Say No to the Keystone XL Pipeline

President Obama says he’ll veto the latest attempt by Congress to push through the Keystone XL pipeline, but he hasn’t yet committed to rejecting this dangerous proposal outright.

Stop the pipeline permanently!

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."

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/

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.

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/

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.....

Natural Gas Pipeline Explosion in Mexico (26 killed)

Published on Jan 23, 2013

Incredible vision has emerged from a natural gas pipeline explosion in Mexico that killed at least 26 people, showing just quickly the inferno ripped through the plant.

An accidental leak is thought to have caused the September 18 explosion at the Pemex natural gas distribution plant in Reynosa which caused a wall of three-storey high flames to rip through the distribution centre in a the blink of an eye. Footage shows trucks and workers coming into the plant on what appears to be a routine day. The plant, situated near the US border is operated by Mexico's state-owned oil company, Petroleos Mexicanos and the centre distributes gas to a processing plant next door which produces fuel. Eyewitnesses said the ground shook briefly before the pipeline exploded. These moving images show the impact of the blast which is followed by a cloud of thick black smoke and fire which engulfs the entire site in a matter of seconds. "We had to climb the wall from that side because the fire, the heat was reaching us," 18 year old worker Vazquez later told The Seattle Times. Towards the end of the one minute and thirty second clip, a worker can be seen crawling on his stomach under the flames as he attempts to move towards an outbuilding in an attempt to reach safety.

At least 26 people died in the explosion and the fire which followed and another 46 were injured in the blast. Ranches and homes within five kilometers of the site were evacuated, though emergency workers managed to bring the blaze under control before it could spread to the neighboring gas plant.
While gasoline and diesel pipelines are routinely tapped by thieves in Mexico, officials said it was rare for natural gas pipelines to be targeted by robbers.

Renewable Energy Experts: We're On the Titanic

Gas Rush Stories, part 13: Renewable Energy Experts from Kirsi Jansa on Vimeo.
Unconventional gas is being promoted as a bridge technology towards renewable energy future. This episode of Gas Rush Stories asks Harry Lehmann, General Director of the Division of Environmental Planning and Sustainable Strategies at the Federal Environmental Agency of Germany, Patricia DeMarco, Director of Rachel Carson Institute at Chatham University, and Professor Terry Collins from the Institute for Green Science at Carnegie Mellon University to share their views on this topic.
Gas Rush Stories also visits Feldheim, a small village in former East Germany. Feldheim is one of the first 100 percent renewable energy communities in Germany.
WWW.GASRUSHSTORIES.COM

The village of Feldheim, Germany, is now producing 100% of its energy from renewables.  The town is off the grid.  Unemployment is ZERO percent in Feldheim.  In surrounding communitiesm the unemployment rate is 15-20%. Part of this video tells the story of Feldheim.  It is heartening!  We can produce our energy with renewables.  Why are we not doing this more?

"Green energy is already a viable solution."

Cancer Survivor Addresses Health Effects of Fracking

From The Ithaca Times  Aneta Glover   December 5, 2012

Dr. Steingraber said at an Ovid meeting:

"I am a cancer survivor myself. I was diagnosed at the age of 20 because someone put dry cleaning fluid out back of a machine shop 80 years before and contaminated my town's drinking water. I have been in and out of the hospital for 33 years. I have an exam scheduled for two weeks from now because of an abnormality they saw last time. You don't know how high my medical bills are. But, if you want to talk about costs, not just about kids having to drink contaminated water, kids with cancer at a young age - if you just want to do an analysis … every person with cancer costs tens of thousands of dollars, every child with asthma, every pre-term birth, heart attack, stroke, etc., we have never done those costs to price these out. Right now we don't know the numbers, so we couldn't possibly know what all the costs to fracking would be.”


Read the article here.

Note:  Ovid^® is a global information solutions provider that helps researchers, librarians, clinicians, and other healthcare professionals find important medical information so that they can make critical decisions to improve patient care, enhance ongoing research, and fuel new discoveries.

Natural Gas: Your Daughter's Health or $13,000?

Carol French, dairy farmer from Bradford County, and her husband signed a gas lease in 2006. They had no idea what was to happen to their family, their property, their water, their health, and their business. We must ask ourselves, when confronted with "pro-gassers" and their haughty, greedy ideas, is it really worth giving up your way of life- your home, your health, your means of income, your water and clean air, your child's well-being, just about everything that makes life worth living- for a few thousand dollars? As Carol French says, this doesn't become real until it happens to you.  It doesn't happen to every single family, but who would take a chance? 

I just saw Dickens' "Christmas Carol."  Jacob Marley came back from the dead to try to warn his business partner Ebenezer Scrooge of the error of his greedy, selfish ways.  Do we need to be visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future once again to have the fear of God put back in us?  What is it going to take?  What is it that some people are not getting?  "Christmas Carol" is just a story, but it is based on Dickens' concern for people who lived in his time and were suffering.  It is as timely today as it was when he wrote it.

After the Boom in Natural Gas

The New York Times has published an article today (Clifford Krauss and Eric Lipton) which tells another sad story related to the gas industry. What happens after the drilling is finished and the roughnecks leave town? Here is what is happening in Louisiana where the Haynesville Shale is located: Click here.

"The bust has certainly hit the Haynesville hard. Some local landowners, having spent their initial lease bonuses, are now deeply in debt. Local restaurants and other businesses are suffering steep losses now that so many drillers have left town."

At its peak, Chesapeake Energy ran 38 rigs in the region.  It has drilled more than 1200 wells into the Haynesville (Louisiana and Texas). Now only 2 rigs are in use. The drillers drilled so many wells and extracted so much gas that they have driven the price of natural gas to near-record lows.  The NYT article explains who is making a lot of money and who is suffering financially now.

Protesters: Gas Industry Doen't Mix With Finger Lakes Tourism

Protest in Hector, NY, September 26th

The Corning Leader reported on a protest at Wednesday's dedication at the Hector fire hall of the Seneca Lake Scenic Byway .  A press conference was held by Gas Free Seneca and Hector Clean Waters just yards away at the Hazlitt 1852 Winery. As the ribbon was cut, opening Route 414 as a New York State scenic byway, the protestors stood in the background, unfurling banners.

The point they wanted to get across: Why designate the Seneca wine trail as a scenic byway to help bring more tourists, then allow heavy shale gas drilling and a large-scale LPG storage and distribution facility?

Read the article here.

Dr.Sandra Steingraber narrates this slide show which tells the story of high-volume, slickwater, horizontal hydrofracking, a method of extracting tiny bubbles of natural gas from tight shale, in this case, the Marcellus Shale. In her quiet, sweet voice she describes what is happening under the ground, under our feet, and how this process is destroying our planet. Don't let her quiet voice deceive you. She is telling a devastating story that everyone should hear. This is a crisis of monumental proportions.

Summary: Author Sandra Steingraber, who is at the forefront of efforts to halt fracking across the Marcellus Shale deposits, reads excerpts from her essay about the fiftieth anniversary of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, accompanied by a full portfolio of fracking photos by Nina Berman.

A few comments from viewers: 1 Marc Mullinax on Aug 24, 2012 Last two minutes, with the author’s questions, are very powerful. They should be the same questions we pose to ourselves 2 Ellen Newton Duell on Aug 24, 2012 I am passionately devoted to preventing fracking and use of injection wells for fracking wastewater. Thank you for this excellent article. And deep gratitude to Rachel Carson. 3 joan meierotto on Aug 24, 2012 Very well done. Thank you Sandra and Rachel. 5 Angela Monti Fox, The Mothers Project on Aug 24, 2012 Thanks you Sandra for this wonderful piece that will help us all in providing another voice for this hydrofracking tragedy. An excellent teaching tool to help inform those who are still without real knowledge and truth. Angela Monti Fox 6 John Trallo on Aug 25, 2012 I mourn for my home state, Pennsylvania, the largest continuous stretch of forest land in North America, and for the future generations who will never know the asthetic beauty, pure water, clean air, and way of life that was once Pennsylvania. 7 cyril robinson on Aug 25, 2012 fracking is the pollution that Rachel Carson fought against and the way to remember her is to carry on her fight. We must think of her as ever-present urging us on as a figure likeJoan of Arc with her standard flying as she marches in front of this sacred environmental army. 8 Pauline Matt on Aug 25, 2012 Oh my, Nothing to say…just a deep hurtful cry.

Just a deep hurtful cry....

Loyalsock Creek Ruined by Pipeline Installation

Drilling "Accident" on Loyalsock Creek east of Worlds End State Park in Central Pa. Thank you Gov. Corbett, DEP, DCNR and the inept and Criminally Negligent Williams Co. and it's Contractors for fouling this pristine stream on Labor Day Weekend 2012!

Montrose (PA) Truck Traffic From Gas Industry

Published on Aug 10, 2012 by veraduerga

In Montrose, Pa. , on route 29 , around 6 pm. , through business district. Longest procession yet. I stopped taping at five minutes and it was still going on for another couple of minutes. Frack trucks, sand trucks, water trucks, etc..

New Yorkers do not want this-  I hope.

David Letterman on Fracking: We're Screwed

My grandson on the shore of the Susquehanna River, Bradford County, PA
He can't go there anymore.  It's not safe.

To get to Letterman's comments,  go to about 12:45-14:45.

 http://www.cbs.com/late_night/late_show/video/?pid=3gL2O99nNHw6wJIelsmE_VSvi3YaGP5h

Worth taking a look.

Dimock Speaks, Hydrofracking and Health

Uploaded by rnntv on Feb 14, 2012 An RFL Special Investigation into Hydrofracking. Dimock, PA is a town so divided over gas drilling - the two sides describe the fight as a civil war. On the one hand, there are people who claim the health consequences of hydrofracking are so severe, it contaminated their water and left them unable to have kids. On the other hand, there's people who say it's the best thing that ever happened to Dimock. But no matter which side you speak to...everyone agrees, it's changed their community.

Compressor Station Explosion Kills One

http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20120625/NEWS01/706259928/One-dead-in-explosion-at-BP-compression-station

Article published Jun 25, 2012

One dead in explosion at BP compression station

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By Shane Benjamin

An explosion at a large gas compression station owned by BP killed one worker and seriously injured two others.

The explosion, which occurred at about 8:15 a.m. today at BP’s Piñon Compression Station, temporarily closed U.S. Highway 160 five miles east of Elmore’s Corner.

“At this time the immediate concern is for the people involved,” Julie Levy, a spokeswoman for BP.

Dan Bender, spokesman for the La Plata County Sheriff’s Office, said one was confirmed dead and two seriously injured. There were several other workers on site at the time.

Residents in the area reported hearing the explosion. Bender said there was an explosion but no fire followed. There is no ongoing risk at the facility in conjunction with the explosion, he said.

The highway was reopened after about a half an hour.

The compression station is BP’s largest in La Plata County. The company routinely works with local emergency workers on disaster plans in the event of an explosion.

The compression station is one of two major facilities owned by BP where natural gas is gathered to be put in a pipeline.

It is located in the 35000 block north of Highway 160 near a fire station owned by the Upper Pine Fire Protection District.

Further details were not immediately available.

shane@durangoherald.com

Message from:

Gwen Lachelt, Founder & Director

Earthworks' Oil & Gas Accountability Project
970-259-3353 x 1
505-469-0380

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