Pipeline Sabotage In Bradford County, PA

Police have yet to figure out who is responsible for causing $50,000 in damage to a natural gas pipeline in Bradford County. Troopers say sometime between March 23 and April 12, someone, or a group of people, put a log inside of a natural gas pipeline on Ridge Road, in Orwell Township. Gas pipelines are buried everywhere, and the miles of pipelines increase by the day. They are buried in rural areas, remote ares, places where families live, yet not densely populated. There is no regulation in Class One areas for pipelines. These are areas where homes are not close together, spread out. People angry about the destruction of the land and the danger of pipelines can easily damage or sabotage a pipeline. This is a given and will be true for as long as we have fossil fuels travelling to main gas arteries.

My Body of Water: Don't Frack NY

Don't frack New York State water!

Compressor Stations In Our Backyards?

A leader in the fight against the anti-health, anti-environment, anti-people, greed-filled gas industry speaks at a DEP Public Meeting at Elk Lake School in Susquehanna County.  She and others testified about our concerns. Four more Gas Compressors are coming to Susquehanna County in the north along the Laser Gathering Line. Tons of emissions are allowed for each and constant noise emissions. Taped 4-26-12.

We cannot allow Big Gas to pollute our residential areas.  Gas drilling is unhealthy for children and other living things.

Thank you, Vera, for your work to save Pennsylvania and all areas being destroyed by Big Gas.

Ponzi Gas Frackers

James "Chip" Northrup

Chip Northrup, who lives in Cooperstown, NY, and worked in the gas industry in Texas for decades, presents a power point about the scam that the gas industry is.

http://my.brainshark.com/Ponzi-Gas-Frackers-8298212

Mr. Northrup encourages NY State residents to get busy, support home rule, and get road use and land use ordinances in place ASAP.

Mother Earth: Earth Day 2012

At your command all things came to be: the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses, and this fragile earth, our island home.

From The Book of Common Prayer of The Episcopal Church

MOTHER EARTH, THIS DAY'S FOR YOU!

PLEASE FORGIVE US FOR OUR SHORTCOMINGS.

Compressor Station: Be the First On Your Block To Have One Next Door

The Teel Compressor Station on Button Road in Dimock, PA. Vera's video from yesterday. The noise is unacceptable.

Natural Gas: The Rest of the Story (Dr. Theo Colborn)

Water trucks idling in Asylum Township, Bradford County, PA

Natural Gas: The Rest of the Story from Hutman Media on Vimeo.

Theo Colborn of the Endocrine Exchange (Colorado-based) speaks to the issue of air pollution and gas drilling. This is the often overlooked aspect of the drilling industry, but one which causes illness and death just the same. Dr. Colborn emphasizes that fracking has become the big worry, but it only part of the story.

U. S. Has a Natural Gas Problem: Too Much Of It

Morning Edition (NPR) ran a piece about a "new" problem now facing the US: too much natural gas production. One of the problems is that "during the shale gas explosion of the past few years, production companies spent big bucks leasing mineral rights in vast shale gas areas from PA to TX." Drilling continues in some shale areas because many of the 3-year leases will expire soon if the producers don't drill. Drillers drill just to hold the lease. This means the glut is exacerbated. Another reason that production continues: About one third of natural gas wells bring up natural gas liquids that could be propane or butane which are valuable.
Read more here...

Listen here:

Does Fracking Cause Earthquakes?

Gas Wells Are Not Our Friends (GWANOF) reader, Laurie, sent this link in today:

http://motherjones.com/blue-marble/2012/04/does-fracking-cause-earthquakes

Good question. Recent articles have pointed to the probable answer: Yes. This issue is still under study.  But since we have more natural gas than we know what to do with at the moment, why not stop operations and get the answers BEFORE continuing natural gas drilling while crossing our fingers and hoping for the best?  In my view, we haven't had the greatest of luck with that method, given the number and variety of accidents which occur on a regular basis at well pads, compressor stations, and pipelines.  If public health and a sustainable planet mean anything to us, we must put moratoria on gas drilling operations EVERYWHERE.

See also: http://dearsusquehanna.blogspot.com/2012/04/earthquakes-directly-linked-to-oil-and.html

Gas Drilling Destroys One of Best Dark Sky Areas East of the Mississppi

Cherry Springs has been recognized by the International Dark Sky Association as a "Gold Tier" Dark Sky Park and designated by PA DCNR as Pennsylvania's First Dark Sky Park. It is the location of the darkest night sky East of the Mississippi. The area's night sky resource is under pressure because of light pollution from recent and planned Marcellus well drilling sites that do gas flarings and use unshielded light fixtures. As of April 2011 over 2000 wells have been drilled in PA with an estimated 100,000 wells planned.

How much more beauty are we willing to give up for fossil fuel extraction?

Do we have a bottom line?

Another Spill In PA

More drilling mud spills into a creek in PA.  It will happen over and over again.

Read more here....

Fossil-fuel subsidies are the real job killers

786

That's how many lobbyists are in Washington, DC, defending billions in subsidies for the oil and gas industry.

Turns out Big Oil is actually a job killer.  Last year Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee investigated Big Oil's jobs claim.  They found that the industry has gone on a firing spree in recent years.  Thousands of jobs have been eliminated, while oil executives paid themselves millions.  It was also found that 40% of U.S. oil-industry jobs consist of minimum-wage work at gas stations. 

 Denying climate change and obstructing climate action is one part of the problem.  Natural disasters are having a devastating effect on American jobs.

So Big Oil is killing jobs and undermining our economy.

Read more here....

Natural Gas Industry: Home Invasion

Fracking Undermines NY Farming

Bryn Roshong is a farmer from Gardiner, NY.  She faces a real dilemma- can she safely grow food for her neighbors on land covered with gas wells?  She is not willing to farm fracked land.  Where can she go?  What will happen to her plans for the future as a farmer?  Will the beautiful NY landscape provide her and us with nutritious food in the future?  Or will we allow our soil to be virtually murdered by toxic chemicals?  As Bryn points out,  there is no way to restore contaminated soil and water.  Ruined land cannot be used for growing anything ever again.  At least not in our lifetimes.

Read more here....

Shale Country Kindness: Life In the Gas Patch

When an invasive, greedy, and oblivious-to-human-pain industry rides roughshod over people everywhere,  friends and neighbors from near and far get together to help.  That is what is happening in Butler County, PA.  We generally assume that life in America includes such things as getting a drink of water from the kitchen faucet, taking a shower at home, and not having to buy clean water to drink and cook with.  But not everyone enjoys those things anymore.  Iris Bloom's article gives us a glimpse of what is going on in a place called The Woodlands, Connoquenessing Township, in Butler County, PA:

Read more here...

This is what happened to the McIntyre family.

Marcellus Outreach Butler  An organization seeking to help people in Butler County whose health and safety is affected by slick water, high-volume hydrofracking.

Butler County featured in the news today in the Kuwait Times!  The whole world is watching!

News From PA: Certain Natural Gas Pipeline Records Not Public

Iris Marie Bloom of Protecting Our Waters has uncovered a disturbing fact: The PA Commonwealth Court has ruled that Public Utility Commission (PUC) records concerning the safety of natural gas pipelines are not public records.  PA's Right to Know laws are considered among the weakest in the nation.

If the public is forced to live near pipelines, which are hidden underground and which are known to leak and explode,  why is information regarding pipelines hidden from the public?  This seems unnecessary at best, and criminal at worst. 

Ms. Bloom applauds Dick Martin, Coordinator of the Pennsylvania Forest Coalition, for his willingness to take on the PUC and PA's Right to Know laws.  I add my admiration and appreciation to Mr. Martin for his work on the people's behalf.

Read more here and here...

Public safety is a public issue.

We have a right to know.

Williams Partners Disregard PA DEP Request At Compressor Station

A compressor station in Susquehanna County, PA, was the site of a huge explosion March 29. Gas seeped into the building and ignited, blowing off part of the roof and damaging two of its seven compressor engines. Despite the DEP's advice NOT to run the station, Williams restarted operations the next day, March 30. It was a "procedural misunderstanding," according to a company spokesperson said. However, a DEP representative said there was no lack of clarity and the DEP is disappointed that its advice was not followed. No enforcement order is being considered, and there may or may not be a fine for either the explosion or the disregarding the DEP shutdown request.

This is totally unacceptable. Is there no way to enforce safe procedures? Gas companies are not scared of regulations or fines. The fines are puny and ineffective. And PA does not have enough inspectors to do the job they need to do to protect people and the environment. Compliance is optional. A company can always argue some fine point of any agreement and get off the hot seat. Even the state Public Utility Commission, which has inspectors on site, is apparently not sure it has jurisdiction over the Lathrop station. In most rural areas (places with 10 or fewer homes within a 220-yard radius of a facility), it does not have jurisdiction. The PUC is still trying to determine if it has oversight authority for the Lathrop station.

So while the gas company Williams, the PA DEP, and the PA DUC all weigh in on this situation, the public remains in possible danger.

Natural Gas Exxposed

Natural Gas Exxposed tells the stories of Americans whose lives have been devastated by gas drilling.

All across the country, gas companies are poisoning water, tearing apart communities and destroying the American dream for thousands of families who can't protect their children from what comes out of the tap.

Please join us in rejecting this dangerous bridge to nowhere and working to build a renewable energy economy.

Earthquakes Directly Linked to Oil and Gas Drilling

In 2011 the US Geological Survey (USGS) linked 50 Oklahoma earthquakes to fracking, and a British fracking operation recently fessed up to causing earthquakes in England.  An earthquake linked to fracking in Ohio was so strong that its effects were felt in Toronto.

Now a new report from the USGS to be presented next month at the annual meeting of the Seismological Society of America in San Diego directly links an "unprecedented" increase in frequency and magnitude of earthquakes to drilling for oil and gas.

Read more here...

Dependence On Foreign Food?

Carolyn Knapp and Carol French, who spoke at OU’s Morton Hall (Oneonta University), both signed leases with energy companies to have their land in Bradford County, Pa., drilled for gas using the horizontal hydraulic fracturing method to extract the resource from underground shale beds. Both suggested that signing was a bad decision for them, and warned locals of things they need to think about before leasing. French said she has gotten out of her lease; Knapp has not. The women are co-founders of the Pennsylvania Landowner Group for Awareness and Solutions in Bradford County.

Knapp said that when she signed a lease in 2006, she bought into the claims that drilling would create an economic boom and foster U.S. energy independence. “I really believed that was going to be good for the country,” she recalled. Since then, however, Knapp said, she’s experienced multiple negative impacts, including water contamination and damage to her herd of dairy cattle. After the drilling started, she alleged, in March 2011 her tap water turned ivory-white and “jello-like.” Her adult daughter who had been drinking the water in the home, she said, ended up in the hospital with conditions including an enlarged spleen and liver, which she believes were caused by chemicals contaminating the water. The women also recounted “traffic, traffic, and more traffic” stemming from oil-and-gas operations in their area, which they said has badly hurt some local small businesses; huge decreases in property values; and a plethora of billboards, advertising everything from lawyers to drill bits to leasing offers. “It’s like, ‘Got milk?’” she joked. “Got land?” As a farmer, Knapp warned farmers in the audience that they should be very concerned about potential impacts to their crops and animals. Knapp noted that one of the touted benefits of fracking is that it will eliminate America’s dependence on imported oil. But, she asked – earning the  biggest applause of the afternoon – “Are you willing to be dependent on foreign food? Think about it.”

Are you willing to be dependent on foreign oil food? Think about it.

Read more here...

Natural Gas Drilling: Flaring Within Feet of a House

Taped 4-1-12. Flaring at night Holbrook Well. Susquehanna County, Bridgewater Township. Near homes. Can be heard about a mile away. Goes for about a week per well. One well here. Lessens pressure and removes impurities.

Video by Vera.

Toward the end of the video, Vera pans to the right to reveal a house which is very, very close to the flare. How can the inhabitants of this house live through this process?