PUBLIC COMMENT: . . . . .

9/8/10

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Howarth calls shale gas "nearly as dirty as coal or dirtier"

On 9-15-10, attending EPA meeting in Binghampton NY, respected professor of ecology and environmental biology, independent researcher Robert Howarth, Ph.D., told a news conference that natural gas extracted from shale is nearly as dirty as coal or dirtier, due principally to methane leaks. This is because methane (which makes up most of natural gas) is far more potent than CO2 in worsening greenhouse effect, global warming and climate change. This is big news in the PR battle the gas industry is waging to convince public that shale gas and its production are "clean and safe." See "Fracturing the Talking Points" on this site for more details including Howarth's preliminary study.

Here's a video clip of Howarth's remarks at Binghamton:

See "EPA Comments" on this site and send your written public comments to the EPA by deadline Sept 28 midnight. Address appears in "Action" section. Copy your comments to EPA to PC and we'll run 'em here.

Lake Wallenpaupack, near Hawley PA. Photo by Dissenta

BRADFORD COUNTY U.S.A. -- HERE COMES OUR FUTURE

90 miles west of the Delaware River Basin, Bradford County's small town of Towanda is overwhelmed by frack trucks and the industrialization of shale gas drilling, with polluted air that stings the eyes and irritates the throat. The nearby town of Wyalusing is curiously deserted, like a scene from "On the Beach," with no pedestrians outdoors enjoying the warm weather because the air is sharp with emissions from diesel trucks and gas wells. Video by Dissenta (Jane Prettyman). Use earphones/earbuds for best sound.

IT'S HAPPENING: Arctic sea ice melting before our eyes

Arctic sea ice is melting much faster than anticipated. The jaw-dropping sight of an ice-free Arctic, once projected to occur towards the end of this century, could instead be witnessed before the end of this decade (if not earlier), with uncertain but mostly dire consequences. Read this article on imminent changes and consequent US national security concerns.

While melting will open Arctic waters to tourism, oil exploration and trade routes, we will also see sea levels rise and multiple complex climate changes associated with warming polar regions affecting North America, Russia and China with adverse effects on food production and subsequent social unrest. It's happening right now -- not decades from now but NOW!

THE NIGHTMARE: HERE'S WHAT FRACKING LOOKS LIKE AND SOUNDS LIKE

We see (and hear) the giant Halliburton pressurizing machines that inject the water, sand and toxic chemical mixture into the well to shatter the shale and release the gas. We see the bright lights illuminating the scene. We see the water and sand trucks lining up to deliver the ingredients for fracking (millions of gallons of water per day, thousands of tons of sand and hundreds of tons of chemicals whose identity Halliburton won't tell us). We see the home directly across the road. We hear the voice of Vera Duerga, the intrepid reporter who has captured so many video documentations of this travesty called shale gas drilling (fracking), until now abstract but now we see and hear the nightmare for what it really is. This is the process former Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney used his office as Vice-President to get exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Air Act and other federal regs because he knew fracking would violate them.

Here's another video of a frack site from two months earlier:

PA CONSTITUTION: ENVIRONMENTAL RIGHTS AMENDMENT

Natural Resources and the Public Estate:
"Article I, Section 27: The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people."

Yet nearly one-third of Penn's public forests have already been leased to private gas drillers (by Rendell admin) to help close the state's budget gap. While the shale gas industry (and politicians who support the industry) argue the sell-off of mineral rights of public forest lands is "for the benefit of all the people" because of promised jobs and other economic benefits, that assertion is rebuttable as the industrial intensity of drilling activities spoils the "clean air, pure water, and the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values" of public forest lands, rendering the main benefits of the Amendment useless.

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9/8/10

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