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
AFFORDABLE, RENEWABLE, LOCAL, THE PROMISE OF CCAs
Community Choice Aggregation is now an option in six states. In essence, it's a community-owned utility, and because it represents many thousands of customers, it can negotiate a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with an energy provider that is below the retail rate. Paul Fenn, the 'inventor' of CCAs, says they can usually deliver cost savings of around 15 to 20 percent.
But CCAs can deliver much more than low prices, they can also provide communities (municipalities) with an opportunity to build publicly-owned utilities that generate power locally, from renewable resources. Fenn says a successful CCA may generate more than 80 percent of its electricity locally, and reduce grid load by an equal amount.
There are two essential conditions that make a CCA feasible. First, municipalities must be permitted to access data on customer's
energy use from utility companies. This information is needed to negotiate a PPA, and it's even more important if the CCA wants to design a successful locally-produced energy system. Second, CCAs must have an opt-out provision—in other words all consumers in the catchment area are automatically included in the CCA unless they actively decide not to join. Human nature being what it is, only five to ten percent of the public will opt into a CCA, but if customers must opt out, the CCA is likely to capture in excess of 80 percent of the local market.
There are no CCAs in New York yet, but that may be about to change. Earlier this year both the Assembly and Senate voted out legislation that would approve a trial program in Westchester County. The state's Public Service Commission (PSC) has taken up CCAs as a part of its Reforming Energy Vision initiative, and a group, Citizens for Local Power, is lining up municipal support for a CCA in Ulster County.
To facilitate the widespread proliferation of CCAs throughout New York, we need enabling legislation such as the bill introduced by Assembly Member Kevin Cahill in the last session. It would require utilities to share data with municipalities and provide CCAs with the opt-out provision. It would also require CCAs to offer customers power at below the prevailing market rate.
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.
Authors: Avner Vengosh and Robert Jackson, Duke University. Scientists have developed new geochemical tracers that can identify hydraulic fracturing flowback fluids that have been spilled or released into the environment. Oct, 20, 2014
Authors: Gregg P Macey, Ruth Breech, Mark Chernaik, Caroline Cox, Denny Larson, Deb Thomas and David O Carpenter for Environmental Health. October 30, 2014
Crispin Pierce, Kristin Walters, Jeron Jacobson and Zachary Kroening University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire; Accepted for publication in the Journal of Environmental Health (Nov. 2015, in press). Abstract: The rapid growth of hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas extraction in the U.S. has led to more than 140 permitted “frac” sand mines and processing plants in Wisconsin.
This paper was conceived, written and researched collectively by Tom Sanzillo, Lorne Stockman, Deborah Rogers, Hannah McKinnon, Elizabeth Bast, and Steve Kretzmann. With assistance and/or additional contributions from Adam Wolfensohn, and Amin Asadollahi for the Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis, Oct.2014.
Environmental Integrity Project, Oct 22, 2014. This report was researched and written by Eric Schaeffer and Courtney Bernhardt. 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.
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.
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.:
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
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.
Authors:
Sam Gallaher, Doctoral Candidate Jonathan Pierce, Post-Doctoral Scholar Chris Weible, Associate Professor Jennifer Kagan, Graduate Assistant Tanya Heikkila, Associate Professor Benjamin Blair, Research Associate
School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado, Denver, July, 2014
An all-volunteer grassroots organization with members throughout New York and around the country.
METHANE: THE "LOW HANGING FRUIT" OF CLIMATE CHANGE
In an important article, Climate change, Obama, and methane, posted on The Hill, Cornell scientist Robert Howarth chides the president for "once again failing to announce strong, decisive action to combat methane at the recent Climate Summit." Methane, he says, is the "low hanging fruit" of greenhouse gas because the planet responds much more quickly to reductions of methane emissions than to reductions in carbon dioxide.
YOU CAN SEE IT FROM SPACE
Click Image to Enlarge Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Michigan
You can see it from space: A report in Geophysical Research Letters concludes that the 2,500 square mile methane hot spot in America's Southwest is "likely from established gas, coal, and coalbed methane mining and processing."
In 2015 EPA will require oil and gas companies to use "green completion" technology when developing oil and gas wells, and that will help reduce wellhead emissions of methane, but that doesn't begin to address the extent of the problem. If the U.S. is going to get serious about the issue, it must begin by framing it in a way that reflects the urgency of the situation.
First it must bring its estimates of "fugitive emissions" from natural gas production more in line with the work of independent scientists. EPA estimates the figure at 1.2 percent of total natural gas production, but Seth B. Shonkoff, Executive Director of PSE Healthy Energy, recently said, "The most authoritative [scientific studies] say the EPA underestimates methane emissions by about 50 percent."
Second, EPA must stop referencing the global warming potential (GWP) of methane over a one hundred-year time period and, like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, assess its impact over the next twenty years—after all, this is all the time we have if we are to forestall the worst impacts of global warming. This simple recalibration would make it clear that methane emissions currently account for at least 27 percent, not 9 percent, of human-induced greenhouse gas emissions—even supposing EPA's current estimates are otherwise accurate.
An IPPC study found that methane emissions have increased by 150 percent since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution; carbon dioxide emissions have increased by 40 percent over the same period.
Governor Andrew Cuomo has repeatedly said he wants science to decide the fate of fracking, but an investigative report by Scott Waldman posted on Capital New York indicates that officials in his administration, including at least one non-scientist, played a role in rewriting portions of a United States Geological Survey study so that it downplays the risks associated with shale gas extraction.
The study, Occurrence of Methane in Groundwater of South-Central New York State, 2012, was intended to establish a baseline of methane in groundwater in the Southern Tier, a region of the state that the Cuomo administration has considered opening up to hydraulic fracturing. The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) helped fund the study, and that gave the administration access to an early draft of the report—and it used that access to influence the content of the published report.
Waldman cites a reference to hazards associated with gas pipelines and gas storage facilities that was dropped from the final report at the behest of someone in the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. "Everybody has an angle", commented USGS hydrologist Paul Heisig, lead author of the study.
Another change highlighted by Waldman was the addition of a sentence reassuring the reader that "The risk [of drinking water contamination] can be reduced if the casing and cementing of [gas] wells is properly designed and constructed." But that's a very big "if". A 2014 study suggests that the industry may be incapable of reliably designing and constructing leak-proof shale gas wells. Cornell's Anthony Ingraffea led a team that examined records compiled on all the oil and gas wells drilled in Pennsylvania between 2000 and 2012 and concluded that there are structural problems with almost ten percent of the shale wells drilled in Northeast Pennsylvania, the region adjacent to New York"s Southern Tier.
There's no indication that the hard science in the USGS report was altered—a hydrologist examining the data on methane levels would not be misled; but the public, reliant on the USGS for context and interpretation, could be swayed by the spin.
ALBANY—Advocates on both sides of a debate over New York's fracking marotorium are turning up pressure on Andrew Cuomo to make a decision, after having stalled long enough to get his re-election out of the way without any major controversy.
By Wednesday morning, environmentalists were calling fo... [Full Story]
State fees on new natural gas drilling sites will cover most of the costs of capping two old wells in Ohio Township and Kilbuck.
The Commonwealth Financing Authority will give $140,000 to the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy for the project in its Toms Run Nature Reserve, which is in the two town... [Full Story]
Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. announced Thursday it will build an enormous $2.5 billion pipeline project that will quadruple the volume of Marcellus Shale natural gas liquids moving through the Philadelphia area.
[Full Story]
Dust off the oil rigs, fracking can begin in Illinois.
An obscure arm of state government cleared the way Thursday for oil and gas drillers to apply for permits to begin fracking in Illinois, which could find itself the center of an oil boom by next fall if the energy firms that have leased land ... [Full Story]
Local bans on hydraulic fracturing mostly failed on election night — at least in eastern Ohio, where natural gas production in the Utica Shale has been booming and where voters in four municipalities had the option to prohibit it.
Fracking opponents on Tuesday got a lone victory in Athens, wher... [Full Story]
Despite the concerns about wastewater from hydraulic fracturing, it can be difficult to keep track of where the drilling fluids end up. Now a team of researchers claims to have figured out how to trace leaks and spills of fracking fluids—and even detect their presence in treated water.
The method... [Full Story]
In California, fracking is taking the water that farmers need. It’s no anomaly. There is a water conflict looming between industry and agriculture
Which would you rather have: lettuce and carrots for your salads, or affordable gasoline for your car? Affordable food prices or affordable electricit... [Full Story]
JESSICA DESVARIEUX, TRNN PRODUCER: Protesters in D.C. are pointing their finger at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, also known as FERC. They say the regulatory agency, under President Obama's administration, is rubberstamping fracking gas projects without proper oversight and will eventuall... [Full Story]
Denton became the first Texas city to ban hydraulic fracturing Tuesday after a citizen-driven proposition cruised to a landslide victory at the polls.
The election garnered national attention, and the ban is likely to set off a long legal fight.
“The City Council is committed to defending the ordi... [Full Story]
ALBANY—The Green Party appeared to be the big third-party winners in Tuesday’s elections, climbing two spots on the ballot for the next four years, while Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Women’s Equality Party was poised to just squeak by with the 50,000 votes necessary to join the ballot.
With nearly 165... [Full Story]
