Will Natural Gas Become the 'Achilles' Heel' of Our Country?

After hearing Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar at the City Club of Cleveland on Feb. 14 speak about President Obama's vision for the new energy frontier, which is largely a full-steam ahead agenda for fossil fuel extraction, and then reading that more than 800,000 people signed a petition to their U.S. Senators to stop the Keystone XL pipeline and nearly2,000 people in Frankfort, Ky., called for an end to mountaintop removal coal mining that same day, it was clear that Obama's energy plan does not align with the sustainable energy future many Americans want.

Salazar said Obama's energy blueprint focuses on tapping into all of the energy resources of the U.S. and that the Department of the Interior will play a key role in mapping out a future that will bring about energy security for America.

He talked about renewable energy and the 41 solar energy manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and how this country is projected to be the number one solar energy market in the world by 2014. He also said that major strides have been made in wind energy, with more than 400 U.S. companies manufacturing components for the wind energy industry and one-third of all new electrical capacity in the U.S. coming from wind farms.

In 2009, there were no solar energy projects permitted on public lands. Today there are 29 commercial-scale solar projects and more than 5,600 megawatts of permitted renewable energy projects on public lands. Salazar said these projects are creating thousands of jobs and even making skeptics believe that we can actually capture the power of the sun to power our cities.

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From Gung-Ho to Uh-Oh: Charting the Government’s Moves on Fracking

Fracking has only recently become a household word, but government involvement with the drilling technique goes back decades. President Obama haschampioned the potential of natural gas drilling combined with more regulation. While there has been mounting evidence of water contamination, few regulations have been implemented. The graphic below traces officials' moves -- and levels of caution -- over time.

Follow the link to follow the chart: http://www.propublica.org/special/from-gung-ho-to-uh-oh-charting-the-governments-moves-on-fracking

Salazar hints at fracking disclosure

CLEVELAND, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- A lack of transparency over the chemical makeup of hydraulic fracturing fluid might strike a blow to the shale gas industry, the U.S. interior secretary said.

The United States has some of the richest deposits of shale natural gas. Critics say that chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, fluid could contaminate waters supplies.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said the department was preparing rules that would require companies to disclose the composition of fracking fluids and call for tighter regulations to protect the environment.

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Ohio Residents Share Feelings On Fracking

Columbus, Ohio - Several Ohio families gathered in Columbus Tuesday with Valentines in hand to discuss how much they dislike fracking, reported ONN's Stephanie Mennecke. 

"We have to say what is in our heart. We are unable to sleep at night because these injection wells are close to our lands," Erin Renee Ripple of Amesville said.

Athens resident Sarah Conley said that she is worried the livelihood of local farmers will be jeopardized.

"They can stay on their farms and grow us good food rather than them having to sell their property because their land is being polluted because of the fracking practices. It's scary to us," Conley said.

The two families have been making Valentine's Day cards for Gov. John Kasich that said how much they love their land and water, and that they're against injection wells and fracking. 

"We are here to deliver valentines to governor Kasich on Valentine's Day.  We are bringing our love from our farm land really," Amesville resident Karen Carlson said.

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Ohio Officials Growing Wary Of Fracking Waste

Ohio Gov­er­nor John Kasich is a big sup­porter of nat­ural gas drilling, but that doesn’t mean he wants Pennsylvania’s frack­ing waste. As this Bloomberg News arti­cle reports, the Buck­eye State took in 369 mil­lion gal­lons of used frack­ing fluid last year.

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Gas patch scientists explain how hydraulic fracturing can permanently contaminate public water supplies

As recently as a week ago one contamination expert went on the record explaining exactly how the hydraulic fracturing process could contaminate water supplies.  The expert is Dr. Conrad ‘Dan’ Volz, former director of the University of Pittsburgh’s Center for Healthy Environments and Communities, who has testified on hydraulic fracturing before Congress and appeared as an expert as part of water contamination investigations on ABC news.

Volz spoke with Checks and Balances Project director Andrew Schenkel last week at a public hearing on fracking in Pennsylvania.

“[Wells] are going to leak and they are going to leak when the cement shrinks and when the cement shrinks it pulls away from the geological layer that it is sealed from and then it serves as a conduit as straight into ground water aquifers,” Volz said. When asked if the chemicals could travel miles upward towards aquifers that lie well above the bottom of hydraulically fracked wells, Volz replied, “of course”

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Josh Fox Director Of The Oscar-Nominated Documentary Gasland Lends His Voice To The Ohio Anti-Fracking Movement

Gasland was intended to be both a chronicle of the way in which oil and gas companies have used vast sums of money to shield fracking from virtually all federal, state, and local regulations and a cautionary tale about the toll the process takes on people and the environment. 

Fortunately, the message of the film is getting through. Recent surveys show that 4 out of 5 Americans are concerned about fracking's effect on our drinking water and seven out of ten Ohioans believe the process should be stopped until we know more about its effect on the environment and its relation to a series of earthquakes that have rocked the Northeastern part of the state.


The bottom line: fracking is not safe. It has never been proven safe and it will never be made safe.  The industry admits that well casing problems occur in 50 percent of wells over the life of the well. That means that 50 percent of gas wells can be expected to leak chemicals, hydrocarbons, volatile organic compounds, carcinogens and neurotoxins directly into groundwater. The industry has never been able to solve this problem although they have been trying for decades and they have admitted that there is no solution to the problem.  Safe fracking is simply an impossibility. If the state allows further drilling, it is trading water for gas. It is trading the short-term windfall profits of huge gas companies for our public health and the permanent poisoning of our ground water.

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