While the baggers are pushing to eliminate environmental protection at both the federal and state level, we read what happens when the environment is not regulated —
Oil and gas companies injected hundreds of millions of gallons of hazardous or carcinogenic chemicals into wells in more than 13 states from 2005 to 2009, according to an investigation by Congressional Democrats.
I take it the contamination came about because of a relatively new process, not specifically covered by regulations, for extracting natural gas out of the ground.
Among other things, the process is injecting huge amounts of benzene — nasty stuff — into groundwater and rivers. The article even mentions radioactive material.
This keeps up, we’ll have to rename them “sicks!”
If the Teabaggers had any brains (yeah, I know – and if my Aunt had ____ and a _________, she’d be my Uncle), they’d realize that ANTI-environmentalism is the Communist plot. Take a look a large chunks of Russia that were, and still are, so polluted, they’re virtually uninhabitable.
I take it the contamination came about because of a relatively new process, not specifically covered by regulations, for extracting natural gas out of the ground.
Not exactly. Former VP & CEO of Halliburton, Dick Cheney, had to specifically exempt the gas industry (which included Halliburton) from existing regulations in the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act.
I strongly suggest that you rent the movie Gasland. Excellent documentary, explains it all.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1558250/
An explanation of the technology from the Halliburton web site itself:
http://www.halliburton.com/public/projects/pubsdata/hydraulic_fracturing/fracturing_101.html
Anyone who wants to see what unregulated industrial capitalism leads to should read about the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel. (There is a Wikipedia article.)
Baggers etc. are plagued with phobias – irrational fear, aversion, dislike of something or someone – irrational is the operative word here. As such, it is impossible to reason with them because they are incapable of reasoning themselves out of a belief. (I have a few phobias myself, so I know of what I speak.)
Why they fear environmentalists/environmentalism? Who they hell knows. They don’t even know. Off the top of my head and in a huge nut shell, I’d guess that it was a fear of change, which is right in line with what conservatives in general fear.
I haven’t dug up a citation, but my memory says that hydraulic fracturing process for natural gas production was specifically exempt from regulation as part of Cheney’s energy policy.
Fracking isn’t particularly new, but the have been advances in natural gas fracking techniques in recent years, associated with production in the Marcellus shale formations in the northern Appalachians.
Doesn’t this just prove that the teabaggers are not real, why would middle class activists against taxes give a rats ass about the EPA? It’s a brilliant front for everything the republicants hate but don’t have the stones to condemn in public.
I seem to recall that the liquids pumped into the ground during fracking are like the ones pumped into oil wells for specific purposes: they’re regarded as proprietary formulas that are not subject to regulation because they’re trade secrets of the companies. This is a handy subterfuge with the real purpose of preventing suits for damages, since you can’t know what they pumped into your well water, and therefore your findings of pollution cannot be linked to the petro people. This is probably traceable by campaign “donations” from the culprits.
It sure gives that expletive from Battlestar Galactica new meaning. States all over the country are sure getting fracked by the oil and gas companies.
The more I hear about this, the more frightening it becomes. I mean, the basic physics of the process means they can’t really exactly predict what will happen when the rock cracks, but it isn’t even like they are trying to understand what they are doing before they do it. It’s not like there’s even a well-known standard set of chemicals they use that has been lab tested for effectiveness, much less safety. They’ll just try any old thing. Years after we’ve learned about the tragic side-effects of DDT, or PCBs, or lead, you’d think people would at least bat an eye before randomly spewing random chemicals into the environment. But no.
I’m scratching my head to figure out why my comment was deleted? All I said was I suggested people go watch the documentary “Gasland” which explains this issue really well.
Sorry, my comment suddenly just appeared! Maha, this server is weird. But I apologize.
I don’t always understand what it does, either. And I’ve been out since early this morning, so whatever it did, it did it without me.
Dear Maha, It could be that your server has been taken over by the baggers and is conspiring against you.
Benzene is nasty stuff. It is also a consituent of crude oil and natural gas liquids. Pumping it back into the strata it was extracted from may be a good way of disposing it, maybe not.