What could possibly be wrong with leaving the safe operation of fracking wastewater pipelines to the folks who produce this toxic pollutant? Of course, that question is facetious. Unaddressed leaks reduce the amount of toxic waste for disposal. Legal remedies for damage are costly to achieve. So, the downside risk is limited if nobody is actively policing the operation of the pipeline. But the expenses of inspection and maintenance come right off the profit line of the operator. What could go wrong indeed!
Yes, Ban It
We are happy to discover some good news about fracking: New Your State has banned CO2 fracking. There’s grumbling about lost economic opportunity, but keep in mind that all of the long-term costs are deferred and externalized. So it’s “other people’s money” that must deal with the health effects, the pollution, and the long chain of expenses related to climate change. The economic opportunity is an illusion cultivated by the energy lobby.
Unfortunately, Pennsylvania has not awakened to the realities. Taxpayers subsidize fracking in so many hidden ways. Fracking does nothing good for locals or the planet.
Economic Benefits = Better Health?
Forbs Magazine is not known for its advocacy of the common good. MediaBiasFactCheck.com says, “We … rate them Mostly Factual in reporting rather than High due to some misleading or false stories related to climate science.” So, we have some skepticism when a feature article suggests that the health problems attributed to fracking may be offset by the generalized benefits of fracking to local economies. It is a sorry state of affairs when the marginal economic benefit of fracking to locals is sufficient to improve their lives enough to show up as more and healthier babies.
Nevertheless, here’s the story. You decide if this report is propaganda or a genuine reason to relax prohibitions on fracking.
Push Back!
The PR firms and energy lobby work relentlessly to promote fracking. They have outsized influence on legislators, particularly at the state and local levels. When the rest of us are disengaged or complacent, bad things happen. Consider Ohio . . .
Huge majorities in Ohio oppose fracking our state parks, but state leaders just ignore all concerns • Ohio Capital Journal
Who do Ohio lawmakers represent in the fracking free-for-all carving up acres of our state parks and public land for oil and gas money? They sure as heck don’t represent the people. Public resistance to fracking in Ohio State Parks is almost universal.
Seasonal Direct Action
“Direct action” is the term that is used to describe protests. Some are benign, like the caroling against fracking described below. Others are disruptive and seek to get in the way of business as usual to bring attention to the issue being protested. Direct actions become more extreme when the stakes are high and civil remedies for injustice are frustrated. Let us hope that direct action, even benign protest, is not necessary to prevent the excesses of the energy industry.
This group will be caroling — but with pointed anti-fracking lyrics.
Commission to decide nominations for Salt Fork, Leesville, bids for Egypt Valley
We need you, and we need your positive energy in person on Monday, December 9, 2024, at 12:15 p.m. at Ohio Department of Public SafetyCharles D. Shipley Building, Atrium1970 W. Broad Stre…
Protesters rally against fracking near Ohio parks
Protesters are gathering at the Columbus Public Safety Building today to voice opposition to plans that could expand fracking activities near the state’s parks. Participants are raising concerns over environmental and health risks, emphasizing the potential dangers to Ohio’s natural spaces. Jenny Morgan, a longtime activist and environmental advocate, highlighted the potential health hazards associated with fracking.…
Greenpeace Gets In the Way
Gutsy Greenpeace protesters in small craft blocked the way to port for a liquid natural gas tanker because the US producer uses fracking. Direct action like this is risky both physically and legally. The rest of us are heartened to see so many people organizing to make our world survivable in the long term and more healthy near-term.
No, not “Good News”
Phys.com, a site that reports science news, spun the finding that earthquakes caused by fracking could be mitigated as “Good News.” This would only be something to celebrate if fracking, or removing fossil fuels from the earth’s crust, was a good and desirable thing. It is not. We are killing the planet.
Those earthquakes that require mitigation are caused by a drilling process that the government permits, knowing that there will be collateral damage to people and the environment. We’d be better off not drilling in the first place.
Good fracking news
Hydraulic fracturing gave the petroleum industry access to ground resources that were previously inaccessible, along with side effects including air emissions, groundwater contamination, adverse health effects and the honestly astonishing phenomenon of human-induced earthquakes.
The magnitudes of many of these quakes are too small for humans to detect, but a number have been directly reported by affected populations, with damage including broken home foundations. Over the last two decades in Oklahoma, there has been a dramatic rise in seismic activity associated with fracking.
Researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey are reporting that regulatory efforts to backfill injection wells with cement and reduce injection volumes have lowered Oklahoma’s induced seismic activity rate. The finding suggests that reducing the depth of wastewater injection could also control seismic activity in other states.
“Each basin is different, but we’ve repeatedly seen the connection between injection depth and the likelihood of inducing earthquakes across the country,” says Robert Skoumal of the U.S. Geological Survey.
Source: Phys.org
Good Fences do NOT Make Fracking a Good Neighbor
Better regulation is not the answer. Nothing good happens to the neighborhood when fracking comes. Bad air, bad roads, bad water, noise, illness, and it’s hurting Mother Earth too. The drill-baby-drill crowd will lie, cheat, deceive, and leave a mess for others to clean up.
Drill for Geothermal?
We would all welcome the use of drilling technology that did no harm and left fossil fuels in the ground while tapping the always-on heat stored in Earth’s core. But, even if we aren’t fracking, and we don’t intend to produce gas or oil, I’m skeptical that we are capable of punching holes through the aquifer without creating paths for nasty stuff to migrate. Though I’m less sanguine than the authors, here is the hopeful article.
Twenty Years of Harm – No Safe Way
“Twenty years after the first gas well was fracked on the Renz farm in Mount Pleasant Township, Washington County, a body of evidence points to the possible correlation between the drilling technique and health harms, ranging from cancers, respiratory ailments, lower birth weights, and cardiovascular disease.”
20 years on, fracking’s potential health impacts eyed
Editor’s note: This is the fourth in a series of stories reflecting on 20 years of gas drilling in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Twenty years after the first gas well was fracked on the Renz farm in Mount Pleasant Township, Washington County, a body of evidence points to the possible correlation between the drilling technique and health […]
Our politicians evade the issue because there is a lot of money in play. They don’t want to draw fire from special interests when elections are close. We ignore the fracking danger at our own peril.