Tribune-Review  | Saturday, May 17, 2025 5:00 a.m.

Contrary to industry cheerleading, gas is not a better energy option than other fossil fuels. Fracking destroys agricultural and forest land, pollutes air and water and poses serious risks to public health, e.g., seven times the risk of lymphoma and a 20% increase in hospitalizations for children with asthma.

Increasingly, Pennsylvania residents don’t want these industrial operations near their homes, schools or churches. The letter “We need truth on air quality” (May 6, TribLive) challenged area air monitoring results that indicated poor air quality because, the writer noted, some monitors were placed near frack operations. However, approximately 1.5 million Pennsylvania residents live within a half-mile of oil/gas wells, and millions more near compressor stations and processing facilities. A perhaps unintended message was that Pennsylvania residents get it, fracking is a dirty business.

The letter “Data center concerns, opportunities” (May 2, TribLive) supported the proposed Upper Burrell AI site because it will provide its own energy. However, “its own energy” will come from six on-site fracked well pads. All of this is a real concern as research continues to indicate serious health concerns, as violations mount (roughly 25,000 since 2008), and unplugged frack wells are abandoned (171 to date) with plugging expected to cost up to $8.5 billion.

The Trib has reported on local action on zoning ordinance restrictions for solar and wind sites. Is the same consideration being given to frack sites which pose real risks to the land and residents? If not, why not?

Jan Milburn

Ligonier

Midnight Oil

While oil companies continue to extract petroleum from the ground, taking a step back, the health of the carbon extraction industry is not particularly strong. Since 2021, the 5 largest independent oil majors (Exxon, Chevron, Shell, BP and Total) have been in the habit of sending more money back to shareholders than they are developing new business. This is a sign that the corporate brass is less interested in the long-term future of the firm than in extracting value from the present. Even more interesting is the oil majors’ reserves, which in many cases are depleting to less than 10 years: BP has 7.2 years of reserves left, while Chevron has 8.03 and Shell has 9.27 years. Exxon Mobil (12.4 years) and Total (12.6 years) are the only firms that have more than a decade’s worth of juice in the ground, which implies that the business is a sunset industry.

David Fickling, Bloomberg as quoted in NumLock news.

They remain a corrupting influence on US politics, and a threat to environmental sustainability.

Fracking does nothing to improve the landscape, the roads, the air, the water, or the lives of the locals. And energy companies are devious and without honor in these matters. Who will safeguard the parks?

Houston company wins bid to frack under wildlife area in Carroll County

State officials Friday selected a bidder to drill under a wildlife area in Carroll County and opened other state lands to oil and gas development.

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!

Whistleblower Demands PA’s Gov. Fix ‘Completely Unregulated’ Fracking Wastewater Network

A new lawsuit alleges toxic, radioactive waste leaked into a PA family’s water well, uncovering a regulatory abyss for miles of fracking pipelines in the state.

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.

Hochul signs bill expanding New York’s fracking ban

The new legislation prohibits the use of carbon dioxide to extract gas from rock.

“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.…

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.

How Fracking Technology Could Drive a Clean-Energy Boom – Inside Climate News

Next-generation geothermal energy means drilling deep—for heat instead of oil and gas.

As we reel from the ravages of two major hurricanes, and anticipate more and worse, there are still those among us who disbelieve the dire warnings of science. Will we learn to “keep it in the ground” soon enough to save our children?

How Americans feel about hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas

Overall, 44% of Americans support more hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas in the United States, while 53% oppose it.