Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Frack Baby Frack! The Petroleum Pigs Newest Evil

Fracking, the process of forcing thousands of gallons of water and toxic chemicals at high pressure into Shale beds to extract Natural Gas reserves, is the latest indignity the Petroleum Pigs have unleashed upon people.

Like all problems with Oil Companies, the issue is one of sovereignty, they don't recognize anyone's and simply influence governments at all levels to give them a free hand This map of New York State shows the increasing number of Municipalities fighting to keep Fracking away.

But, Multi-National Oil Conglomerates don't care. They've been destroying ecosystems and people in Nigeria, Ecuador, Azerbaijan for decades why would they think of Americans as any different? For the destruction wrought by fracking is not going to affect them. It's well beyond NIMBY, it's not just the richest members of Oil Corporations, but most involved in the Oil business, who live outside the areas affected and don't come into contact with any of the toxic by products.

“Giving local governments the power to regulate would be the kiss of death for natural-gas development in New York state,” Tom West, an attorney in Albany who represents Denver- based Anschutz Exploration Corp. and other drilling companies, said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg News. Anschutz Exploration Corporation is owned by Philip Anshutz, a full-fledged member of the 1% the 34th richest person in America, and credited with the George W. Bush White House with killing the 2001 Kyoto Protocol and in 2010 used financial legerdemain to hide his obscene profits, until a U.S. Tax Court judge ruled he owed $94 million in taxes.

A member of the 1% who thinks Regulation is bad, is a tax cheat, and makes money off of Corporate Welfare. Hmmm, seems to fit a pattern.

A recent spate of earthquakes in the Youngstown, Ohio area are the direct result of fracking. But, don't worry because minor earthquakes are the least of your trouble if a fracking operation sets up near your home in Ohio.
The two Allardale Park gas wells were drilled by Wildcat Drilling LLC for Ohio Valley Energy, based in Austintown. The county park is east of the Mangans’ house and near the Bath Township border.

The wells, about 1,500 feet apart, were being drilled to a depth of 3,700 feet and cemented on the outside for environmental protection at the time that the Mangans’ problems surfaced. The vertical wells were then fracked.

On Sept. 29, 2008, Mangan and wife, Sandy, found that their drinking water well had gone dry at the same time that a company was drilling for natural gas at Allardale Park about a half mile away.

When the water returned to the Mangans’ well in five days, it had an unpleasant taste and a rotten-egg scent. It was salty. It bubbled. It contained methane gas and a gray slurry of cement.

Ohio Valley Energy drew headlines in 2007, after a house exploded east of Cleveland in Geauga County.
In Ohio, state lawmakers can overturn local ordinances. So even if you manage to band together within your local community and stave off the fracking wells. Philip Anschutz or some else of his 1% ilk is simply going to jerk the chain on their obedient lap dog Ohio Governor Republicon John Kasich and his slavish guardians in the Republicon dominated Ohio Legislature and get the rights to frack you. Frack Baby Frack!

The wells won't be anywhere near Kasich's Governor's mansion nor will they affect his speaking fees from the Cato Instiutite or Faux News position post-governorship. And Philp Anschutz is safely ensconced far away from water laden with benzene, gas, and any of the other toxic by-products of his evil hand.

4 comments:

Silverfiddle said...

Yeah! We should stop all petroleum production now and go back to burning wood and traveling by sailing ships!

Grung_e_Gene said...

Silverfiddle,

I know you have a very manicheist worldview were either something has to be embraced fully or abandoned completely but empty your cup a little.

Using Petroleum products doesn't mean we have to have system withthe rampant evil OilCompanies, purposefully using shoddy equipment, eliminating safety gear, paying off dictators, bribing Congress, and basically shifting the ENTIRE burden of cleanup and safety onto the people while stealing all the profits.

A tidy profit could be made and the oil and gas could extracted safer but that woudl be SOCIALISM!!!! Oooooooooh, scary, that companies couldn't just fuck us over while getting the oil and sticking us with the bill while doing it.

But, hell while the spills and polluted waters aren't in your backyard who really cares?

Randy said...

The article is clear that all of this happened during the drilling process - long before being fracked which takes place days, weeks, or months after the drilling rig has left.

Grung_e_Gene said...

Actually, "Randy" what your comment makes clear is you have no understanding of causation and don't have a clue about fracking...