water. The secretary was speaking at Villanova University, at a presentation organized by PA Association of Environmental Professionals and The Pennsylvania Environmental Council, and facilitated by Burack Environmental Law.
To the strident observer, it’s stunning how much faith Secretary Krancer places in the corporate good intentions of shale gas drillers. It’s as if he’s incognizant of the industry’s shoddy track record in Pennsylvania, and how they wracked up a whopping 1.8 average violations per inspection in 2011. Read the rest of this entry »
The Bay Daily is published by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, which is deeply concerned with the immediate and cumulative environmental impacts of gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale. The Susquehanna River is the primary watershed for this already beleaguered, though no less beloved, bay. A recent Bay article by Tom Pelton, Video Investigation of Gas Drilling Sites Reveals Invisible Air Pollution, drew a lot of national attention because it is chock full of infrared footage of compressor stations and drilling sites, clearly showing what we can’t see with the naked eye but nevertheless inhale.
Throughout Pennsylvania, drillers are venting potent yet invisible toxins – Volatile Organic Chemicals like formaldehyde, benzene and toluene – into the very air we breathe. The infrared photos prominently display plumes of carcinogens billowing upwards into our skies. These chemicals are also condensing on our land, frosting our windshields, and finding their way into our crops and streams. Read the rest of this entry »
Senate President Pro Tempore Joseph Scarnati, R-25, Jefferson County, said Tuesday he hopes final passage of impact fee legislation can be achieved before Mr. Corbett’s budget address early next month, reports Robert Swift, Harrisburg Bureau Chief for The Times-Tribune in Senate GOP Leader Sees Crunch Time on Shale. Also according to Swift, Scarnati said, “If it isn’t done, it’s going to be an issue for 2012.” Let’s hope! This landmark piece of legislation should be the issue for 2012. Read the rest of this entry »
John Trallo works for Clean Water Action. He’s a Philly guy, originally, and an accomplished musician. He now hails from Sonestown, PA where he enjoys everything from Thoreau to Elvis Costello. A teacher, tavern philosopher and self-described loose cannon, Trallo has long been opposed to Fracking. He’s been actively engaged in raising public awareness about the need to protect Pennsylvania from the numerous planned and existing shale gas pipelines, gathering lines and compressor stations. Thanks to mutual acquaintance, we became Facebook friends (he has over 600 of them). Mr. Trallo doesn’t post a lot, but when he does, it’s well worth the click. For example, this photo essay Natural Gas Industry in Central PA, In and Around the Pine Creek Valley by Bill Crowell was recently added to his wall with the single, pithy comment, “This says it all.”
Warning: This 3:42 minute montage may cause a chronic lump in your throat and/or cause you to take immediate action.
Keep Tap Water Safe 