Pennsylvania Limits Authority of Oil and Gas Inspectors by Abrahm Lustgarten
"Oil and gas inspectors policing Marcellus Shale development in Pennsylvania will no longer be able to issue violations to the drilling companies they regulate without first getting the approval of top officials."
"...the new edict applies only to enforcement actions related to Marcellus Shale drilling and that failure to seek prior approval 'will not be acceptable.'"
“It isn’t meant to be an interference, It’s meant to be a benefit to our constituents and would quite frankly streamline operations."
"Developing Natural Gas in the Marcellus and other Shale Formations is likely to Aggravate Global Warming"
Robert Howarth, Renee Santoro, and Tony Ingraffea
College of Agriculture & Life Sciences
Cornell University
March 15, 2011
"Last week, three Cornell University researchers, Robert Howarth, Renee Santoro, and Tony Ingraffea, gave a seminar about natural gas development and its potential contribution to climate change. Overall, they found that the natural gas industry's carbon footprint plus methane footprint was greater than that of the coal and oil based industries, thus increasing the likelihood that global warming will exacerbated by further implementation of natural gas production. Their findings will be published in the upcoming April edition of Climatic Change Letters, as an addendum to the main journal, Climate Change."
"Natural gas has long been touted as a "cleaner" fuel than oil, simply because less carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere upon burning. However, the principal component of natural gas is methane, which is a much more potent global warming gas than carbon dioxide. During natural gas production a small percentage of methane is released into the atmosphere, either intentionally through venting, or inadvertently through leaks in the pipeline. While methane does not last nearly as long in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, over the short term (20 years as opposed to 100 years), its global warming potential is estimated to be 72 times greater than that of carbon dioxide."
"The researchers looked at the overall life-cycle of natural gas production and compared methane emissions at each stage of production using industry reported data. They also compared emissions between shale gas production and conventional gas. They found that 3.6% to 7.9% of methane from shale-gas production escaped into the atmosphere during venting and leaks, almost two times greater than the emissions from conventional gas. These increased emissions in shale-gas production occured during the hydraulic fracturing of a well and during the drill out following fracturing. Their findings are in conjunction with a November 2010 Environmental Protection Agency report that found that emissions, particularly for shale gas, are larger than previously believed."
"Turns out that drilling shale gas wells puts anywhere from 30 percent to twice as much carbon into the atmosphere as conventional gas wells."
"Carbon dioxide emissions are important, Howarth said, but methane is a more critical problem. Natural gas is 85 to 95 percent methane, a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. No one has measured actual methane emissions from gas wells throughout the various stages, so the Cornell relied on data from the gas industry, the General Accountability Office and EPA."
"When you tally up all the numbers from drilling to production to transport, something like 3.6 to 7.9 percent of the gas from a shale well disappears into the atmosphere over the lifetime of the well. That amount is 30 percent to two times greater than the amount lost during conventional gas production and development."
"We urge caution in viewing natural gas as good fuel choice for the future. Note that both the National Academy of Sciences and the Council of Scientific Society Presidents have urged great caution before proceeding with the development of diffuse natural gas from shale formations using unconventional technology."
The Evidence is Overwhelming The Evidence is Indisputable
Combined with the recent findings of many other trusted scientists such as Conrad Volz of CHEC and Walter Hang of Toxics Targeting: The Filthy Lie Stands Exposed
Natural Gas is... NOT CLEAN NOT CLEANER
NOT a Safe Transition or Bridge Fuel
The Most DANGEROUS of Fossil Fuels
THE WORST OF ALL CHOICES
The Oiligarchs and their sycophant gas-holes will continue to Deny the Truth and sacrifice us all on their Altar of Greed.
"Growing doubts about the safety of high-pressure drilling for natural gas should persuade the Delaware River Basin Commission to extend its drilling ban."
"There is growing evidence that the state's infrastructure cannot cleanse the polluted wastewater that is a byproduct of fracking."
"The gas industry disputes that Marcellus drilling is causing the problem. But concerns also have been raised about water-treatment plants' being unable to filter out radioactive materials from the drilling wastewater."
"It would be illogical for the DRBC to lift its moratorium before the results of the EPA study are known. There should also be a review of the impact in this watershed. The most sensible course for the 15 million people who depend on clean drinking water in the Delaware River watershed is for the DRBC to extend its ban on drilling for now."
"A University of Pittsburgh environmentally based research group disagrees with the state Department of Environmental Protection's study that claims water is not being tainted by radioactive material stemming from Marcellus Shale gas drilling activity."
"Dr. Conrad Volz, director and principal investigator with the Graduate School of Public Health's Center for Healthy Environments & Communities, said the DEP is not doing an adequate job of protecting the public's health."
"On Monday, the DEP released information saying that testing of seven Pennsylvania rivers and streams in November and December revealed levels at or below naturally occurring background levels of radioactivity."
"'There's no way the DEP could make a claim like that based on sporadic water testing,' Volz said Friday."
"Volz said the CHEC will release information Monday it collected on tracking brine treatment at the Josephine facility along Black Lick Creek in Indiana County. That information, he said, includes high levels of barium, strontium and bromides."
"Even higher levels were found coming from sewage treatment plants on the Mon River."
"'They're not made to treat it,' Volz said of those plants. 'They're made to treat human waste. They're not made to break down chemicals and things like that.'"
"'If you don't know the hazards, you must err on the side of protecting people,' he said."
"In yesterday's FracTracker post, CHEC's data manager Matt Kelso told the tale of two stories regarding radionuclides in Marcellus Shale flowback water and in river water as sampled by the PA DEP. As he said “the devil is in the details” and here are the “devil's details” that put both stories into their proper public health context."
"While there is at present considerable scientific inquiry and even controversy regarding the potential of vertical or horizontal fracturing of shale gas reservoirs to contaminate shallow or confined groundwater aquifers (thus exposing municipal or private well water users to chemicals used in the hydrofracturing process and/or toxic elements, organic compounds, and radionuclides that exist in the formation materials); disposal of oil and gas wastewater/ Marcellus shale brine water in sewage treatment plants or inefficient brine wastewater treatment facilities is a direct exposure threat to public health through ingestion, inhalation and dermal absorption exposure pathways."
I have posted a couple of times to express my concern over the urgent problem of radioactivity and our water here in Pennsylvania. They contain numerous stories, reports and videos - see the links below.
We should all be grateful to Ian Urbina and the NY Times for finally bringing attention to this serious and very scary issue.
"Gov. Corbett has charged an advisory commission made up of donors and representatives from the drilling industry with setting Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale gas drilling policy. The Commission members and spouses, their corporate political action committees and company employees have contributed over $1 million to advance Corbett’s political career."
"Walker, who has contributed $184,000 to Corbett’s campaign efforts since 2004, is CEO and owner of Bradford Energy Company and Bradford Coal, which was once among Pennsylvania’s largest coal mining companies. He also owns or has an interest in 12 other companies, including a trucking business and a central Pennsylvania oil and gas company."
“I have written to legislators, to the governor, signed petitions, gone to rallies, and now instead of getting responsibility and representation, we’re being sold out to an industry that doesn’t seem to mind turning Pennsylvania into a third-world country. “
"I don’t have hundreds of thousands of dollars to give to a political campaign. I can’t buy lobby time, and the other things don’t seem to be working.”
"THIS CAN'T BE ABOUT PUTTING MONEY IN THE BACK POCKETS OF THE DRILLERS"
Maya van Rossum is the Delaware Riverkeeper and leads the Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN). She heads a team of dedicated staff and volunteers who monitor the River and all of its tributaries for threats and challenges, and who then take this information and advocate, educate and litigate for protection, restoration and change. The Delaware Riverkeeper and Delaware Riverkeeper Network work to restore natural balance in the River and watershed where it has been lost, and to ensure preservation where it still exists.
In 1994, Maya came to work at the DRN. By 1996, she had been appointed the Delaware Riverkeeper. She testifies before state and national governing bodies, organizes concerned citizens, and keeps a close watch on the Delaware. Often, she is out on the water herself, keeping an eye on the River and looking for signs of pollution and illegal activity.
"There are alternative sources of energy that don't require shale drilling or hydrofracking. There is no alternative for water."
DRN Workshop on DRBC Draft Regulations
"Gas Drilling is probably one of the biggest threats to ever face our river and our region and it is barreling down upon us unless we take some stong action today."
Peter will then present a letter to the office of Governor Tom Corbett requesting a meeting to express his concerns and fears as a citizen and father about the many dangers
of gas drilling in our state.
" I will be riding my bike ~110 miles to Harrisburg from my house in Pine Grove Mills to do my own small part to stand up to Corbett and the gas companies. It just seems like the right thing to do.
"For me this is very personal because I love the forest
"It is also about the quality of our water and air and my hopes and fears as a father.
"I am riding my bike there because because it is better for the forest, for the person, for water, for air, for noise, for the climate, and for all of us than gas trucks, well-pads, natural gas, and frack water are. I am riding my bike because it means something better and brings me in touch with life and living. As a citizen of this commonwealth, the commonwealth's government should help me and my fellow common people to reach the common good.
"After the budget protest I plan to go to the governor's office and request a meeting with the governor.
"I just know that something must be done differently.
'“It was like the science didn’t matter,” Carla Greathouse, the author of the study, said in a recent interview. “The industry was going to get what it wanted, and we were not supposed to stand in the way.”'
"...the agency had planned to call last year for a moratorium on the gas-drilling technique known as hydrofracking in the New York City watershed, according to internal documents, but the advice was removed from the publicly released letter sent to New York."
"Asked why the letter about hydrofracking in the New York City watershed had been revised, an agency scientist who was involved in writing it offered a one-word explanation: “politics.”'
"Now some scientists and lawyers at the E.P.A. are wondering whether history is about to repeat itself, as the agency undertakes a broad new study of natural gas drilling and its potential risks, with preliminary results scheduled to be delivered next year."
POLITICS
&
MONEY
Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
"It has a half-life, where, um, over time, and in some cases very quickly, um, that radioactivity, uh, exists differently. I think that's what was really, um, left out of the article that was a critical part of this compound."
WTF?
For some background and much more information on radiation, water and drilling see my previous post:
