Keynote Speaker: David Slottje, Esq, Community Environmental Defense Council.
A one- day action-oriented conference about actions that can taken to prevent collateral damage resulting from fracking activities such as
waste disposal, gas infrastructure, air pollution and road and rail transportation.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 9 AM - 5 PM,
Textor Hall,
Ithaca College,
953 Danby Road,
Ithaca, NY 14850
Register here: The Coalition to Protect Communities from Fracking's Collateral Damage
STUDY: FRACKING DOESN'T CONTAMINATE DRINKING WATER, SHALE GAS WELLS DO
A recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examined eight clusters of drinking water contamination (seven in Pennsylvania and one in the Barnett Shale in Texas) and determined that in each case the underground injection of fracking fluid was not responsible for the elevated levels of methane, ethane, and propane in the drinking water. Instead, the contamination was traced to problems with the construction of the gas wells themselves. These problems include defective cement jobs, defective steel casing, and in one case, well failure. Lead author Thomas Darrah of The Ohio State University characterized this finding as "relatively good news," because improvements in well integrity could potentially reduce the number of contamination incidents.
But this raises an important question—does the industry know how to ensure the integrity of horizontally drilled shale gas wells? Maybe not. Another study (also published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), examined compliance reports for the tens of thousands of gas wells drilled in Pennsylvania between 2000 and 2012 and found that shale gas wells had cement and casing problems far more often than conventional wells. It "predicted cumulative hazards exceeding 40%."
Another caveat: A single study of several water contamination clusters doesn't prove that fracking per se never contaminates drinking water. In the areas of Pennsylvania and Texas that were studied, the fracked gas formations are more than a mile underground. In other parts of the country where there have also been water contamination incidents, fracking has occurred within just a few hundred feet of nearby water wells. For example, in Pavillion, Wyoming, fracking occurred within 1,000 feet of the surface near water wells that are over 750 feet deep. Stanford University's Robert Jackson, coauthor of the water contamination study, told the Billings Gazette"Pavillion is a much more complicated place than where we looked at. The biggest difference is how near the surface the fracking occurred, and how close to people's water it was."
The oil and gas industry has been using the term fracking for more than fifty years, but it has only recently found its way into dictionaries. In fact, it took Merriam-Webster until this month to include the word, along with hashtag and selfie. Fracking, of course, is the abbreviated form of hydraulic fracturing and is defined as "the injection of fluid into shale beds at high pressure in order to free up petroleum resources (such as oil or natural gas)." Merriam-Webster doesn't recognize the term as shorthand for the entire process of unconventional oil and gas extraction, which also includes wellpad construction, drilling etc. Words such as fractivist, which clearly connote opposition to all aspects of unconventional drilling, have not yet found their way into the dictionary.
BRIEFLY NOTED:
The effect of natural gas supply on U.S. renewable energy and CO2 emissions, a study conducted by University of California, Irvine, Professor Christine Shearer and others and published in Environmental Research Letters, concludes that "increased natural gas use for electricity will not substantially reduce U.S. GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions, and by delaying deployment of renewable energy technologies, may actually exacerbate the climate change problem."
Peter Mantius reports on a little-known loophole that permits corporations to avoid paying taxes on their fossil fuel investments. Because these structured investments, known as Master Limited Partnerships (MLPs), are only available for income derived from "depletable" natural resources, wind and solar energy are ineligible. For that reason, Mantius calls MLPs a "reverse carbon tax." The combined market value of these MLPs is now more than $500 billion.
At the end of August, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection released a list of 243 private water wells that were damaged by oil and gas extraction.
Please donate to
Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy,
an all-volunteer grassroots organization.
Now you don't have to install solar panels or a wind turbine to go green. All you have to do is switch your electric bill to Pear Energy. Remember to enter the promo code: catskillcitizen, and Pear will donate $50 to Catskill Citizens.
Nature, Oct, 2014. Authors: Haewon McJeon, Jae Edmonds, Nico Bauer, Leon Clarke, Brian Fisher, Brian P. Flannery, Jérôme Hilaire, Volker Krey, Giacomo Marangoni, Raymond Mi, Keywan Riahi, Holger Rogner & Massimo Tavoni
"Our results show that although market penetration of globally abundant gas may substantially change the future energy system, it is not necessarily an effective substitute for climate change mitigation policy9, 10.:
RT Documentary--53 minutes. Published on Oct 10, 2014
All across the USA people are rising up against fracking. They don’t believe the process is safe and think it causes wide-scale land contamination. Ever more extraction sites are being approved and developed with new plant being built in once idyllic landscapes.
As natural gas extraction expands across the Central Appalachian region, that industrial-scale energy development is encroaching on public lands that are critically important for fishing and hunting. In this report, Trout Unlimited takes a deeper look into those public places, outlining the potential risks posed by gas drilling operations and providing recommendations from sportsmen and women that promote responsible energy development.
Authors: Justin L. Rubinstein, William L. Ellsworth, Arthur McGarr, and Harley M. Benz,
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, October 2014,
Standord Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance and Hoover Institutiion's Shultz-Stephenson Task Force on Energy Policy, posted September, 2014.
by Samuel J. Maguire-Boyle and Andrew R. Barron, Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts (Formerly the Journal of Environmental Monitoring), August13, 2014; abstract.
"To enhance our nations' energy security and reliability and to protect our environment, methane emissions must be reduced. Letter signed by 49 members of Congress. May 14, 2014
The Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization established in March of 2002 by former EPA enforcement attorneys to advocate for effective enforcement of environmental laws. Report Aug 13, 2014
This report provides an After Action Review (AAR) of the Chevron Appalachia LLC Lanco 7H well fire incident. This well fire incident occurred from February 11, 2014 through March 3, 2014.
Report Executive Summary by Earthworks, August, 2014. Earthworks conducted a year-long investigation into how DEP permits and oversees gas and oil operations, what has occurred at certain loca- tions, and the circumstances facing numerous households and communities. - See more at: http://www.earthworksaction.org/library/detail/blackout_summary#.U-O8a1ZD5g0
Authors: Sara Souther, Morgan W Tingley, Viorel D Popescu, David TS Hayman, Maureen E Ryan, Tabitha A Graves, Brett Hartl, and Kimberly Terrell. The Ecological Society of America, 2014.
* Exploitation of oil and gas reserves trapped in shale rock, including the extraction process known as “fracking”, poses substantial and unexplored risks to living creatures
• Understanding the biotic impacts of operations that fracture shale to access reserves is hindered by the unavailability of high-quality data about fracturing fluids, wastewater, and spills or violations
• The risks of chemical contamination from spills, deep well failures, storage leaks, and underground fluid migration are top research priorities
• Cumulative effects of shale development may represent the most severe threats to plants and animals, but are particularly challenging to study
Q20. Switching gears, the State Department of Environmental Conservation - or DEC - is expected to soon issue a decision on whether or not to allow hydrofracking - that is, the proposed method to recover natural gas from parts of upstate New York - to move forward. How much have you heard or read about it - a great deal, some, not very much, or nothing at all?
Q21. Do you support or oppose the Department of Environmental Conservation allowing hydrofracking to move forward in parts of upstate New York?
Q22A. Hydrofracking is too dangerous as it leads to unsafe levels of methane gas being released
Q22B. Hydrofracking is important in order to harvest the abundant supply of natural gas that is otherwise currently inaccessible
OilChange International, July, 2014. Researched and written by Shakuntala Makhijani, with assistance and contributions from Stephen Kretzmann and Elizabeth Bast.
Concerned Health Professionals of NY, July 10, 2014. Contains evidence of risks of air pollution, water contamination, inherent engineering problems, radioactive releases, occupational health and safety hazards, noise pollution, light pollution, strees, earthquake and seismic activity, abandoned & active wells, flood risks, threats to agriculture and soil quality, threats to climate system, inaccurate job claims, increased crime rates, threats to property values and mortgages, inflated estimates of reserves and profitability, disclosure of serious risks to investors, and medical and scientific calls for more study and more transparency.
"Broken Ground" is a project of the David Suzuki Foundation. To learn more about environmental rights in Canada, visit: www.davidsuzuki.org/healthyenvironment
Written by Alvin Singh and Alaya Boisvert, edited by Gail Mainster and Ian Hanington. Site by Point Blank Creative
Interim 2014 Report by Sustainable Development Solutions Network a Global Initiative for the United Nations, July 8, 2014. The Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) is a collaborative initiative to understand and show how individual countries can transition to a low-carbon economy and how the world can meet the internationally agreed target of limiting the increase in global mean surface temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius (°C).
This article attempts to summarise the health concerns and discuss
them within the South African context. Published in the South African Medical Journal, May, 2014.
An all-volunteer grassroots organization with members throughout New York and around the country.
September 20 ~ Tens of thousands of fractivists were among the more than 400,000 marchers who descended on New York City to demand that world leaders take immediate action to address climate change. On the same day, the Global Carbon Initiative reported that worldwide greenhouse gas emissions climbed by 2.3 percent in 2013; U.S. emissions spiked by 2.9 percent.
Photo by Jill Wiener
In a speech before the United Nations the following Tuesday, President Obama noted that, "the climate is changing faster than our ability to address it," and outlined "ambitious" plans to reduce carbon emissions—but he gave no indication that he is ready to abandon his ill-considered "all of the above" energy policy, which because it relies heavily on fracked gas is overloading the atmosphere with methane. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with a heat-trapping potential that is up to eighty-six times more destructive than carbon dioxide.
...AND FRACKTIVISTS VOTE
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Zephyr Teachout made opposition to fracking central to her campaign, and fracktivists returned the favor. Anti-fracking volunteers played a major role in helping her carry more than half of New York's upstate counties. In several counties with robust anti-fracking movements (Tompkins, Otsego, and Sullivan), Teachout trounced Cuomo by a more than two-to-one margin.
But while there's no doubt that anti-frackers have emerged as a potent political force, there were also some sobering results. Incumbent Governor Andrew Cuomo outpolled Teachout in Broome, Chemung, Steuben and Tioga Counties, four of the five Southern Tier counties that his administration has targeted for fracking. Republicans, who overwhelmingly support fracking, were not permitted to vote in the primary.
"Some people say there should be drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale because of the economic benefits. Others say there should not be drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale because of the environmental impact. Which comes closer to your point of view?"
On the day of the record-setting Climate March, we lost one of our own—the indefatigable Hilary Acton, who has been a ubiquitous presence at virtually every hearing, screening, protest, and press event since the Northeast was first threatened by shale-gas extraction. Fracktivist Kelly Branigan spoke for many of us when she said "Hilary, in her quiet way, joined many of us together in this fight against fracking. 'Have you met...?' 'Let me introduce you to....' She would then step back and watch those connections grow and flourish, never seeking the limelight she so deserved. She drove many miles over the years, just to be wherever support was needed, or wherever she could help bring injustice to light. Her hugs were warm and her concern was real. We will miss her deeply."
AN EXPERIENCED drilling rig manager in charge on the day a young man was killed has told a coronial inquest into the man's death that although he was given the title of safety manager with a promotion he had not been told what it meant.
He said he received no formal training from his employer AJ ... [Full Story]
On a recent afternoon, visitors packed into Blue Mountain Brewery, one of three craft breweries in Virginia’s idyllic Rockfish Valley. Couples and families spilled out of the restaurant onto patios and into gardens, sipping Full Nelson Pale Ale, Kölsch 151, Original Nitro Porter, and more.
Above ... [Full Story]
More than 5 million Californians — most of them in Los Angeles and Kern counties — live near an oil or gas well, and expanding drilling in the state could increase their exposure to health risks, according to a report released Wednesday by a national environmental group. [Full Story]
D.J. Parker has been selling methane-trapping systems to oil and gas producers for over 30 years, and as unconventional drilling technologies like hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, have skyrocketed across the U.S., particularly under Barack Obama’s administration, Parker’s business has grown.
“O... [Full Story]
Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio has been promoting a roster of 46 House-passed jobs bills that Republicans say could finally make it to Mr. Obama’s desk if voters put them in charge of the Senate for the first time in the president’s tenure. On Twitter, Mr. Boehner’s hashtag for the initiatives is #... [Full Story]
Some companies breaking up underground shale rock to free trapped oil and gas are using benzene, which can cause cancer, an environmental watchdog group said today.
Benzene isn’t banned in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, although diesel is restricted because regulators determined it may have c... [Full Story]
Federal laws meant to keep drinking water safe require fracking companies to get a permit before using diesel fuel in the drilling process.
Diesel contains a number of chemicals that cause cancer and nerve issues, and the permits are supposed to regulate the length and depth of cement and steel ... [Full Story]
63-year-old anti-fracking activist Vera Scroggins will be back in court next week facing fines and possible jail time in an ongoing fight with one of Pennsylvania’s biggest gas drillers, Cabot Oil & Gas.
Cabot wants Scroggins to be held in contempt of court for allegedly violating an order to sta... [Full Story]
In Denton, Texas, a college town north of Dallas that sits atop the Barnett Shale formation, the fight over a referendum banning fracking within city limits is in the final stretch.
The local ballot initiative has global implications, with the energy sector watching closely.
The turmoil in Den... [Full Story]
Those feisty, litigious climate-hawk kids just won’t go away. Back in 2011, we wrote about a group of witty whippersnappers that filed a lawsuit against the federal government. The premise: The government must take action to protect the atmosphere for future generations.
On Oct. 3, those same fiv... [Full Story]
