How fracking interests are buying 'experts'

I'm down in southern New York visiting relatives. This area is Ground Zero for the debate in New York over the controversial and polluting natural gas drilling procedure known as hydrofracking. Around here, it's clear the fracking industry is waging a very aggressive and high-profile campaign touting its alleged virtues;  most expect New York's business-owned governor to allow towns who want the procedure to have it (such decisions will be made locally but will the dollars for the pollution clean up be strictly local too? I doubt it). The campaign is actually very clever, appealing not only on economic grounds but claiming that 'responsible drilling' will reduce the number of wars we fight (not bloody likely).

The public journalism site Pro Publica has done a significant amount of excellent journalism on the perils of hydrofracking and the dishonesty of the industry.

Another good source, Mother Jones, ran a piece recently exposing the degree to which fracking interest are buying 'experts' from academia to purchase credibility for their efforts.

Southern NY's environment

I just discovered an interesting new blog entitled: Thoughts From Mount Moses. It's a blog written apparently by someone from New York's Southern Tier and devoted to environmental issues. Not surprisingly, the controversial issue of hydrofracking is one that it tackles. Check it out here.

Update: on a visit to the Southern Tier, I saw that the fracking industry's propaganda was in full force, and quite clever.

Hydrofracking's 'toxic legacy'

Initially, it may have been nothing more than stalling to appease public opinion, but New York state's controversial temporary moratorium on hydrofracking is looking increasingly wise. The Diane Rehm Show had a comprehensive discussion on the benefits and dangers of the process. Officials from the Southern Tier who want fracking at any costs should check out this NPR All Things Considered story on its 'toxic legacy' in neighboring Pennsylvania.


Reminder: the excellent site Pro Publica has done some comprehensive investigative journalism on hydrofracking, its dangers and state government complicity with gas polluters.

Update: A few days ago, Vermont became the first state in the nation to ban hydrofracking.

Another look at the hydofracking debate

The Los Angeles Times takes a look at the hydofracking debate here in New York. Some residents of the Catskills and Southern Tier want to lease their land to natural gas drilling companies to stimulate the economy, while others warn of devastation to the supply of clean drinking water and more broad concerns about losing control of their land, concerns that would counteract any positive economic effect.

Fracking companies lie about leases: homeowners

The excellent non-profit journalism site Pro Publica has done some fantastic journalism about hydrofracking, the hugely controversial natural gas extraction process that is being hotly debated in New York state. Proponents say that it will be a jobs boom in a region that badly needs it. Opponents offer many criticisms, including that the process poisons drinking water. Another site offering good information on fracking is The Rural Blog of the University of Kentucky.

The blog offers statistics that amplify a fear of fracking opponents. Drilling is regulated by many states, but very ineffectively. It notes that in Texas, 96 percent of the tens of thousands of regulatory violations in 2009 resulted in no enforcement action. West Virginia, Wyoming and fracking hotbed Pennsylvania were also cited for their uselessness in protecting citizens from drilling pollution.

The blog also links to a New York Times article which cites the negative experience of homeowners who signed leases with gas companies.

The NYT added that disappointed landowners in Pennsylvania, Colorado and West Virginia have spent hundreds of dollars monthly on bottled water or maintaining large tanks of drinking water in their front lawns. Thousands of landowners in Virginia, Pennsylvania and Texas, who claim "they were paid less than they expected because gas companies deducted costs like hauling chemicals to the well site or transporting gas to market," have responded by joining a class action lawsuit.

The site also offered some useful advice to Republicans in southern New York like powerful state Sen. Tom Libous who are enamored with drilling, regardless of the consequences: sustainable agriculture could improve health, economy for rural areas... presumably without poisoned drinking water.

Like any other drug, hydrofracking has serious side effects

As if poisoned drinking water isn't enough, the controversial natural gas extraction process known as hydrofracking has another serious side effect. Although backers pass it off as an economic panacea, WAMC is reporting that fracking lowers property values and, in the event you want to move away to a place with clean drinking water. it can make it almost impossible to sell your house.

Hydofracking worse for environment than coal?

Hydraulic fracturing (know as 'fracking') is the controversial natural gas extraction process that's being proposed for much of central and southern New York. It's been controversial because the fracking represents a serious threat to safe drinking water. 


However, The Cornell Daily Sun reports on other major side effects of the extraction process. A university study concluded that hydrofracking may harm the environment even more than the mining of coal and will exacerbate the effects of climate change. This is significant because natural gas has long been touted as the cleanest fossil fuel.


“We looked at the greenhouse gas in comparison to conventional natural gas,” [Cornell Prof. Robert] Howarth said. “Our research showed that carbon dioxide is only part of the problem, and natural gas, which is mostly methane, is far more potent. Even small leakages have a large footprint, leading to our conclusion that natural gas actually has a bigger impact on global warming.”

Risking a fracking mess in southern NY

One of the important debates in the New York relates to hydrofracking (“fracking”), a natural gas extraction technique that’s incredibly destructive and threatening to the safe drinking water supply. Fracking companies are salivating over the possibility of operating in southern New York’s Marcellus Shale, which also extends into Pennsylvania where it’s already been very damaging.

The public radio show On Point had a good discussion about the basics of fracking.

Then-New York governor David Paterson issued an executive order imposing a temporary moratorium on fracking. Planet Albany blog reports that the state Assembly wants to extend that ban until June 1 of next year, so that the state Department of Environmental Conservation can complete a study into its damage to the environment and drinking water. It is unclear if the Senate will follow suit. The deputy majority leader, Republican Tom Libous, is from Binghamton, in southern New York, where some officials want the jobs that fracking would bring.

This is also called into a question by a Rochester Democrat and Chronicle report that the state’s pension fund has over $217 million invested into natural gas and fracking companies and $1 billion in total invested in the energy industry. "The main objective [of the pension fund] is to make money, so that's always a primary concern,” said state comptroller Tom DiNapoli, who is sole trustee of the fund.

The great non-profit journalistic website Pro Publica had a telling story on the fracking industry’s well-funded and –organized opposition to any safety disclosure requirements whatsoever. ProPublic has done a series of articles on hydrofracking and the natural gas industry.

Homeowners sue hydrofracker over poisoned drinking water

There is plenty of debate in New York about hydraulic fracturing (known as hydrofracking) in the southern part of the state. Fracking is a form of drilling which fractures the rock underneath the surface of the Earth to release natural gas. Supporters say that the hydrofracking industry would create countless jobs in southern New York. Opponents claim that the procedure has been shown to be a several threat to clean drinking water.

The non-partisan, non-profit journalism organization Pro Publica has covered this issue quite well (its excellent articles on the topic can be accessed here). It includes some pieces of the hydrofracking industry’s strident opposition to any sort of transparency.

Recently, the city of Buffalo became the first municipality in the state to ban the procedure. The vote was more symbolic than anything, given the city’s location, but opponents hope it triggers a loud wave of opposition to the dangerous procedure.

Many newspapers such as the Watertown Daily Times and Glens Falls Post-Star have editorialized for a ban on hydrofracking.

Nine homeowners in Elmira, near New York’s border with Pennsylvania (where fracking has been pursued with reckless abandon), have filed a lawsuit against a Colorado-based company claiming it was negligent in its drilling, construction and operation of two [hydrofracking] gas wells in Big Flats and that the company’s actions resulted in contamination to nearby water wells.

As government officials in Albany consider how to deal with the industry, they should remember that jobs and easy money are of little use if it destroys something as basic and fundamental as drinking water.

Safety claims of hydraulic fracking called into question

Many people in southern New York are concerned about a new natural gas drilling project in the Marcellus Shale which involves the controversial procedure known as hydraulic fracking. It's controversial because critics claim that it threatens the drinking water supply. The NYS Department of Environmental Conservation claims that very few problems are associated with fracking but a good investigative piece in the Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin seriously calls those claims into question.