Don’t Worry: We’re with the Band
A couple months now removed from the splashy premiere of Josh Fox’s GasLand on HBO, the network appears to be once again ramping up its PR and booking machine associated with selling the on-demand version of the film – with Fox traveling all across the country to hold additional screenings and snapping up follow-up media interviews wherever he goes.
So as Fox and Co. continue their campaign to create an alternate history with respect to a commonly used energy technology that is, in a modern context, responsible for transforming the energy outlook of the United States and the world, we here at EID continue to do what we can to balance their facts fiction with objective facts. Here’s a brief update of what’s been going down recently.
Pittsburgh, PA (Aug. 27)
This past weekend, with the help of local anti-energy activist and Pittsburgh councilman Doug Shields, Fox was on hand for a public screening of GasLand in Frick Park – a 600-acre spot in the heart of Pittsburgh created in 1919 thanks to a $2 million grant from Henry Clay Frick. In case you were wondering, Frick was a Pittsburgh native who made his living in the coal and steel business (Frick and Andrew Carnegie merged companies to create what is today known as U.S. Steel – a huge supporter of the Marcellus). Here’s how our friends over at the Marcellus Shale Coalition responded to the Fox visit:
“…key technologies needed to seize on the opportunities of the Marcellus have been around for a long time, and are aggressively regulated by DEP. Maybe that’s why Secretary Hanger, the state’s top environmental watchdog, took such exception to Josh Fox’s distortions in GasLand, calling him a ‘propagandist,’ and suggesting the film is ‘a deliberately false presentation for dramatic effect.’” (WTAE-TV, Pittsburgh)
Aspen, CO (Aug. 26)
Of course, before he got to Pittsburgh, Fox was making his way around friendly Aspen, Colo. – holding a screening/rally/séance at the Wheeler Opera House in town. Wondering who this “Wheeler” fellow is? Well, he too made a few bucks in the mining industry. And like Frick, he had the community in mind when he built the building that is today the Wheeling Opera House. Following this screening, Lee Fuller, the executive director of EID set the record straight on hydraulic fracturing in the Glenwood Springs Post Independent:
Your readers should understand that hydraulic fracturing has been safely used nationwide over 1.1 million times since it first came into commercial use in 1949. It’s a technology that has never contaminated groundwater, a fact reinforced by top EPA officials as recently as this year. Colorado’s top oil and gas regulator, David Neslin, also confirms “there has been no verified instance of harm to groundwater caused by hydraulic fracturing in Colorado.”
And while Fox claims that “a huge array of chemicals” are used in the fracturing process, the truth is these fluids are composed almost entirely of water and sand — with a small portion of additives (0.05 percent of the mix) used to kill bacteria and reduce friction. These additives can be commonly found in one’s kitchen cupboard and in every day food products, and a list of these are required by federal law to be available at every well site in the nation. And in Colorado, state regulations mandate that operators maintain a precise chemical inventory for each and every well.
Lander and Pinedale, WY (Aug. 5 and 6)
Earlier this month, Fox made two stops in Wyoming, one in the small town of Lander, the other in Pinedale. Once again, EID took to the pages of the local papers to set the record straight – no easy task in 250 words or less. Here’s what EID ended up placing in the Sublette Examiner and Pinedale Roundup:
From the Sublette Examiner:
To watch the “GasLand” documentary is to better understand how it only takes a few well-placed distortions and some nifty intellectual sleight-of-hand to completely rewrite the history on an energy technology known as hydraulic fracturing, which has been used for more than 60 years, not just for the purpose of developing oil and gas wells but to tap geothermal deposits, drill water wells and even by EPA to clean-up Superfund sites… Of course, none of that history comes through in “GasLand.” Earlier this summer, Energy In Depth issued a 4,000-word, point-by-point rebuttal of some of the film’s more specious and sensational claims, and that document remains available on our Web site –energyindepth.org. Watch the film as many times as you like. But don’t think for a second you’re getting the whole truth – not without reading our rebuttal first.
Two days later, the Pinedale Roundup:
I didn’t have the chance to attend the viewing of GasLand at the Pinedale library this past Friday night, but one hopes for accuracy’s sake the film was screened in the “fiction and fantasy” section of the building…Let’s start with the fiction: A commonly used energy technology called hydraulic fracturing is responsible for flammable faucets all throughout the west? Not according to government scientists who collected the water, tested the samples and concluded that methane in the water had nothing at all to do with oil and gas development. Natural gas exploration caused a massive fish kill in Dunkard Creek in Pennsylvania? Not according to the EPA, which issued a report this year identifying water discharges from coal mines as the culprit in that case. The pronghorn antelope is an endangered species in Wyoming? Someone should tell that to Game and Fish – if that were true, maybe there shouldn’t be a hunting season for it.
Of course, EID doesn’t have HBO’s kind of money – so responding to every GasLand showing might prove to be a bit tough. But we’re certainly going to try. Should you hear of a screening in your neighborhood/county, give us a heads up, we’ll do our best to separate the facts from fiction.
State Dept. Takes Lead in Promoting Global Shale Gas Development
Hosts two-day Global Shale Gas Initiative Conference in Washington this week
We’re familiar with names like Barnett, Bakken and Marcellus – but what about Silurian or Changbei? Read up on them, because not too long from now, it’s a good bet we’ll be hearing a lot more about these here in the US. Thanks to the good work of the folks over at the State Department, shale gas went global this week – and below, we recap the event in case you weren’t able to attend. Following are select excerpts of a press conference held earlier this week where David L. Goldwyn, Coordinator for International Energy Affairs at the State Department, runs through what went down:
On the Global Shale Gas Initiative Conference and Countries that Participated:
We’re up to 20 countries and 10 federal entities, as well as state and local regulators. The reason we’re doing this is it’s part of the State Department’s effort to promote global energy security and climate security around the world. The U.S. shale gas phenomenon has transformed global energy markets. Because we have discovered and we have the technology to develop efficiently large quantities of gas from shale, global prices of liquefied natural gas have decreased. Gas has become cheaper. Gas is now competitive with coal on a BTU basis, which means that countries that might use coal can now not make an economic choice, but on a competitive basis choose gas for their next level of power generation.
On Shale’s Role in Providing Energy Security and Affordability Around the Globe:
[T]his has been a terrific boon for ourselves and for global energy security, and other countries want to replicate this process. And we wish them the best in doing this, but there are a lot of things that governments need to know in order to develop shale gas safely and efficiently. And that’s why we organized a regulatory conference where we could teach them what they need to know. Now, their motivation and our motivation as the State Department to engage on this issue should be clear for foreign policy and energy security reasons. Countries around the world need diversity of energy supply. There are countries with millions of people – in fact, tens and some hundreds of millions of people – without access to electricity services. They need a feedstock and they need it for base load energy.
State and Federal Regulations, Safety, Environment:
[W]e have, in our country, an umbrella of laws and regulations that makes sure this is done safely and efficiently. We have federal regulation of air and water. We have state regulation of land use and water. We have the capacity to monitor and to regulate. And even then, there’s the need for enforcement… We’ve also had a representative from the Groundwater Protection Council, and this is an association of state regulators, because in our country, it’s really the states that are on the front lines of safe drinking water regulation. In 33 states, the state leads or co-partners with the Environmental Protection Agency. So we’ve spent a lot of time talking about water, because water is scarce in a lot of these countries.
On Groundwater Protection, Hydraulic Fracturing:
[S]afe water and safe regulation plays a huge part in our discussions. It’s really one of the main reasons that we held the conference in the first place. And while hundreds of thousands of wells have been drilled successfully in the United States so far, the lesson that we want all these countries to understand is that you have to have technically competent people operating and you have to have laws and regulations in place first. We have safe – we have safe – Clean Air Act. We have safe drinking acts. We have rules about where you can drill. We have rules about what sort of casings you have to have. And so, if done responsibly, it can be done safely, but these countries need to know you need laws and regulations in place first. I wouldn’t paint the development with a broad brush.
On the Overall Success of the first Global Shale Gas Initiative Conference:
The bottom line is that we’ve had a really successful conference, because these countries have a lot of questions. People are enthusiastic, but they’re careful. There’s a lot that they need to know and there’s a lot they need to stand up in terms of regulatory capacity before they’re ready to engage in this. And so from our point of view, this has been a big success. We want people to have rational expectations about what they have. We want them to understand that it takes not just good commercial terms but really good government and good governance in order to make sure this is done safely. So it’s another of the examples of our using smart power or creative diplomacy to try and improve energy security, but to help countries learn what they need to know.
NOTE: Click HERE for a full transcript and video of Mr. Goldwyn’s press conference from earlier this week.
State Dept. forum seeks to export promise and potential of shale gas to markets around the world – but will Administration apply same lessons, encouragement here at home?
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EPA’s Fracking Hysteria
Dr. Michael Economides
Aug. 20 2010
- “Though activist campaigns are garnering increasing public interest in the fracking process, two points remain unchanged: its decades-long safety record and its role in America’s prosperity”
- “Environmental and health studies have been conducted for years showing no linkage between fracking and drinking water contamination”
After postponing a hydraulic fracturing (aka “fracking”) hearing slated for upstate New York last week, EPA is planning a new event which reports suggest could turn into a full two-day spectacle sometime in September. Though activist campaigns are garnering increasing public interest in the fracking process, two points remain unchanged: its decades-long safety record and its role in America’s prosperity/ So why all the hype and fervor over a reliable technique that has been around since 1947?
For those that don’t know, fracking is a technique which uses water pressure to create fractures in rock that allows extraction of oil and natural gas. Those who work in the energy industry are rightfully worried that efforts to curb this critical process will also eliminate their jobs. As high unemployment persists — over 7.7 million US jobs lost since the recession began in December 2007 — and the economy struggles to rebound, development of America’s natural gas resources is bringing new investments to communities across the country. In addition to the economic benefits, it is also essential in providing America clean natural gas which fuels public transportation and helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Developing jobs and clean sources of energy are just some of the reasons people are so passionately supportive of hydraulic fracturing.
Yet, some activist groups are singling out the technique in a scramble to blame corporations for poisoning our drinking water. While the fracking process uses chemicals, these claims are unfounded to say the least. The ingredients used in hydraulic fracturing include a small dose of chemicals (0.5%) mixed with water and sand (99.5%). Environmental and health studies have been conducted for years showing no linkage between fracking and drinking water contamination. In a 2004 comprehensive report conducted by EPA itself, federal researchers concluded:
In its review of incidents of drinking water well contamination believed to be associated with hydraulic fracturing, EPA found no confirmed cases that are linked to fracturing fluid injection into CBM wells or subsequent underground movement of fracturing fluids. Further, although thousands of CBM wells are fractured annually, EPA did not find confirmed evidence that drinking water wells have been contaminated by hydraulic fracturing fluid injection into CBM wells.
If the EPA study were not enough to vindicate the fracking process, common sense should. Natural gas formations are thousands of feet below drinking water aquifers so for contamination to occur the fracking solution would have to move through multiple layers of rocks. This would only happen however if the rocks were extremely porous, yet if this were the case the natural gas reservoir would have never existed in the first place. The natural gas would have leaked naturally to the surface over the course of millions of years.
As our officials in Washington monitor the upcoming EPA public hearing let’s hope the scare tactics and rhetoric don’t drowned out the facts and the preponderance of evidence supporting the fracking process. Regrettably as people across America are looking for jobs and struggling to put food on the table, the manufactured controversy surrounding fracking will likely continue. With any luck the unsubstantiated claims by the environmental lobby will not keep us from utilizing our clean natural gas resources or develop a vibrant energy economy here at home.
Economides is among America’s leading energy analysts. A consultant, educator, and PhD petroleum engineer, Economides has done technical and managerial work in more than 70 countries and is a professor at the University of Houston.
NOTE: Click HERE to view this column online.
READ MORE
- Just The Facts: University of Pitt. Prof. Sets the Record Straight on Hydraulic Fracturing
- Just The Facts: Energy Experts, Top Forbes Energy Reporter Debunk “Preposterous” HF Claims
- Fact-Check: Debunking GasLand (Fact Sheet)
- What They’re Saying: Tightly Regulated Hydraulic Fracturing Critical to U.S. Energy Security
- What They’re Saying: Hydraulic Fracturing Turning “Rags into Riches”
- Issue Alert: When Gummy Bears Attack
Graphic: What’s In Frac Fluids?
A Picture’s Worth a Thousand Words – And Hundreds of Thousands of Jobs
The responsible development of clean-burning natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation – enabled by hydraulic fracture stimulation technologies, coupled with advancements in horizontal drilling – continues to be an boon throughout much of Appalachia, where small, rural communities and towns have not experienced genuine, lasting economic growth and prosperity for quite some time. But that’s all changing now thanks to these technologies, which can safely and effectively reach the Marcellus’ abundant, homegrown, job-creating natural gas reserves.
And while some continue to oppose this environmentally-proven and tightly regulated development, and the tens of thousands of good-paying jobs this production is helping to create at a time when economic opportunity is dire, it’s clear that folks throughout the Rust Belt agree that this is a good thing, and that it can – and must – be done responsibly.
Energy production companies, including Chesapeake Energy, continue to hire throughout the region, holding forums for those interested in joining our fight for a more secure energy future and more stable energy prices for American families, seniors and consumers.
Under the headline “Hundreds Want Gas Drilling Jobs,” the Wheeling Intelligencer reports that “For neighbors Shawn Long and Eric Westbrook of Middlebourne, who arrived before 10 a.m. and waited more than an hour to get through the door, the chance for new employment in the Ohio Valley is welcome.”
One attendee at the recent Chesapeake Energy open house said that “This is a great opportunity for around here,” adding that “this (the gas industry) is one of the only things around here. It’s a good thing they (Chesapeake) are here.” Another individual seeking employment noted that “It’s this or the coal mine. I’ve got two kids and a wife I have to take care of,” add that “Any new full-time employment in this area is great.”
We report, you decide — as they say.
Hundreds in WV, Throughout the Rust Belt Want Gas Drilling Jobs … |
… While a Few Use Distortions to Stop Responsible Gas Development, Job Growth |
 (Hundreds Want Gas Drilling Jobs; Wheeling Intelligencer, 8/19/10) |
 (“Protest” in Pittsburgh, Pa.; 8/18/10) |
In 1949, the average cost for a gallon of gasoline was 17 cents. That same year, the First Polaroid Camera was sold for $89.95. And while the Polaroid has certainly had a lasting impact on American society, it was in 1949 when hydraulic fracturing first came into commercial use.
This energy stimulation technology has been safely used to help produce homegrown oil and natural gas more than 1.1 million times. And because of the industry’s commitment to ensure environmental safety, along with commonsense laws and regulations overseeing the process, hydraulic fracturing has never caused groundwater contamination. But despite this remarkable track record of putting the nation on stronger path toward energy security, a host of claims surrounding fracturing continue to persist.
Energy In Depth’s Lee Fuller helped separate the fact from fiction in a Detroit Free Press letter this week:
Fracturing is not new and is not “exempt from federal water laws,” as Olson claims. Shale gas development is regulated under the federal Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, the Community “Right to Know” Act, the Superfund law and by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).
While Olson claims that “Most states, like Michigan, have not evaluated the impacts” of this technology, your readers should know Harold Fitch, director of the Geological Survey (OGS) office at Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality — which regulates every aspect of oil and gas production, including fracturing — has said that “there is no indication that hydraulic fracturing has ever caused damage to ground water or other resources in Michigan.” Fitch notes that “OGS has never received a complaint or allegation that hydraulic fracturing has impacted groundwater in any way.”
Fracturing fluids are made up of more than 99.5% water and sand. A small percentage of fluids used to reduce friction and kill bacteria that are commonly found under one’s kitchen sink, are added. Not only is a list of these fluids mandated by federal law to be available at every well site, many organizations — including Energy In Depth — list them online.
And here’s just a quick snapshot of positive economic benefits that hydraulic fracturing is helping to bring to energy-producing regions of the country that are in desperate need of good-paying jobs and stable energy costs, as well as the commitment from the industry to be good neighbors and stewards of the environment:
- Making good on a promise; Halliburton plant creates jobs. Sun-Gazette. “When ground was broken last August on a cement mixing plant owned by Halliburton off Route 405 in Clinton Township, company officials promised they would bring jobs to this area. The company is making good on that promise, said Perry A. Harris, senior district manager for Halliburton’s northeast U.S. operations. “By year’s end we’ll have 75 to 100 (employees) and (add) another 100 to 150 next year,” Harris said during a recent tour of the plant. … Harris said the company plans to develop another 55 acres nearby that will be home to other Halliburton gas field support operations. “Between the two sites, we’ll (be hiring) 400-plus people over the next two to three years,” Harris said.
- Another Bakken in ND? KXN-TV. “Central Bottineau County is poised to become the hub of a brand new boom. We’ve all become familiar with the Bakken Shale Formation in recent years. That’s the huge oil-rich rock formation that’s triggered a major oil boom centered in the Stanley area. But now, major oil companies are making moves that suggest a second oil boom is in its infancy. Jim Olson reports. Oil wells are not new to Bottineau County. 40 years ago, several successful wells were drilled there. But the work going on this summer on drilling rigs like this could signal the beginning of a major oil rush to the region. Lynn Helms, Dept. of Mineral Resources, says “It’s going to have a major impact.”
- Our commitment to the community. Lock Haven Express, Marcellus Shale Coalition’s Kathryn Klaber. “And while Marcellus development is still in the early stages, many of these benefits are already being realized. According to a recent study released by researchers at Penn State, our industry will help create nearly 212,000 jobs across the Commonwealth over the next decade. Last year alone, Marcellus development was responsible for the creation of 44,000 jobs. To date, landowners have received more than $1.7 billion in royalties and lease payments from Marcellus producers. And this production has also generated close to $400 million in state and local tax receipts – with that number expected to double this year. Many Pennsylvanians are also seeing lower energy rates because of this increase supply, allowing consumers to keep more of what they earn.
- Natural gas fueling economy. Shreveport Times. “The Haynesville Shale is the fourth largest natural gas field in the world. Discovered in 2008, the shale rock is buried as deep as two miles under the ground and in some places can be 500 feet thick. It stretches about 5,000 square miles under most of northwest Louisiana, and experts believe it contains about 245 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, enough to power America for 10 years. Local leaders tout the economic benefits of the shale not just because of the millions of dollars in royalties and leasing bonuses paid to local landowners during the past two years from gas companies scrambling to acquire space to drill, but also new jobs and economic growth have come as a result of the production.
- Anadarko joins team to preserve stream banks. Lock Haven Express. “The Northcentral Pennsylvania Conservancy, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and the Bureau of Forestry have been working with volunteers from Anadarko Petroleum Corp. this week to construct in-stream fish habitat structures along Trout Run, a tributary to Pine Creek. Last fall, Anadarko contributed $10,000 to the conservancy to purchase materials for a stream restoration project in the Pine Creek watershed. Anadarko employees volunteered to help with the installation at the time of the donation. This week, they kept their word with 20 Anadarko staff from Williamsport and Houston pounding sledge hammers , moving rock, and securing silt fabric to create the in-stream structures.
- UGI to spend $300M on drilling project. Citizens Voice. “UGI Corp. plans to invest more than $300 million over the next two years to develop natural gas infrastructure in the Marcellus Shale region, a project that includes a “major pipeline project,” the utility company announced Thursday. UGI officials outlined the move in a one-and-a-half-page news release sent out after normal business hours without providing details of exactly where the company might locate such a pipeline. The project would bring Marcellus Shale producers in the state “improved access to high-value markets,” according to the release.
- Gas Company Overhauling Some Roads. WNEP-TV. “Cabot Oil and Gas is now completely rebuilding some roads before all the trucks show up. It’s a complete transformation along Wickizer Road, a state road near Dimock. Trucks and crews are turning a narrow dirt road into one wide enough to handle big trucks coming and going all the time. Cabot Oil and Gas is doing all the work on that road and other state and township roads in Susquehanna County before there is truck traffic.
Or why the foliation perpendicular to stress in the context of subsurface ductile deformation matters in the debate over shale and hydraulic fracturing
We’ve spent some time over the past couple months taking a critical look at some of the key assertions made in the HBO documentary GasLand, putting forth in that time two separate rebuttal documents that we believe address in a substantive way a number of the misconceptions upon which the film, and its broader political message, is based.
But one of the issues we haven’t tackled yet is the suggestion that fissures made in the process of fracturing a shale formation are so long, and so upwardly vertical, that they have the potential to create conduits (or cleavages) through which fracturing-related fluids can travel to water-bearing formations thousands of feet above – including the water table. In his brief explanation of what the fracturing process is all about, GasLand director Josh Fox includes the following image in his film:
According to Fox, the fracturing process “is like a mini-earthquake,” and “blasts a mix of water and chemicals 8,000 feet into the ground.” At least he gets the depth right. But according to New York Department of Environmental Conservation (page 127 of this document), “No blast or explosion is created by the hydraulic fracturing process. The proppant holds the fractures open, allowing hydrocarbons to flow into the wellbore after injected fluids are recovered.” Guess there’s no need to call in the bomb squad after all.
But basic mechanics aside, the message the director is attempting to advance through the image above is simple: Hydraulic fracturing completely decimates the shale formation, creates massive gaps in the underlying rock, and produces vertical chasms that travel all the way up to the surface. Within that context, it becomes a lot easier to understand how the technology could lead to the drinking water contamination – as long as pathways and pressure exist, who can say for sure what’s actually happening down there, or up here?
Serious geologists have known since time immemorial that such a phenomenon is a virtual impossibility – and so has the EPA, which wrote in 1995 that “given the horizontal and vertical distance between the drinking water well and the closest methane production wells, the possibility of contamination of endangerment of USDWs [underground sources of drinking water] in the area is extremely remote.” And that letter, keep in mind, was in reference to a coalbed methane well – which reside thousands of feet closer to the water table than shale wells.
But thanks to the good folks over at Pinnacle Technologies, we now have some solid data to express this separation in quantitative terms. As reported by Pinnacle general manager Kevin Fisher in July’s edition of the American Oil & Gas Reporter, the following graphs plots actual field data from tens of thousands of fracturing operations conducted over the past decade – this first one, in the Barnett Shale, which shows quite clearly that even the most shallow fissures created through the hydraulic fracturing process remain separated from the water table by more than 3,500 feet:
But that’s just the Barnett, right? Everyone knows there’s no problem out there. Isn’t the real area of concern the Mighty Marcellus – where activists continue to claim that gas, chemicals, salt, metals, and Lord knows what else regularly get dredged up from the depths and beamed into every well, sink and stream in sight? Well, Pinnacle ran the numbers on the Marcellus as well, and although the data set isn’t quite as robust as what you’d find in the Barnett (remember: we’ve been developing that one a bit longer), the story in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio is remarkably similar. To wit:
Here we see an even greater separation between fractures in the underlying rock and sources of potable water above – with the closest the two shall ever meet clocking in at roughly 4,300 feet.
In other words, the deepest formations holding drinking water and the most shallow depth in which you’ll find a fracture in the Marcellus Shale are still separated by the equivalent of three-and-a-half Empire State Buildings – or three Petronas Towers, for our Malaysian friends. And by the way: they’re not exactly separated by air either. Between the two, you’ll find millions of tons of solid, impermeable rock – rock that has for literally hundreds of millions of years acted as an immutable barrier preventing salty water below from communicating with fresh water above.
But just to be sure we got this right, we sent these graphs and data up to Williamsville, N.Y. so that Ph.D. geologist Michael P. Joy might give them a gander and share some technical insights into what makes this phenomenon possible. Below is a (small) excerpt from the email he sent us in reply:
The hydraulic fracturing process creates fractures that are very small, usually an 1/8th inch or less in width. There is not enough pressure that could be exerted on the column of water to create a fracture matrix long enough to reach anywhere close to near surface aquifers. … The gas and water in these deep shale formations exist in hydrostatic equilibrium; the pressure acting down on the formation fluid is equal to the pressure being exerted from the bottom upward and the formation fluids act under the immutable laws of physics and stay in place.
Right. Exactly what he said.
Syracuse Resident on Hydraulic Fracturing: “I just really wish we could have an honest debate here”
Earlier this week, EPA found itself in the unenviable position of having to scramble for an alternate location for hosting its previously scheduled public information session on the shale gas stimulation technique known as hydraulic fracturing.
Of course, it was pure coincidence that the agency settled on the one city in the state whose newspaper ran four separate letters to the editor late last week targeting with misinformation the technology in question.
Syracuse, of course, is the city we’re talking about, and even though New York State has more than 13,000 oil and natural gas wells in operation today – the vast majority of which have been fractured – activists continue to spread misleading information about the 60-year-old technology, and the many state and federal regulations in place to ensure that this process is conducted in a safe and environmentally sound manner.
Last week the readers of Syracuse’s Post-Standard witnessed this effort first hand and in full-force – four letters in a single day. Luckily however, there are folks out there who know the truth, speak the truth and are willing to set the record straight on a technology been deployed over 1.1 million different times without a single confirmed case of groundwater contamination.
Which brings us to the first letter from last week’s Aug. 6 Post-Standard:
“Here are some of the exemptions from the United States federal laws that the natural gas industry can ignore due to the “Cheney loophole” in the Federal Energy Act of 2005: Exemptions of the gas (and oil) industry: 1) the Safe Drinking Water Act, 2) the Clean Water Act, 3) the Clean Air Act, 4) the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act, 5) waste management laws, 6) public right to know provisions of the emergency planning and community right to know act.” – David Kauber, Aurora
Funny thing about these claims? Not a single one is backed up by fact. And no, just because Josh Fox says it’s true, doesn’t mean it is. Local resident Andy Leahy sums it up best in today’s Post-Standard:
“I’m going to have to leave aside the preposterous claims that the oil and gas industry is exempt from the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Superfund law and so on… The history of the Safe Drinking Water Act, on the other hand, carries a slightly more interesting “kernel of truth,” from which the activists have sprouted their claims. For more than two decades since passage in 1974, no one in authority on any state or federal level interpreted underground injection control as encompassing oil and gas well “stimulation,” or fracturing, as had long been routinely deployed during development of these resources… in the late 1990s there was a very effective lawsuit brought by an environmental group having to do with hydraulic fracturing for coalbed methane in Alabama.”
Mr. Leahy goes on to write:
“The Energy Policy Act of 2005, among many other things, rendered this Alabama legal decision ineffective by clarifying congressional intent within SDWA. It said clearly that hydraulic fracturing was not meant, and was never meant, by Congress to be covered under the federal underground injection control program. So that’s the exemption, the so-called “Halliburton loophole.” It just confirmed the status quo, which is that the states remain the primary regulators of oil and gas exploration activity.”
You can imagine the substance of the other three letters – which you can read here if you’d like. But to save you the time, effort and tears, we’ll leave you with this little nugget:
We are a well-informed, intelligent, educated people who are well aware of what we have to lose if the gas companies are allowed to frack within the aquifers of our state. We know that we are exempt from the Clean Water and Clean Air Acts.” – Beverly Ann Scholl, Skaneateles
Sorry, Ms. Scholl, educated people support their arguments with facts, not fiction.
