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Fricken
Fracking
March
01, 2010
I
am sure many of you have seen the advertisement touting oil and
natural gas by the oil companies propaganda machine "Tomorrows
Energy."
Like
that? The oil companies calling themselves "Tomorrows
Energy." We'll, all I can say to that is "Macho Huevos Mas
Grande." Probably misspelled and totally wrong, but you get the
point, (I don't speak Spanish), these guys have Big Tentacles!
So,
here is what we have to look forward too as we harvest this
so-called "Energy of the Future."
Hydraulic
Fracturing, AKA, Fracking. This is the process of injecting chemicals
under extremely high pressure into the ground to force the rock to
fracture releasing what mother nature took hundreds of thousands of
years to put there. Ever wonder why mother nature decided to put it
there in the first place? See: Carbon Pollution, Global Warming,
Climate Change.
So
here we are, not only dealing with the likelihood that carbon
dioxide being released into the atmosphere at the rate of 70 million
tones everyday worldwide
is responsible for climate change, we are also facing a catastrophic
useable water crisis that makes the rest of this stuff look like
childes play, now we are pumping chemicals into the ground contaminating
what little clean water is left. Are we suicidal?
Remember
a thing called The Clean Water Act, (CWA) ? This was a monumental
law passed through the US Congress with the intention of protecting
our water, just the single most important life sustaining element
next to air. Coming in three acts, the first, the Federal Water
Pollution Control Amendments of 1972, second, the Clean Water Act of
1977, and then the Water Quality Act of 1987 was intended to protect
water and stop things like mountain top removal mining and the
process of hydraulic fracture specifically because they both cause
so much damage to underground water supplies. So lets fast forward
to sometime shortly after the theft of the 2000 US Presidential
election, one of the darkest days in US history, (in my opinion),
when we were saddled with the Bush Administration. Remember some talk
about closed door meetings with then Vice President Dick Cheney and
the oil, nuclear, and coal industries CEO's to make US energy
policy?
Well
what do you think happened in those meetings. They shredded the Clean
Water Act and made a mockery of the Environmental Protection Agency
by tying their hands behind their backs. This opened the door to the
oil, nuclear, and coal companies to continue and accelerate their
wholesale environmental destructive process all in the name of greed
and profit. The oil companies got the green light to do what they
wanted making them exempt from the CWA, as did the coal companies
and even the uranium mining companies. They were made exempt from
the CWA. This is nothing short of criminal.
So
back to Fricking Fracking.
Hydraulic
Fracturing is the process of injecting fluid into the underground rock
to fracture or to further fracture already fractured rock to access
oil and natural gas that cannot be readily pumped from the ground.
According to Earthworks, (www.earthworks.org),
"Coalbed fracture treatments use anywhere from 50,000 to
350,000 gallons of various stimulation and fracturing fluids, and
from 75,000 to 320,000 pounds of proppant during the hydraulic
fracturing of a single well. Many fracturing fluids contain
chemicals that can be toxic to humans and wildlife, and chemicals
that are known to cause cancer. These include potentially toxic
substances such as diesel fuel, which contains benzene, ethylbenzene,
toluene, xylene, naphthalene and other chemicals; polycyclic
aromatic hydrocarbons; methanol; formaldehyde; ethylene glycol;
glycol ethers; hydrochloric acid; and sodium hydroxide. Very small
quantities of chemicals such as benzene, which causes cancer, are
capable of contaminating millions of gallons of water." Not
only does this process threaten aquifers, but also has the potential
to trigger seismic events. The process is known to cause
earthquakes.
This
give me a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that the oil companies want
this to be our energy future. We may have plenty of gasoline, but no
clean water to drink.
There
is much information on the internet if you want to know more. Also,
there is a new documentary by Josh Fox called "Gas Land"
that deals with "Fracking". The film won the Special Jury
Prize at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival. I have not seen it yet,
but I feel confident in recommending it. (http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/)
Look
people, I have said it billions of times, there is no excuse for
this activity outside of greed and profit. We no longer need to
pursue this from of energy harvesting. Fight it, call you representatives
in Washington,
tell then how to vote on these issues. Contact the EPA and complain,
Support organizations that are actively fighting these
environmentally devastating practices and those groups that are
educating the public. The ACGE comes to mind.
Mr.
Green
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