Fossil Fuels: What Is On Your Plate?

Photo: Beth Lily Redwood
bethlilyredwood.com

Do our meals reflect what we believe?  Do we love and respect animals?  Are we eating them?  Food for thought....

 

 

Move toward a more vegan diet.  Start with meatless Mondays!

Help save our planet!



New Video from Environment America: Drilling and Health

Go to environmentamerica.org

Cornell Profs Give Fossil Fuels an "F"

Well pad on Vial Hill Road, Terry Township, Bradford County, PA
Photo: Carol Manuel

Ithaca, NY — The Cornell University Faculty Senate made a strong statement on Wednesday by adopting a resolution that calls for the University to divest its $5.7B endowment from the top 200 fossil fuel holding companies. These companies control the vast majority of the world’s oil, gas, and coal reserves.

Read more here.

Just what is the natural gas potential for New York State?  Here are some great videos to watch:

http://www.nofrackingway.us/2013/11/10/new-york-shale-gas-potential-cornell-presentations-qa/

How much natural gas is actually available in New York State?  Chip Northrup has an answer:

"Short answer, Nowhere near as much as the gas industry lobbyists lead people to believe. Not even fracking close."

Who is Chip Northrup?

Lives in Texas and Upstate New York. Private investor in real estate, Internet, oil and gas, offshore oil rigs, renewable energy technology. Wharton MBA. http://ecowatch.com/2013/northrup-opponent-fracking/ Read Full

 

NO FRACKING WAY, NY!

Vera Scroggins: A Woman To Be Reckoned With!

Published on Dec 7, 2013

In this modern day David vs Goliath story - 62 year old grandmother and anti fractivist Vera Scroggins is singled out and brought to trial by multibillion dollar corporation Cabot Oil and Gas.
It all came to head after she conducted a celebrity tour of the gas fields of Susquehanna County, PA for Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, Susan Sarandon, Arun Ghandi and a host of media. This trial  may well be considered a "SLAPP suit" -Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation - a lawsuit that is intended to censor, intimidate, and silence critics by burdening them with the cost of a legal defense until they abandon their criticism or opposition.
Vera's hearing to determine whether there is a permanent injunction is January 27, 2014. Those who value their first amendment rights should comment and share this video - and attend the court proceedings if possible. Contact veraduerga@yahoo.com for details.

We support Vera Scroggins and her efforts to protect human beings and the planet!

Fracking: Should We Inject Poisons Into the Earth?

Natural Gas Drilling: Bradford County, PA

Published on Jan 13, 2013 FROM THE FRONTLINES welcomes David Bohlander, Accountant and Business Consultant.

Dave's home has been occupied by the gas industry known as "hydrofracking". Living in Wyalusing PA, in the heart of fracking in Bradford County, the water wells on his wife's 7th generation family farm were contaminated after the Slick Water Hydraulic Fracturing began.

Natural Gas Drilling: Noise Pollution> Dehydration Station

Published on Dec 21, 2012 http://www.gdacoalition.org

A video by Scott Cannon

People living by the Chapin Dehydration Station in Monroe Township, Pennsylvania are going through hell. From loud gas releases in the middle of the night, to constant vibrations shaking their homes, its one problem after another. "The opinions expressed in this video do not necessarily reflect the views of Gas Drilling Awareness Coalition."

The Peak Oil Crisis: The Shale Oil Bubble

Will the US be able to sustain oil and gas production long term?  This article casts doubt on this.

"The key question of course is how long production will continue to grow before it inevitably declines. Optimists maintain that we have just scratched the surface of our shale oil reserves and that production will continue increasing for years, if not decades.

 

Realists are not so sure, noting that not only is fracked oil very expensive, requiring circa $80 a barrel to cover the costs of extraction, but that production from fracked oil wells drops off quickly so that new wells have to be drilled constantly to maintain production. Until recently information about just how fast our fracked oil wells were depleting was rather hard to come by, so that the hype about the US becoming energy independent and a major oil exporter became conventional wisdom for most."

Read article, "The Peak Oil Crisis: The Shale Oil Bubble,"  here.

Home page for Post Carbon Institute

 

 

Here's a book worth reading:  Snake Oil: How Fracking's False Promise of Plenty Imperils Our Future

 

SNAKE OIL casts a critical eye on the oil-industry hype that has hijacked America's energy conversation. This is the first book to look at fracking from both economic and environmental perspectives, informed by the most thorough analysis of shale gas and oil drilling data ever undertaken. Is fracking the miracle cure-all to our energy ills, or a costly distraction from the necessary work of reducing our fossil fuel dependence?

Thom Hartmann Show: Fracking (Josh Fox, guest)

Fracking and all that goes with it is an assault on democracy.  It is corporations invading small towns, public forests, cities, anywhere they want, and doing whatever they want to the environment, air, water, soil, and public health.  Are we going to let it continue, or are we going to demand democracy?  Do we have the right to prevent the destruction of our communities?  Yes, we do!

Josh Fox appears at the beginning of the hour, so you don't have to watch the entire show.

One thing Josh said which impressed me:  In Pennsylvania, there are currently 6,000 gas wells.  The projection  is that eventually there will be 180,000 wells in PA. 

So this is only the beginning.

The Fossil Fuel Connection (LINK TV)

Dr. Theo Colborn speaks here about the effects of fossil fuel extraction, both vertical and horizontal drilling, and the dangerous chemicals that are released into the air during the drilling process.   Every time.   Methane is not the only or biggest worry.  Fear toluene and benzene!  The damage to healthy children is a big concern.

Healing: Thinking of Fracking and Mother Earth

In honor of Vera Scroggins, photojournalist and documentarian, a tour de force, and a wonderful human being.   I thought of her when I saw this picture.

The Kochs Love Money At All Costs

The Koch brothers want that Keystone Pipeline to become a reality.  Might it be because they stand to make $100 billion on that pipeline?  Yes, I think so!

Read more here.

Their smiling faces are chilling.

Boomtowns a Nightmare For Law Enforcement

Police are increasingly unable to respond adequately to the enormous increase in emergency calls in areas where gas drilling is ocurring. This is a story from North Dakota.

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/politics/2013/10/why-energy-boomtowns-are-nightmare-law-enforcement/7274/

The gas industry causes more problems than just fracking.  The industry would love it if we all continued ranting against fracking, and then poo-pooing that,  while the industry is causing all kinds of havoc in other ways.  The industry is skilled at fooling us and throwing out many red herrings.

Last Hours: A Short Documentary by Thom Hartmann and others

Published on Sep 28, 2013

"Last Hours" is the first in a series of short films that explore the perils of climate change and the solutions to avert climate disaster. Each subsequent film will highlight fact-based challenges facing the human race, and offer solutions to ameliorate these crises. The initial short film series will culminate in a feature film to be presented prior to COP21, the 2015 UN Conference on Climate Change in Paris.

An asset for the climate change movement, "Last Hours" will be disseminated globally to awaken modern culture worldwide about the various dangers associated with climate change.

"Last Hours" describes a science-based climate scenario where a tipping point to runaway climate change is triggered by massive releases of frozen methane. Methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, has already started to percolate into the open seas and atmosphere from methane hydrate deposits beneath melting arctic ice, from the warming northern-hemisphere tundra, and from worldwide continental-shelf undersea methane clathrate pools.

Burning fossil fuels release carbon that, principally through greenhouse effect, heat the atmosphere and the seas. This is happening most rapidly at the polar extremes, and this heating has already begun the process of releasing methane. If we do not begin to significantly curtail the use of carbon-based fossil fuels, this freed methane threatens to radically accelerate the speed of global warming, potentially producing a disaster beyond the ability of the human species to adapt.

This first video is designed to awaken people to the fact that the earth has experienced five major extinctions in the deep geologic past -- times when more than half of all life on earth vanished -- and that we are now entering a sixth extinction. Industrial civilization with its production of greenhouse gases has the ability to trigger a mass extinction; in the extreme, it could threaten not just human civilization, but the very existence of human life on this planet.

The world community and global citizens urgently need to chart a path forward that greatly reduces green house gas emissions. To take action and follow the pathway to solutions to the climate crisis, you can explore this website and you can also sign-up for future updates. Thank you.

"Last Hours" is presented and narrated by Thom Hartmann and directed by Leila Conners. Executive Producers are George DiCaprio and Earl Katz. Last Hours is produced by Mathew Schmid of Tree Media Foundation, and was written by Thom Hartmann, Sam Sacks, and Leila Conners. Music is composed and performed by Francesco Lupica.

Sunken Hazard - NWF Dives underwater Mackinac Pipelines

Published on Oct 9, 2013

Video footage of Enbridge's 60-year-old tar sands pipelines, strung across the Straits of Mackinac, have never been released to the public. This past July, NWF contracted divers to obtain footage of those pipelines as a way to better understand the integrity and placement. This footage revealed that the pipelines are suspended over the lake bed, some of the original supports have broken away indicating the presence of corrosion and some sections of the pipelines are covered in large piles of unknown debris. The age and location of these pipelines is concerning enough -- it is clear that Enbridge needs to reveal a schedule for replacement. Unfortunately, instead of developing this schedule, Enbridge has increased the pressure and flow on these pipelines in order to ship more tar sands oil back into Canada. That increase in pressure has flown under the radar because Enbridge bypassed critical environmental permitting on the pipeline.

Please consider reaching out to your Senators and let them know that you're concerned about Enbridge's actions and disregard for the safety of the Great Lakes. Please push for a replacement of this pipeline and Environmental Impact Statement through a revised Presidential Permit.

This visual is evidence that our decision makers need to step in and demand a release of information from Enbridge and PHMSA.

Heightening our concern around this pipeline and the company that owns it: despite having cleared our dive work with the U.S. Coast Guard, several Congressional members, and Homeland Security, our staff and the dive crew had uncomfortable interactions with Enbridge representatives. As soon as our team set out on the water, we were quickly accompanied by an Enbridge crew that monitored our every move. This monitoring did not stop at the surface: Enbridge also placed a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) into the water to watch our team.

These actions and our video have raised our level of concern for the general operational behavior of this company and their overall safety culture—including the way they treat the concerned public living near their pipelines. If these aging pipelines rupture, the resulting oil slick would cause irreversible damage to fish and wildlife, drinking water, Lake Michigan beaches, Mackinac Island and our economy.

To make matters worse, the recent shutdown of our federal government has left communities and wildlife with an increased risk of oil spills and failed response because pipeline safety and responding agencies have been scaled back or closed all together. The recent oil spill in North Dakota, of approximately 800,000 gallons, is living proof.

- See more at: http://blog.nwf.org/2013/10/whats-the-condition-of-the-pipeline-beneath-the-straits-of-mackinac-video/#sthash.Untzj1Is.dpuf

Ginormous Compressor Station: Wyalusing, PA

A massive site, still under construction. The Compressor on the left (west) is the CNYOG.
The smaller compressor nearest the road (to the south, or bottom of the photo) seems to be an existing compressor for the TGP300 line. The rest of the complex, with several additional large compressors is apparently in support of the TGP300 Northeast Upgrade Project.

 Check out Bill Huston's blog report here. You will find many maps and pictures (which I can't put up here easily!).  Well worth checking out for yourself. 

 

If you are a member of the Hutchinson family, as I am, this compressor station is across the river from Frenchtown, not very far as the crow flies.  The air pollution from compressor stations is very significant. Also light and noise pollution.  But I am mainly concerned about the air quality.  Our property is not safe with a compressor station like this nearby.  But we may not smell or see anything.  It is there nonetheless.  Yes, we have been fracked on our property.  No, we don't have wells, but we have been fracked, if you get my drift.  Drilling is so much more than just fracking.  The industry would have us focus on fracking only, while it goes about its business of ruining the environment and our property forever.  No going back.

 

Links to more information:

 

Noise Pollution

Toxic Chemicals in the Air

Videos and more

 

And you can search this blog for many more posts from the last few years. Use the "Search this blog" feature.

 

 



Most NYers Do Not Want Gas Wells: New Poll

 

 

52-34% opposed in Upstate NY!

Jessica Ernst: The Consequences of Fracking

[Published on May 21, 2012 ] Jessica Ernst is a scientist who has worked in the oil and gas industry. She discovered first hand the consequences of hydraulic fracturing in her town of Rosebud, Alberta, Canada. Jessica has come to Michigan and to other places around the world to warn communities of the dangers of fracking. For more information please visit: http://banmichiganfracking.org/

Flaring in Lenox Township, Susquehanna County,PA: Hidden Gasses Escaping Into Air

Published on Sep 22, 2013

Cabot/Thomas well, 2351 Station Hill Rd, Lenox, PA
5:20 pm, 9/22/2013

This video was not taken after dark.  It was done with a special camera which enables us to see what is actually being spewed into the air.  These emissions cannot be seen with the naked eye.

Video by Frank Finan

Flaring in North Dakota

Air Pollution Info from Catskill Mountainkeeper

Gas Flaring Impacts in Nigeria

And the list goes on........flaring is harmful in many ways.

 

Pete Seeger at Live Farm Aid 2013

Published on Sep 21, 2013

Pete Seeger performs "This Land is Your Land" with Farm Aid board artists John Mellencamp, Willie Nelson, Dave Matthews and Neil Young live at the Farm Aid concert in Saratoga Springs, NY on September 21, 2013. Farm Aid was started by Willie Nelson, Neil Young and John Mellencamp in 1985 to keep family farmers on the land and has worked since then to make sure everyone has access to good food from family farmers. Dave Matthews joined Farm Aid's board of directors in 2001.

For more information about Farm Aid, visit: http://farmaid.org/youtube

Farm Aid's performances are donated by the artists in order to raise funds and raise awareness for family farmers.

Draw the Line Against Keystone XL: Nebraska

Here is Bold Nebraska's solar-powered barn that is now standing in the route of the pipeline.
 (Photo by Mary Anne Andrei / Bold Nebraska)

 

Yesterday's Keystone XL Pipeline Protest was awesome.  Here is a picture of Bold Nebraska's protest. To visit Bold Nebraska's Facebook page, click here.

 

 

More about 350.org here. 

 

 

STOP THE KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE!

Colorado Floods: Stranded People Near Gas Well Pad

Colorado floods: stranded people on broken road....gas well pad compromised

Thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals have been released into rivers and streams in Colorado.

Sandra Steingraber at Protest Against Tar Sands

Sandra, Jeff and friends joining in one of 350.org's Draw the Line Day of Action on Keystone XL events (200+!) around the country - Trumansburg, NY, this morning.
http://350.org/draw-the-line
 

Tar Sands= No human or environmental benefits, just money for a few, devastation for the many

Bill McKibben on Democracy Now!: Keystone XL Pipeline Protest

Bill McKibben, co-founder and director of 350.org, joins Amy Goodman to discuss "Draw the Line," a national day of action this Saturday to protest the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Already this week on Monday, 13 people were arrested during a protest in Houston in front of the offices of TransCanada, the company behind the controversial project. McKibben has just come out with the new book, "Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist." McKibben argues that Obama’s pending decision on whether to approve or reject the Keystone XL’s construction is a historic opportunity. "If [Obama] says no to the Keystone pipeline, he will be the first world leader ever to say, 'Here is something we are not going to build because of its effect on the climate,'" McKibben says. "It might have the effect of unfreezing the climate negotiations that have been wrecked ever since Copenhagen … Sometimes Obama, correctly, can blame his absurd Congress. But in the case of the Keystone pipeline, he gets to make the call himself. So he darn well better make that call."

Check out Bill McKibben's new book, "Oil and Honey: The Education of an Unlikely Activist."

Earthquake on West Shore of Seneca Lake September 10th

 

 

Did anyone hear about this on the news or in newspapers?  I didn't.

Dear Governor Hickenlooper: Stop Fracking Colorado

A new film premiering May 2014. Here is a teaser narrated by Sandra Steingraber, PhD.

Dr. Steingraber has a natural gift for explaining what actually happens underground during fracking.

Dear Governor Hickenlooper is a compilation of short films about why fracking must be stopped in the state of Colorado. Each film—documentary, horror movie or love story—will convey to the Governor a simple message: THIS IS MY COLORADO.

DGH is a massive collaboration of Colorado creatives—filmmakers, artists and musicians—that will help persuade the Governor that the state of Colorado shouldn’t be fracked with and that another, more sustainable economy is possible—right now. The film will be comprised of 3-7 minute vignettes, each one telling a different perspective on Colorado. Imagine a segment that shows a man who lives to fly fish on CO’s rivers cutting to one that graphically depicts how fracking is impacting Colorado’s rivers; followed by a young farmer happily working to make a living from his/her land; followed by science on how we are fracking our food supply by auctioning off public lands near farms; followed by an interview with a solar expert showing us what’s possible with renewable energy in CO today if we level the energy playing field.

DGH will help shape the energy and economy debate as it screens in theaters big and small across the state and is seen by audiences worldwide on the web via a short film series designed to go viral. The film will implore Governor Hickenlooper to be a hero—the governor that moves us to a renewable energy economy in the nick of time. Films will be housed along with an enlightening blog, articles, and infographics on DearGovernorHickenlooper.com.

 

WE ARE ALL COLORADANS!

Three Years Ago: Massive Gas Pipeline Explosion in CA

A burned-out shell of a car remains after a massive natural gas explosion killed eight and destroyed 38 homes in San Bruno, California, three years ago today. (Photo courtesy National Transportation Safety Board.)

Three years ago September 9th, a massive natural gas explosion devastated a neighborhood in San Bruno, California, killing eight people, injuring 66 others, and destroying 38 homes – and for many area residents and policymakers, more than a few key questions remain unanswered.

Read article here.

Remembering those who died in this horrific explosion three years ago- a disaster that might have been prevented if better safety precautions had been in place.  Pipelines are dangerous. Saftey regulations are not sufficient.

Boulder County Activists Concerned About Flooded Oil, Gas Wells

Photo: Cliff Willmeng

"Inundated along with roads, bridges, houses and farms are thousands of oil and gas wells and associated condensate tanks and ponds in northeast Boulder County and southwest Weld County.
Anti-fracking activists say the industry needs to account for what types of chemicals may be contaminating soil and groundwater in the area around these wells."

Read article from the Boulder News here.

Not much is being reported about these floods in regard to gas and oil wells.  Why?

Disastrous Situation in Colorado as Flooding Washes Over Gas Well Pads

This from Texas Sharon's blog:
http://www.texassharon.com/2013/09/15/is-there-a-media-blackout-on-the-fracking-flood-disaster-in-colorado/

Is there a media blackout?  We are not being informed about this dangerous situation.

Flooding on Colorado gas well pad

Gassed Eyes Common In the Early Alberta Oil Patch

Have you ever heard of gassed eyes?  I had not until yesterday.  Read more about it  here.

Texas Sharon wrote:

"I got gassed eyes in the Eagle Ford Shale. It's horrible. The people who live there have to deal with gassed eyes all the time."

News from Calgary:
SAVE THE DAY – MAY 14, 2014 – for a BIG PARTY!

They are counting down to the 100th anniversary of the discovery of oil in Alberta – just upstream from Black Diamond at Turner Valley.

Watch for more stories about how oil changed the province, and Canada, forever.

http://blogs.calgaryherald.com/2013/09/11/gassed-eyes-common-in-the-early-alberta-oil-patch/

These Are the Sights and Sounds of Hydrofracking: Marcellus Shale

Published on Sep 14, 2013 Next to Homes. Hear the Noise. This is the Fracking Stage. After the months of Drilling. After this usually comes the flaring stage. Noise , traffic, dust. On a normally quiet country road in Forest Lake, Susquehanna County, PA. This is on the Gillingham property. Cabot Gas is the company involved.

Videographer Journalist: Vera Scroggins

I have witnessed this exact scene in Bradford County near my family's home in French Azilum.  This is an area which, until Big Gas arrived, was the most beautiful, pristine, bucolic place I have ever known.  In particular, the night time used to be so quiet and peaceful.  One could actually achieve a blissful state of mind.  Now it is gone.       -Carol Manuel

PS  For those who say we have to do this to survive, I offer two words:  Sustainable Energy.  We have no choice but to develop energy sources that can be sustained into the future.  Otherwise we are nothing but selfish consumers who are not thinking about the welfare of our descendents.  George W. Bush once told an interviewer when asked about his legacy, "I am not worried about that.  I'll be dead."  Let us have more vision than George Bush.  Let us use what creativity and ingenuity we possess and make a better future for our planet.   -Carol Manuel

American Way of Gassing People: The Slow and Painful Way

The people of Port Arthur, Texas, suffer from serious health effects, including cancer and death, due to the oil industry already.  Now with plans for the Keystone XL pipeline, matters will become worse. And we think Syria is unique? 

Read about it here. Reader Supported News addresses the environmental and health problems that come with the oil and gas industry.

A Reader Supported News reader wrote:
"So here we go, off to attack Syria for gassing their own people, when in our own country, we are letting the wealthy corporations pollute to the extent that they bestow even slower, more painful deaths on our own people. Warfare and environmental degradation are two sides of the same coin: man's inhumanity to man."

A House Destroyed: Natural Gas Drilling At Its Finest

Dimock, Pa., Susquehanna County.

Cabot bought the Sautner House through an investment company, and Cabot's name is on the demolition permit posted out front of the house. Cabot made a settlement with the Sautners with a gag order in August 2012. Sautners moved out to NY. The house has been empty for about a year. Why would Cabot demolish it and not answer our questions and enquiries. Are they removing all evidence of this contaminated property and the "symbol" of resistance and protest? The Sautners were the most vocal of the Dimock families who had lost their water after gas drilling.

You can't buy this home in Bradford County, PA

Cabot Oil Demolishes House in Dimock, PA, 9/4/13

Published on Sep 4, 2013 Dimock, Pa., Susquehanna County.

Cabot bought the Sautner House through an investment company and Cabot's name is on the demolition permit posted out front of the house. Cabot made a settlement with the Sautners with a gag order in August 2012. Sautners moved out to NY. The house has been empty for about a year. Why would Cabot demolish it and not answer our questions and enquiries. Are they removing all evidence of this contaminated property and the "symbol" of resistance and protest ? The Sautners were the most vocal of the families in Dimock, who had lost their water after gas drilling.

Video by Independent Journalist Vera Scroggins

So what does Cabot Oil intend to do with this property now?  Perhaps a nice compressor station, or how about a lovely pipe distribution lot or maybe a man camp?  This is a travesty what Cabot has done to the Sautner family.  If Cabot is trying to wipe away the evidence and the history,  they will not succeed.  Too many people know what they have done.

Vera wrote:

 

What I witnessed and videotaped today and awful to watch; This former home of the Sautners, who worked tirelessly to reveal to the world what Cabot and the Gas Industry did to their water, lives, health, community, county and now Cabot is eliminating the evidence.....The whole truth will come forward and Cabot won't be able to hide the truth with settlements and gag orders and propaganda forever.....

Wilma Subra: Who Is She And Why Do We Need To Know?

Wilma Subra, a diminutive grandmother, has long challenged the corporate polluters in one of the nation's most toxic regions.

At 69, Subra is still working to rein in environmental degradation along Cancer Alley, an eye-watering corridor of more than 150 industrial facilities along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge that produce a quarter of the nation's petrochemicals. She's a winner of a MacArthur "Genius grant" who totes her grandchildren to public hearings, giving them crayons to scribble on the back of scientific papers. She's a fighter who has taken on refineries, chemical manufacturers and oil and gas companies, including BP over its cleanup of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010.

The police asked the right question.
"Can you think of anyone who would want to do you harm?" investigators asked Wilma Subra, trying to understand who might have fired a gun at the diminutive grandmother.

Read the full article here.

Vote for her to receive 2012 Louisiana's Cox Conserves Heroes  here.

Gas well truck slides off road, dumps water compound

In Pennsylvania, an accident involving a gas industry truck, which crashed a few hundred feet from a residence,  resulted in a spill which had to be cleaned up by local firefighters and PENNDOT. The driver, a Mr.Grenot, was not injured, but the state Department of Environmental Protection said he spilled 265 gallons of the ethylene glycol, which is used as pipeline lubricant for the gas drilling industry.

"Grenot was descending a steep grade on Pleasant Hill Road in a truck with a trailer containing a diluted ethylene glycol solution, the same chemical compound as anti-freeze. He was en route to the Hufnagel hydraulic fracturing well about a half-mile from the accident site.

As Grenot attempted to make a bend about a half-mile south of Route 488, the trailer began to slide, which pulled the entire vehicle off the road and into a nearby field, according to police.
Wurtemburg-Perry Township Volunteer Fire Department Assistant Chief Brian Partridge said the accident might not have occurred if Grenot had been more familiar with the road he was on...."

Read article here.

The article mentions that perhaps the driver was not familiar enough with the terrain and may have been driving too fast.  Also the road was slippery from the effects of heavy truck traffic combined with hot weather, causing the tar to bubble. In my opinion, gas industry trucks go too fast and do not know the roads well enough, or perhaps they are simply not using the proper caution.  I have witnessed what I would call unsafe driving first hand when I was almost driven off the road by a large truck.  It is very frightening.  These drivers work long hours and may feel under pressure to deliver their loads as quickly as possible.  Accidents are common.  Trucks add to the dangers of the natural gas industry, and are a constant worry to local citizens.

Fracking: Mr. President, Please Come To PA To See For Yourself

Please watch and share this video. Then take action!
http://TinyURL.com/MessageToObamaFromVera
1: Share it. 2: Contact the Whitehouse. Message:
President Obama ...please watch "Message From Vera in Pennsylvania" on Youtube channel Shaleshock.
Whitehouse Switchboard (202-456-1414) public comment line (202-456-1111)


http://youtu.be/yRcEG78TV9M

How Gas Wells Leak: Power Point By Chip Northrup

Golden Age of Flammability: Colbert Speaks Out

The Colbert Report
Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Video Archive

Unfair Share: How Oil and Gas Drillers Avoid Paying Royalties

by Abrahm Lustgarten
ProPublica, Aug. 13, 2013

"Don Feusner ran dairy cattle on his 370-acre slice of northern Pennsylvania until he could no longer turn a profit by farming. Then, at age 60, he sold all but a few Angus and aimed for a comfortable retirement on money from drilling his land for natural gas instead.
It seemed promising. Two wells drilled on his lease hit as sweet a spot as the Marcellus shale could offer – tens of millions of cubic feet of natural gas gushed forth. Last December, he received a check for $8,506 for a month’s share of the gas.

Then one day in April, Feusner ripped open his royalty envelope to find that while his wells were still producing the same amount of gas, the gusher of cash had slowed. His eyes cascaded down the page to his monthly balance at the bottom: $1,690.  Chesapeake Energy, the company that drilled his wells, was withholding almost 90 percent of Feusner’s share of the income to cover unspecified “gathering” expenses and it wasn’t explaining why."

Read the article here.

Two Farmers in Bradford County Tell Their Stories: Fracking

An interview with two PA dairy farmers about their experience with the natural gas industry.

Video by David O. Brown

Changing the Geology Under Our Feet: Risky!

Raising Elijah by Sandra Steingraber

"'When you keep drilling over and over and over again, whether it's into bedrock or into salt caverns, at some point you have fractured the integrity of this underground structure enough that something is in danger of collapsing,' observes ecologist and author Sandra Steingraber, whose work has focused on fracking and injection wells. 'It's an inherently dangerous situation.'"

"What could possibly go wrong when miners, frackers, and drillers reshape the geology beneath our feet? Talk to the evacuees of Bayou Corne, Louisiana." - Tim Murphy, Mother Jones.

 

Doesn't this make perfect sense?  Same with a tooth: The more a dentist drills, fills, caps, etc., a tooth, the more fragile it becomes, prone to cracking and breaking.

Dr. Ingraffea: New York Times

Radioactive Waste in the Genesee River (Upstate NY)

Here is a very important issue that demands our attention:

 

 

Radiation concerns everyone along the Genesee River downstream of Angelica, NY !

(The Genesee River flows north and empties into Lake Ontario.)

The Hyland Landfill in Angelica is along the Genesee River that flows north through Rochester into Lake Ontario. It is one of five in NY State permitted to accept tailings and other waste from fracking operations. Hyland already accepts drill cuttings from PA frack sites and wants to expand the landfill to accept more radioactive fracking waste. The DEC public comment period on this expansion request has been extended to July 21: http://www.dec.ny.gov/enb/20130508_reg9.html#902320000300002

Learn more here: http://www.weebly.com/uploads/8/0/2/5/8025484/hyland_landfill_comment_period_open.pdf

Talking Points for your DEC letters: http://www.weebly.com/uploads/8/0/2/5/8025484/talking_points_hyland_landfill.pdf

More information is available on Gary Abraham's and Rachel Treichler's websites:

http://www.garyabraham.com/Hyland.html and here: http://treichlerlawoffice.com/radiation/index.html

This is urgent! Please submit a comment, however brief, to:

Mary E Hohmann

NYSDEC Region 9 Allegany Sub-Office
182 East Union - Ste 3, Allegany, NY 14706
(716)372-6242

 

 

Thanks to Anna Sears and Nedra Harvey, co-founders for this information.

R-CAUSE (Rochesterians Concerned About Unsafe Shale-gas Extraction)
http://www.r-cause.net/

 

Gasland Filmmaker Josh Fox on Democracy Now

Josh Fox on Gasland Part 2, the Fracking-Earthquake Link & the Natural Gas Industry’s Use of PSYOPs

An excerpt from Democracy Now (7/12/2013 show)
AMY GOODMAN: What did you find in part two? And start by talking about the significance of this Science journal study in relating earthquakes with fracking.

JOSH FOX: Well, first, in terms of earthquakes, which we do cover in the new film because there’s a huge shale play in California, and in fact there’s a Legacy thousand-acre oil field in the center of Los Angeles, which is being drilled and fracked right on top of the Newport-Inglewood fault line—the earthquake study showed that earthquakes far away, you know, on the other side of the planet, could then trigger bigger earthquakes where they have injection well facilities. So, injection well facilities are used for fracking waste. Fracking, you know, creates an enormous amount of wastewater. When they frack the wells with two to nine million gallons per well of fluid and water, that fluid has to come back up and be disposed of somehow. The industry has a huge problem figuring out how to dispose of it, so they inject it back down into the ground. And what the report says is that fault lines are becoming critically stressed by the process of injection wells. It also says that the fracking itself can cause minor earthquakes.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Josh, your original film has provoked quite a bit of effort to discredit some portions of the film, especially the now-legendary portion of people’s faucets catching fire. Can you talk about the efforts of the industry to discredit your work?

JOSH FOX: Well, the oil and gas industry has been attacking the film, the families in the film, the scientists in the film, consistently for the last three years since it came out, and they’re at it again with this new film. It’s extraordinarily disheartening to see that this is their strategy. It’s deny, deny, deny, spread money around, try to influence politicians, spend lots and lots of money in the media to convince Americans that it’s a great idea to drill one to two million new gas wells. Those are the projections. The oil and gas industry has leased more land than the total landmass of California and Florida combined, which means that a lot of those adjacent properties in these 34 states where the drilling campaign is going on are also influenced, so it’s maybe twice that amount of area. It really is shocking that what they’re saying, similar to the way that they attack climate science, that some of these things are a hoax, that they’re not actually true. This is a really blatant attack on the science, on the way that this issue has been reported for the last three-and-a-half years. And they also revealed themselves to be doing some kind of dastardly things in the background without us knowing about it. (End of transcript excerpt)

My comment: One interesting (and disturbing) fact that was brought out in this film: Fresh water being transported to gas well sites is "fresh" because it is new to the site, but it can be anything but fresh. This "fresh" water is brine or treated frac fluid or other such combinations. So the trucks say FRESH WATER on the outside, but are not what the average person would think of as fresh.

A shout-out to Texas Sharon, Sharon Wilson, who is mentioned in the Gasland film in regard to her knowledge of PSYOPS activity in the gas industry! Kudos to this amazing woman who has been a warrior in this fight for more than a decade in Texas. Her story would make an Emmy-award-winning film.

Lathrop Compressor Station Blow Down

The video by Leland Snyder goes on for 13+ excruciating minutes.  Who can live near this kind of industrial activity?  There are diseases caused by sound and noise.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Excessive-Noise-Exposure-Can-Cause-Heart-Disease&id=971096
http://healthmad.com/health/noise-sensitivity-health-effects-of-noise-and-sound/

I think I would go stark-raving mad if I lived near this.   One such blow down, maybe this one, lasted more than 3 hours.

Sanford-Oquaga Concerned Citizens  (S-OCC)
TownOfSanford.org

Gas Bridge To a Cooked Planet: Chip Northrup

Watch the trailer of Josh Fox's brilliant new documentary Gasland Part 2.

Below is Chip Northrup's commentary on the new documentary Gasland Part 2 by Josh Fox.

http://blog.shaleshockmedia.org/2013/07/09/gas-bridge-to-a-cooked-planet/

Northrup provides a lot of great information, including graphs showing what will happen in the near future if we continue to use fossil fuels or if we go to sustainables.

 

Where are we going when there is no more water to drink here on Planet Earth?

The River Twice: New Feature Documentary About the Susquehanna River

Here is the trailer about the amazing new feature documentary by Meryl O'Connor.

Biography

  Meryl OʼConnor has been everything from a clown in Los Angeles to a corporate art director in the high rises of Manhattan to a muralist in Chiapas to a bike messenger in India. She has studied painting in Florence, Italy and attended scholarship summer intensive art programs at Yale, The Art Institute of Chicago and Cal Arts. She received her BA in studio art from NYU in 2004. Upon graduation, she started an art collective with friends in Brooklyn that focused on interactive projects seeking to create spontaneous communities through art and adventure. Her passion for both activism and art making through collaboration and storytelling eventually led her into filmmaking. She graduated from UCLAʼs MFA film production program in 2012, making both documentary and narrative films. Her work has been supported by the Mary Pickford Foundation, the Sony- Streisand fund in recognition of women filmmakers the Jim Morrison fund and the Hollywood Foreign Press. Her short films have played in various international film festivals, including Cannes.

Websites
 meryloconnor.com
www.therivertwice.com

You can help Meryl launch this very important and entertaining documentary. She needs a little financial assistance to get it out in August. Click here to donate.  I have met Meryl, and I know she would appreciate our help.  You will love this film!

 

In the film, Carol Manuel shows family pictures in French Azilum, Bradford County.

Williams/Lathrop Compressor Station, Susquehanna County, PA

With a Flir camera, we can see emissions coming from the compressor station. What is in these emissions? Video by Frank Finan.

Smokey the Bear on Fracking

Fracking at Wood Gas Pad in Dimock

by Vera Scroggins   6/6/2013

This is the Fracking Stage and see all the sand dust in clouds above the site and hear all the noise and see the huge , above-ground impoundment/pool for water for the fracking where the trucks unload their water.

New Pipeline: Silver Lake Township, Susquehanna County, PA

Published on May 21, 2013
Taped 5-20-13. I was coming home yesterday from a funeral and saw this on the road to my home in my township. Ground broken open, trees cut down, 100 ft. swatches cut open and scraped to the ground, mounds of earth dug up. Shocking for me and disturbing. More compressor stations will be coming besides the 21 being built and permitted right now in our county of Susquehanna, Pa.. More pipelines will be coming also. These pipelines connect the gas pads with multiple wells in my area, within a mile of my home.

Video by Vera Scroggins, Independent Journalist/Videographer

"Who'd have thought that people would allow this?"

Dr. Sandra Steingraber: To Drill Or Not To Drill

Published on Apr 16, 2013

Recorded Tuesday, April 9, 2013 at Grace Episcopal Church, Elmira, NY

Dr. Sandra Steingraber is a biologist, author, and Distinguished Scholar in Residence in the Department of Environmental Studies at Ithaca College. Her research and writing focuses on environmental health and, for the past two years, has explored the health and environmental impacts of shale gas extraction. Steingraber has served as a science advisor for several state, federal, and international initiatives, including the California Breast Cancer Research Program, the National Action Plan on Breast Cancer, the President's Cancer Panel, and the Health and Environmental Alliance in the Europe Union. In 2011, Steingraber received a Heinz Award for lifetime achievement and donated the prize money to the anti-fracking movement in New York State, thus becoming a founder of New Yorkers Against Fracking. She is also a founding principal of Concerned Health Professionals of New York.

Decisions related to fracking should be considered with the safety and well-being of Elmira and surrounding area residents in mind. We encourage you to attend this key presentation to hear leading experts discuss the economic, health, environment, and socio-cultural effects that the gas industry has on communities. Those who attend will have an opportunity to address questions and concerns directly to the presenters. The forum offers a rare opportunity for Elmira and area residents, elected officials, and spiritual leaders to become more informed so that they can better answer the question for themselves: To frack or not to frack.

Dr. Janette Barth: To Frack Or Not To Frack

Published on Apr 16, 2013

Recorded Tuesday, April 9, 2013 at Grace Episcopal Church, Elmira, NY

Dr. Jannette Barth is an economist with Pepacton Institute LLC in Croton-on-Hudson, a research and consulting organization. Since 1974, Dr. Barth has been estimating regional and local economic impacts in the United States and the United Kingdom. As an example of her work, Dr. Barth was retained to estimate economic impacts of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Former positions include Chief Economist, New York Metropolitan Transportation Authority, and Consultant, Chase Econometrics/Interactive Data Corporation. Barth has lectured and written extensively on the economic impacts of shale gas development, including a recent peer-reviewed article in the journal, New Solutions.

Decisions related to fracking should be considered with the safety and well-being of Elmira and surrounding area residents in mind. We encourage you to attend this key presentation to hear leading experts discuss the economic, health, environment, and socio-cultural effects that the gas industry has on communities. Those who attend will have an opportunity to address questions and concerns directly to the presenters. The forum offers a rare opportunity for Elmira and area residents, elected officials, and spiritual leaders to become more informed so that they can better answer the question for themselves: To frack or not to frack.

Professor Ingraffea: To Frack Or Not To Frack (April 2013)

Published on Apr 16, 2013

Recorded Tuesday, April 9, 2013 at Grace Episcopal Church, Elmira, NY

Dr. Tony Ingraffea is the Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering and a Weiss Presidential Teaching Fellow at Cornell University. He did R&D at Cornell for the oil and gas industry for 25 years, specializing in hydraulic fracture simulation and pipeline safety, and twice won the National Research Council/U.S. National Committee for Rock Mechanics Award for Research in Rock Mechanics. He became a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers in 1991 and Co-Editor-in-Chief of Engineering Fracture Mechanics in 2005. He won ASTM's George Irwin Medal for outstanding research in fracture mechanics in 2006, and in 2009 was named a Fellow of the International Congress on Fracture. Recently, he has been deeply engaged in informal education regarding the topic of this lecture with over 100 public presentations. He is also President and a founding Member of the Board of Physicians, Scientists, and Engineers for Healthy Energy, Inc. TIME Magazine named him one of its "People Who Mattered" in 2011.

Decisions related to fracking should be considered with the safety and well-being of Elmira and surrounding area residents in mind. We encourage you to attend this key presentation to hear leading experts discuss the economic, health, environment, and socio-cultural effects that the gas industry has on communities. Those who attend will have an opportunity to address questions and concerns directly to the presenters. The forum offers a rare opportunity for Elmira and area residents, elected officials, and spiritual leaders to become more informed so that they can better answer the question for themselves: To frack or not to frack.

Hagy Fracking Lawsuit: February 2013

Published on Feb 19, 2013

 

Pictures & a taped call admitting guilt tell 1,000 words. This movie illustrates how fracking's "catch-22" shields natural gas companies and allows landowners to become collateral damage. The Hagy family in West Virginia had lived for 20 years on 81 rural acres and their water well was tainted and the family became sick after 3 "fracking" wells were drilled in 2008. The family has since vacated their property. SHOW THIS MOVIE TO YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS and ask for smarter state fracking regulations that level the playing field for all parties involved in fracking.

Read the article HERE.

“We just want our day in court.”
      Dusty Hagy of Romance, West Virginia
"In 1989, Dusty and Tamera Hagy bought 81 rural acres in Jackson County, West Virginia. Twenty-one years later, the Hagys sued 4 natural gas drilling firms alleging the natural gas wells drilled on their property in 2008 contaminated their drinking water and caused physical harm."

HUMAN COLLATERAL DAMAGE!  

IS THIS OK WITH US?

Video by Laura Peltier.  Many thanks, Laura.

Frackalypse in Pennsylvania

Published on May 21, 2013
Gas fracking companies revealed in a private PR conference that they're using military psychological warfare tactics (Psyops) on U.S. soil, and described citizens concerned about fracking's threat to health, water and the climate as "an insurgency."

With apologies to Francis Ford Coppola, welcome to Frackalypse Now.
For more information, visit www.DeSmogBlog.com/Fracking

Also check out MarkFiore.com.

Who's Funding the NY League of Conservation Voters?

Look who is funding and sponsoring the NY League of Conservation Voters for its gala this week:

http://nylcv.org/2013_Gala_Sponsors

A few notables:

Chesapeake Energy Corporation
Con Edison
Edward Cox
CSX Transportation
Roz and Richard Edelman
Christopher Elliman/Open Space Institute
Paul Elston and Frances Beinecke
Environmental Defense Fund
Barbara J. Fife
FMC Engineering, P.C./Greg T. Felner, P.E. and Edward T. McCune, P.E.
Lorance Hockert Esq.
Arthur and Marian Imperatore/NY Waterway
Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates
New York State Laborers/James Melius MD
NRG Energy
Structure Tone Inc.
Waste Management

SUPPORTERSAECOM
Cablevision
Carter Ledyard & Milburn LLP
Ann Davlin/Carbon War Room
Dewey Pegno & Kramarsky LLP
Dragados USA
The Durst Organization
Entergy
Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP
Gardiner & Theobald Inc.
General Contractors Association
Gensler
Gibbons P.C.
Hank and Karoly Gutman
Marjorie and Gurnee Hart
Robin and William Hubbard
IUOE Local 94
JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Kasirer Consulting, LLC
Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel LLP
League of Conservation Voters
Liberty Natural Gas LLC
Evan Mason and Garrard Beeney/Sustainable Yards
McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP
National Grid
Nixon Peabody LLP
Nouveau Elevator/Robert Speranza
NRDC
Glenn Pacchiana/Thalle Industries
The Pataki-Cahill Group
Gail S. Port/Proskauer Rose LLP
Roux Associates, Inc.
Sims Metal Management
Spectra Energy
Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP
Damien Tener/Tener Consulting Services LLC
Tishman Construction, An AECOM Company
Tonio Burgos and Associates, Inc.
Transmission Developers Inc.
United Water
Verizon
Walentas Foundation Ltd.
Edward C. Wallace/Greenberg Traurig LLP
Earl D. and Gina Ingoglia Weiner
Weidlinger Associates Inc.
Williams

Something doesn't look right here.

Read more here.

A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood?

Published on May 18, 2013

All this happening on Turnpike Rd., Brooklyn, Susquehanna County, Pa.. Flaring on the Teddick Gas Pad and see the fire damages at the Williams Compressor Station. I gave a Citizen Gas Tour for a group from NJ , who are with the Food and Water Watch Organization and they toured with their placard-decorated Anti-Frack Mobile....

From Vera Scroggins, Independent Media/Journalist

Anti-Fracking Mobile



Fracking: Another Spill in PA

In the span of two months the same gas drilling company, Carizzo Marcellus, has had two accidents in Wyoming County and spilled thousands of gallons of fracking fluid. After the first accident on March 13 released more than a quarter million gallons of fluids and forced the evacuation of three homes, the state Department of Environmental Protection asked the company to halt all operations within the state. But the DEP allowed Carizzo to resume work just a few weeks later, before the agency’s own investigation was complete. Now Carrizo has spilled another 9,000 gallons at a different well site in Wyoming County.


Read the article here.

Flaring a Gas Well In Susquehanna County, PA

Video by Frank Finan. Can you imagine living near this? The peepers are beautiful to listen to, but the roar of that flare and the bright fire ball spoil it. Flaring is harmful to air quality.

Vera Scroggins: Grandmother Superhero

Vera Scroggins, a resident of Susquehanna County, PA, and a tireless, courageous, persistent journalist, has devoted a big part of her life to the education of the public and the pursuit of greedy gas drillers who put profits before human life and the environment and our future generations.  Will our grandchildren have a planet to live on which supports a healthy life?

Fracking Teddick Well in Susquehanna County, PA

Published on Apr 25, 2013

Turnpike Rd., Brooklyn, Pa., Susquehanna County, Pa.. Cabot Gas Site; Fracking several wells. Look up www.marcellusgas.org for any particulars like amounts of waste from every gas well and pad, production amounts, violations; gathered and organized from the DEP site.

Vera Scroggins made this video yesterday.  She knows this area very well and tells us the names of the families who have farms and homes there.  She points out a dairy farm right next to the well pad.  The noise and chaos at this site gives you a very realistic sense of what an industrial site is like.  What if this were next to your home? It is insane.

Run! Run! Run!: A Letter From the Mayor of Dish, Texas

Our Family Summer Home in Bradford County, PA

"Run for your life! Run for the lives, health, safety and well-being of your family members and loved ones!  Run for the value of your estate!  There are billions of dollars under your feet, and people are coming to get it.  They do not care who or what they have to run over or through to get it.  It is an underground gold rush, with you or your property in the way."

"In September of 2011, I visited Ithaca, New York.  Two thoughts kept running through my mind in the several days I spent there.  One, I was glad to see this area up close before it gets destroyed.  Two, these people do not have any idea how much their world is about to change."

Read the entire letter here:

http://www.neogap.org/neogap/2012/07/08/the-flowback-the-costly-consequences-of-hydrofracking/

Happy Earth Day 2013