Hillary Clinton pokes fracking monster in conservation speech

[Natural Citizen]

This is important. Pay attention to where she's headed with it.

Hillary Rodham Clinton (Spencer Platt / Getty Images / AFP)

Possible presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has continued to distance herself from the Obama administration with a mild criticism of “fracking”, the process that has attracted the wrath of Americans across the country.

Without climbing too far out on a political limb and alienating both sides, Clinton expressed restrained concern about the fracking boom in a speech to the League of Conservation Voters in New York on Monday.

“I know many of us have serious concerns with the risks associated with the rapidly expanding production of natural gas,” Clinton told the crowd.

“Methane leaks in the production and transportation of natural gas pose a particularly troubling threat so it is crucial we put in place smart regulations and enforce them – including deciding not to drill when the risks to local communities, landscapes and ecosystems are just too high.”

Fracking has been linked to groundwater contamination, an increase in earthquakes, extended drought conditions, and a host of health concerns for people and the local environment.

Continued - Hillary Clinton pokes fracking monster in conservation speech

 

[invisible]

Where exactly do you think she's headed with it?
I try to follow this issue as closely as possible, since I live in one of the most fracked areas of the country, with a state government that does everything possible to protect the industry.

 

[Natural Citizen]

Where exactly do you think she's headed with it?
I try to follow this issue as closely as possible, since I live in one of the most fracked areas of the country, with a state government that does everything possible to protect the industry.

She's just testing the waters at the moment, I think. Will have to just wait and see the public debate on it once they get wind of her remarks.

 

[invisible]

She's just testing the waters at the moment, I think. Will have to just wait and see the public debate on it once they get wind of her remarks.

I'm guessing it'll just be continuing to follow the same old playbook: loudly proclaiming to be acting in the public interest, while stacking the deck to favor corporate interests instead. Same thing that happened with getting obombacare passed. Same revolving door of industry shills becoming gov't regulators.

 

[morfeeis]

Fracking has been linked to groundwater contamination, an increase in earthquakes, extended drought conditions, and a host of health concerns for people and the local environment.

Can someone point me in the direction of any peer reviewed research that supports this BS?

 

[invisible]

Can someone point me in the direction of any peer reviewed research that supports this BS?

Yes. I will come up with some links for you, please give me some time to dig for them. There have been several studies done that show fracking to cause earthquakes. A couple of them are readily available online, but unfortunately most of them are behind paywalls (however, there are several articles that reference these). You don't seem to live in a part of the country that is subject to fracking, so you've never had direct experience with this. I live in the middle of fracking central, so I've experienced plenty of fracking earthquakes. I will write more extensively about this in a later post.

As for extended drought conditions, I've never seen mention of an actual study on this, so one must look at the conflicting industry claims. On one hand, the industry claims that it is impossible for any liquids shot down into their fracking hole to ever come back up. On the other, they claim that using millions of gallons of water for each fracking site does not remove that water from the water cycle. They can't have it both ways, either one or the other must be true. If those liquids never come back to the surface, and that water IS removed permanently from the water cycle, then it only stands to reason that this would tend to extend drought conditions.

In before angelatc, Zippy, PRB, and all the rest.

 

[Natural Citizen]

Can someone point me in the direction of any peer reviewed research that supports this BS?

Well. The very nature of science demands that we must continue to question. I can look around for some specific research if you wish.

In the mean time this ought to bring you up to speed on some other critical outliers less discussed...

Family awarded $3 million in first US fracking trial

After three years of legal wrangling, a Texas family has won its case against a company engaged in hydraulic fracturing near their home. The family, which suffered tangible health deterioration after the fracking began, was awarded $3 million.

The lawsuit was definitely not the first levied against a fracking company over health impacts, though it has been common for plaintiffs in such cases to settle with companies along with agreeing to strict gag orders.

Last year, a Pennsylvania family reached a $750,000 settlement with gas companies – Range Resources Corporation, Williams Gas/Laurel Mountain Midstream, and Markwest Energy – after suing them for environmental and health impacts caused by their fracking operations near the gas-rich Marcellus Shale. In exchange for the award, however, Chris and Stephanie Hallowich agreed that no member of their family – even their 7- and 10-year-old children - could comment on the case “in any fashion whatsoever.”

Aside... Lifelong ‘frack gag’: Two Pennsylvania children banned from discussing fracking

"We know we're signing for silence forever, but how is this taking away our children's rights being minors?" Stephanie Hallowich asked the judge.

"I mean, my daughter is turning 7 today, my son is 10."

According to the transcripts, Judge Polonsky, who oversaw the case, was unable to clarify. The family's attorney, Peter Villari, questioned whether the order would be enforceable.

"I, frankly, your Honor, as an attorney, to be honest with you, I don't know if that's possible that you can give up the First Amendment rights of a child," stated Villari.

“These gag orders are the reason [drillers] can give testimony to Congress and say there are no documented cases of contamination. And then elected officials can repeat that,”said Sharon Wilson, an organizer with Earthworks who also spoke with ClimateProgress.

New York's top court rules towns can ban fracking

Municipalities within New York can pass local laws to ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the state’s top appeals court affirmed Monday.

The 5-2 decision this week out of the New York Court of Appeals now means that cities and towns across the Empire State can pass local zoning rules prohibiting the controversial natural gas-extraction process, much to the chagrin of energy companies that accused those restrictions of being illegal.

Dryden and Middlefield — two upstate New York towns — became the target of litigation after fracking operations planned within their borders were preemptively aborted as a result of recently-enacted drilling bans.

Agreeing with three lower courts, the majority of the state’s appellate panel said local officials legally passed the anti-fracking bills.

"The towns appropriately acted within their home rule authority in adopting the challenged zoning laws," the court said. "The zoning laws of Dryden and Middlefield are therefore valid."

This week’s decision now makes New York the second state, behind neighbors Pennsylvania, to affirm that towns can ban fracking as they wish.

"Today the court stood with the people of Dryden and the people of New York to protect their right to self-determination. It is clear that people, not corporations, have the right to decide how their community develops," Dryden Deputy Supervisor Jason Leifersaid in a statement.

 

[invisible]

Can someone point me in the direction of any peer reviewed research that supports this BS?

Ok, here's a few to get you started:

This one is behind a paywall, so it is only an article referencing the study:
http://artsandsciences.colorado.edu...-quakes-linked-to-wastewater-injection-wells/

The massive increase in earthquakes in central Oklahoma is likely being caused by the injection of vast amounts of wastewater from oil and gas operations into underground layers of rock, according to a new study led by Cornell University and involving the University of Colorado Boulder.

For the study, appearing today in the journal Science

Here's another:
http://phys.org/news/2014-10-hydraulic-fracturing-linked-earthquakes-ohio.html

Hydraulic fracturing triggered a series of small earthquakes in 2013 on a previously unmapped fault in Harrison County, Ohio, according to a study published in the journal Seismological Research Letters.

And another:
http://www.usgs.gov/newsroom/article.asp?ID=3819#.VH42XJiLJkg

In a new study involving researchers at the U.S. Geological Survey, scientists observed that a human-induced magnitude 5.0 earthquake near Prague, Oklahoma in November 2011 may have triggered the larger M5.7 earthquake less than a day later. This research suggests that the M5.7 quake was the largest human-caused earthquake associated with wastewater injection.

And another:
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/research/induced/

A team of USGS scientists led by Bill Ellsworth analyzed changes in the rate of earthquake occurrence using large USGS databases of earthquakes recorded since 1970. The increase in seismicity has been found to coincide with the injection of wastewater in deep disposal wells in several locations, including Colorado, Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Ohio. Much of this wastewater is a byproduct of oil and gas production and is routinely disposed of by injection into wells specifically designed and approved for this purpose.

Here's one you can read directly, if you download the pdf:
http://www.ogs.ou.edu/pubsscanned/openfile/OF1_2011.pdf

I think this one is also directly available as a pdf:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2013JB010612/abstract

Hence, we argue that the M5.0 foreshock, induced by fluid injection, potentially triggered a cascading failure of earthquakes along the complex Wilzetta fault system.

There are certainly more of them. I know there was another done on an OH earthquake that occurred in 2011 near Youngstown, if you want to bother to look for it.

I live with these fracking earthquakes all the time. The areas just to the north and east of me experience them on a regular basis. There was another one just a few days ago, in the same location as the big 2011 earthquake (Prague, OK). Several different sources reported it as a 4.7 or 4.8, and the state geological survey (funded by the oil and gas industry) tried to downplay it, saying it was only a 4.2. Most of these are too weak to feel in my location, but not very far north and east of me, they crack walls, foundations, and driveways.

 

[Tod]

If the area is under stress geologically, it only makes sense that fracking could provide the straw that would break the camel's back.

http://time.com/60363/fracking-earthquakes-ohio/

 

[Zippyjuan]

Yes. I will come up with some links for you, please give me some time to dig for them. There have been several studies done that show fracking to cause earthquakes. A couple of them are readily available online, but unfortunately most of them are behind paywalls (however, there are several articles that reference these). You don't seem to live in a part of the country that is subject to fracking, so you've never had direct experience with this. I live in the middle of fracking central, so I've experienced plenty of fracking earthquakes. I will write more extensively about this in a later post.

As for extended drought conditions, I've never seen mention of an actual study on this, so one must look at the conflicting industry claims. On one hand, the industry claims that it is impossible for any liquids shot down into their fracking hole to ever come back up. On the other, they claim that using millions of gallons of water for each fracking site does not remove that water from the water cycle. They can't have it both ways, either one or the other must be true. If those liquids never come back to the surface, and that water IS removed permanently from the water cycle, then it only stands to reason that this would tend to extend drought conditions.

In before angelatc, Zippy, PRB, and all the rest.

The drought issue is not that fracking causes droughts but that fracking requires large amounts of water and a lot of fracking is taking place in states with limited supplies.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/feb/05/fracking-water-america-drought-oil-gas

Fracking is depleting water supplies in America's driest areas, report shows

America's oil and gas rush is depleting water supplies in the driest and most drought-prone areas of the country, from Texas to California, new research has found.

Of the nearly 40,000 oil and gas wells drilled since 2011, three-quarters were located in areas where water is scarce, and 55% were in areas experiencing drought, the report by the Ceres investor network found.

Fracking those wells used 97bn gallons of water, raising new concerns about unforeseen costs of America's energy rush.

"Hydraulic fracturing is increasing competitive pressures for water in some of the country's most water-stressed and drought-ridden regions," said Mindy Lubber, president of the Ceres green investors' network.

Without new tougher regulations on water use, she warned industry could be on a "collision course" with other water users.

"It's a wake-up call," said Prof James Famiglietti, a hydrologist at the University of California, Irvine. "We understand as a country that we need more energy but it is time to have a conversation about what impacts there are, and do our best to try to minimise any damage."

It can take millions of gallons of fresh water to frack a single well, and much of the drilling is tightly concentrated in areas where water is in chronically short supply, or where there have been multi-year droughts.

Half of the 97bn gallons of water was used to frack wells in Texas, which has experienced severe drought for years – and where production is expected to double over the next five years.

Local aquifer levels in the Eagle Ford formation have dropped by up to 300ft over the last few years.

A number of small communities in Texas oil and gas country have already run out of water or are in danger of running out of water in days, pushed to the brink by a combination of drought and high demand for water for fracking.

Twenty-nine communities across Texas could run out of water in 90 days, according to the Texas commission on environmental quality. Many reservoirs in west Texas are at only 25% capacity.

More at link.

 

[Dianne]

If Amerika so damn dumb to even consider Clinton or Romney or Bush as Presidential material; I am so out of this fricken hell hole faster than you can say goodnight... if I can even get out of this dump without being felt off by 5 TSA agents.

 

[Natural Citizen]

If the area is under stress geologically, it only makes sense that fracking could provide the straw that would break the camel's back.

http://time.com/60363/fracking-earthquakes-ohio/

Anybody heard from Tod?

 

[Tod]

Anybody heard from Tod?

I stop in about every day to look at the headlines and check the price of gold, silver, and bitcoin, but don't post or even browse much.