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“Gasland” Screening: Protest Fracking [New]

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From a Democracy for America email:

Did you know that the NY Times reports that companies like Halliburton illegally injected over 32 million gallons of diesel fuel underground last year while using the controversial drilling technique known as fracking?

Halliburton and other fracking companies spend millions of dollars every year on fake studies and public relations campaigns to cover up facts like this. But thanks to an amazing new documentary, the truth is starting to come out about fracking.

Josh Fox was working as a filmmaker in Oklahoma when a gas company offered to lease his land to build a natural gas well. Instead of accepting their offer, he traveled the country recording the stories of people who’s lives had been ruined by this dangerous new method of drilling. The result was the Academy Award nominated HBO documentary ‘Gasland’ which has helped spark a movement to regulate hydraulic fracturing.

DFA has teamed up with director Josh Fox to organize Gasland screenings all across the country next Sunday April 17th. Click here to find one near you or host your own.

And then this bit:

Thanks to Dick Cheney’s secret energy task force in 2005, the EPA is prohibited from regulating natural gas drilling under the Clean Water Act. Since then, natural gas drilling has increased exponentially — leaving millions of people at risk for contamination.

The good news is that Democrats in the House and Senate have introduced the FRAC Act which would close the so-called “Halliburton Loophole” and give the EPA the power to regulate these poison toxins and protect America’s drinking water.

DFA members across the country are already gathering signatures in support of the bill both online and offline to deliver early this summer. The oil and gas industry will be fighting us every step of the way to protect their record profits, but the facts are on our side. If we can get the truth about the dangers of fracking then we will win.

FWIW, I could not find the New York Times article mentioned above (maybe someone can find it?). However, while the details might be sketchy, clearing fracking (injecting chemicals into the earth to force out natural gas) has massive potential to pollute and destroy the environment. This looks to be a good way to get educated and to meet like-minded people and activists. If you’re interested, use their screening sign up page.

BlahEhMmmmInterestingFantabulous!

Sunday, 10 Apr, 2011 at 7:17 pm

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  1. The Big Hurt [New]

    Wednesday, 13 Apr, 2011 at 10:57 am

    here

    Fracking Companies Injected 32M Gallons of Diesel, House Probe Finds

    By MIKE SORAGHAN of Greenwire
    Published: January 31, 2011

    Drilling service companies have injected at least 32 million gallons of diesel fuel underground as part of a controversial drilling technique, a Democratic congressional investigation has found.

    Injecting diesel as part of “hydraulic fracturing” is supposed to be regulated by U.S. EPA. But an agency official told congressional investigators that EPA had assumed that the use of diesel had stopped seven years ago.

    “The industry has been saying they stopped injecting toxic diesel fuel into wells,” said Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, who led the inquiry. “But our investigation showed this practice has been continuing in secret and in apparent violation of the [Safe Drinking Water Act].”

    Waxman calculated the amount of diesel based on voluntary disclosures from “service companies” like Halliburton Co. and Schlumberger, which do the “frack jobs” for well operators. On Monday, Waxman and fellow committee members Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) and Ed Markey (D-Mass.) shared their findings in an open letter to EPA officials.
    …
    Congress exempted hydraulic fracturing from EPA regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act in the energy bill of 2005.

    Critics now refer to this as the “Halliburton Loophole.” Halliburton is a major provider of fracturing services and was the chief company lobbying for the exemption at the time.
    …

    http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/01/31/31greenwire-fracking-companies-injected-32m-gallons-of-die-24135.html?pagewanted=all

    and

    Fracking for Natural Gas With Diesel Violated Law, EPA Says

    By MIKE SORAGHAN of Greenwire
    Published: April 13, 2011

    Oil and gas drillers who injected diesel fuel during hydraulic fracturing without a permit broke the law, a U.S. EPA official said today.

    Oil and gas drillers who injected diesel fuel during hydraulic fracturing without a permit broke the law, a U.S. EPA official said today.
    …

    http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2011/04/13/13greenwire-fracking-for-natural-gas-with-diesel-violated-81979.html

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  2. The Big Hurt [New]

    Wednesday, 13 Apr, 2011 at 11:06 am

    also,

    Studies Say Natural Gas Has Its Own Environmental Problems

    By TOM ZELLER Jr.
    Published: April 11, 2011

    Natural gas, with its reputation as a linchpin in the effort to wean the nation off dirtier fossil fuels and reduce global warming, may not be as clean over all as its proponents say.

    Even as natural gas production in the United States increases and Washington gives it a warm embrace as a crucial component of America’s energy future, two coming studies try to poke holes in the clean-and-green reputation of natural gas. They suggest that the rush to develop the nation’s vast, unconventional sources of natural gas is logistically impractical and likely to do more to heat up the planet than mining and burning coal.

    The problem, the studies suggest, is that planet-warming methane, the chief component of natural gas, is escaping into the atmosphere in far larger quantities than previously thought, with as much as 7.9 percent of it puffing out from shale gas wells, intentionally vented or flared, or seeping from loose pipe fittings along gas distribution lines. This offsets natural gas’s most important advantage as an energy source: it burns cleaner than other fossil fuels and releases lower carbon dioxide emissions.

    “The old dogma of natural gas being better than coal in terms of greenhouse gas emissions gets stated over and over without qualification,” said Robert Howarth, a professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell University and the lead author of one of the studies. Mr. Howarth said his analysis, which looked specifically at methane leakage rates in unconventional shale gas development, was among the first of its kind and that much more research was needed.

    “I don’t think this is the end of the story,” said Mr. Howarth, who is an opponent of growing gas development in western New York. “I think this is just the beginning of the story, and before governments and the industry push ahead on gas development, at the very least we ought to do a better job of making measurements.”
    …

    http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/business/energy-environment/12gas.html?pagewanted=all

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