Friday's Odds and Ends

I started to do my usual odds and ends, then got into some research about this method of drilling for natural gas, and decided to just write about this issue today.  Wouldn't it be good to protect this beauty?

A town destroyed by Fracking - Dimock, Pennsylvania - “Fracking,” as it’s colloquially known, involves injecting millions of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals, many of them toxic, into the earth at high pressures to break up rock formations and release natural gas trapped inside. Not only has Dimock been affected on the surface with large areas of land cleared for drilling, the chemicals have gotten into the aquifer and seriously affected the water supply. People and animals are getting sick, dying, and wells are spontaneously combusting.

Yet the companies behind the drilling process claim that it is perfectly safe.

Hydraulic Fracturing - from the site Hydraulic Fracturing/Energy Tomorrow. Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is a proven and well-regulated technology. First used in the 1940s, hydraulic fracturing has unlocked massive new supplies of oil and clean-burning natural gas from dense deposits of shale — supplies that increase our country’s energy security and improve our ability to generate electricity, heat homes and power vehicles for generations to come. Fracking has been used in more than one million U.S. wells, and has safely produced more than seven billion barrels of oil and 600 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.

More Dangers - from the website, Earth Times - The dangers of fracking are not limited to the effect on water supplies. Fracking has been tied to earthquakes, and a recent study by a Cornell University professor shows that fracking has a higher greenhouse gas footprint than coal and oil because of the methane that is released during the drilling process. That gas is highly toxic, and one woman in East Texas who was exposed to that gas, now has a lung disease that is incurable.

Just like those favoring the XL Pipeline bringing tar sands oil from Canada to the Texas Gulf Coast, proponents of natural gas say it is all safe and we nay-sayers need to stop with the negative propaganda.  Of course they want us to stop. They want to be able to continue drilling and making profits without taking into consideration the long-term effects.

More Facts about Fracking