Frack To School

I was recently asked if there are any instances of Marcellus shale drilling contaminating water and air in Pennsylvania.

The answer is a resounding, “Yes!”

Gas Industry pollution happens all the time. Here, there and everywhere. No matter how much the industry hopes we won't notice.

Many people have signed gas drilling leases and later come to regret it. Often, they're prevented from speaking out due to non-disclosure agreements stipulated by gas companies when they are compelled to award damages. Yet there are plenty of people who can - and do - tell their experiences with the gas industry. Hundreds, in fact, and there are even a few who are determined to keep a record. (Hint: It ain't PA DEP.)

The List of the Harmed is compiled and updated by Jenny Lisak, Co-director of Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Water and Air (PACWA).

Damned Press

“It’s all where you source your information from... He who pays the piper calls the tune.”  ~ Paul Gallay, President, Riverkeepers. 

Energy had become a defining issue this election cycle. Americans have begun to realize it’s too important to defer an actual Policy until next time. Voters need to be well-informed. We need to let our leaders know we require ample protections for our land, air, food and water; for our families and our communities. But where to find genuinely unbiased information? One smart resource to share with friends:

Fracking, Shale Gas And Health Effects: Research Roundup by HarvardKennedy School, JournalistsResource.org.

“Energy You Save Is The Cheapest Electricity”

Shale Gas: Game Changer? is a quirky interview from HuffPost Live on shale gas development in the U.S. It appeared below the HuffPost article by James Gerken entitled, Artists Against Fracking, Launched By Yoko Ono And Sean Lennon, Focuses On New York on September 7, 2012.

Gerken gets right to the heart of the matter, thank heavens, examining why it is that scientists are so concerned about the cement casings used to "seal" a gas well, supposedly making fracking "safe," thereby eliminating what the industry refers to, in TV commercials, as "some form of risks."

Get The Truth From SkyTruth

Environmental incidents - such as unconventional gas drilling accidents - must be reported wherever they occur.  SkyTruth is a whiz-bang non-profit based in West Virginia whose team uses remote sensing and digital mapping technologies to promote environmental awareness. Their motto: “As soon as WE know – YOU know.” 

SkyTruth‘s goal is “to motivate and empower new constituencies for environmental protection… SkyTruth envisions a world where all people can see and understand the environmental consequences of human activity everywhere on the earth, and are motivated to take action to protect the environment.”

SkyTruth also provides a valuable Alert System, “a free service open to the public that provides daily updates of environmentally significant incidents by geographical area. You can browse the most recent incident reports on a map or in Google Earth, and you can also subscribe to a personalized feed of incident reports via RSS or email. The alert feed currently contains reports generated from ongoing SkyTruth investigations, combined with selected reports from the the National Response Center that have been processed by SkyTruth’s automated expert system to clean up problem data and add additional SkyTruth commentary and analysis.”

Check out the amazing work of SKYTRUTH at blog.skytruth.org.