Some truly stunning news about dangers associated with the ballooning number of abandoned natural gas wells is making the rounds. From the Pulitzer-winning ProPublica investigative team we learn that “…in the last 150 years, prospectors and energy companies have drilled as many as 12 million holes across the U.S. in search of oil and gas. Many were plugged after they dried up. But...
On Sacred Ground: The Fracking of Our National Parks
A whole new front is opening up in the fracking debate, and it involves some of America’s most prized natural treasures. It turns out that dozens of our national parks are at risk from gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region. Most Americans believe our state and federal parks are protected from any sort of industry encroachment, but a look at the fine print shows that many of our national...
Protected Formula?: Senate Bill Gives Frackers an Out on Disclosing Their Chemical Cocktails
More legislative action from the fracking front: A Pennsylvania senator has introduced a bill that would “amend the Safe Water Drinking Act to repeal a certain exemption for hydraulic fracturing.” That sounds like good news, right? But when you read the bill, it seems to add its own loophole big enough to drive a drilling rig through. Sen. Robert P. Casey’s bill seems to require drillers to tell...
Gas, oil in parks could be gold mine for drillers
The Cuyahoga Valley National Park is known for its greenery, its trails, its wildlife, its ledges and its old canal locks.
The 32,950-acre federal park between Akron and Cleveland could become known for something new: more wells for natural gas and oil.
Fielding the state’s ’fracking minefield
This past week, the new head of New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation said gas drilling in the massive Marcellus Shale formation is the most daunting environmental issue the agency has faced in its 40-year history.
Sen. Casey Introduces FRAC Act
WASHINGTON, April 2 – Sen. Robert P. Casey Jr., D-Pennsylvania has introduced the bill (S.587), legislation that would “amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to repeal a certain exemption for hydraulic fracturing.”
Growing Anti-Fracking Movement Pushes Policy Changes
Across the country, in community centers and high school gyms, the tide is turning against the controversial industry practice of fracking – and it’s turning in a way that’s likely to bring about real changes in U.S. environmental policy that not even the BP oil spill could rouse. In part that’s due to the fact that the spill – America’s worst environmental disaster – is a...
Ohioan tells of ‘Gasland’ experience
A three-year saga after a gas well was drilled in his Bainbridge Township neighborhood destroyed his water well and transformed the neighborhood, Irvin Mesmer says.
Mesmer spoke Thursday to about 75 people who gathered in Liberty High School auditorium for his talk and the screening of “Gasland,” an award- winning documentary by Josh Fox about drilling and a method known as hydraulic fracturing.
Grave Concerns Over Fracking Ripple Across Multiple States and Put Federal and State Regulators at Odds
In the absence of federal leadership on the fracking issue, we’re seeing the debate shift to state and local jurisdictions, from New York to Texas. The results reflect the relative clout of environmental concerns, with New York initiating a fracking moratorium while industry-friendly regulators in Texas defend the practice in a high-profile case. The Dow Jones News Service reports that...
Lehigh Valley Sierra Club chairman urges people to oppose Marcellus Shale fracking
BETHLEHEM – Drilling in the Marcellus Shale could make drinking water in the Lehigh Valley flammable, radioactive and full of cancer-causing chemicals, according to the chairman of the Sierra Club of the Lehigh Valley.