Following a time-honored tradition of democracy, two ordinary citizens head to Washington, D.C. today with a message for the President and Congress. Their message is simple: "Please keep our drinking water safe."
The two citizens, the actor Mark Ruffalo, nominated for an Oscar for his performance in The Kids Are All Right, and the documentary film-maker, Josh Fox, nominated for an Oscar for his film, Gasland, are holding a press conference, meeting with Congressional representatives, and screening the film, in an effort to safeguard the people's right to the life essential, safe drinking water. As detailed in Gasland, hundreds of news stories, state and federal government reports, and expert scientific analysis, this right can no longer be taken for granted, thanks to widespread water contamination by hundreds of proprietary chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, (or fracking), a novel form of an old gas drilling practice. Fox and Ruffalo are calling for an immediate federal moratorium on drilling, permitting, and fracking until appropriate safety measures are in place.
Fox points out that, "Fracking has never been proven to be safe. Thousands of contamination cases, and testimonials across the country, point to a massive failure to protect water, air and human health."
In an open letter to Congress and the president, Fox alerts these leaders to
"the numerous dangers, hazards and injustices created by hydraulic fracturing for natural gas and urge(s) them to take immediate action to address" the "severe environmental, public health, and human and civil rights abuses that the deregulated Natural Gas Industry has wrought on the citizens of the United States as a result of the massive gas drilling campaign that has been ravaging the country over the past decade."
It all began with the Halliburton Loophole, inserted into the 2005 Energy bill by former vice-president Dick Cheney. That exempted the novel practice of horizontal hydraulic fracturing, which first introduced the use of over five hundred proprietary toxic chemicals from compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Superfund Act.
Fox calls for an immediate end to these exemptions.
Five years ago, no one could have foreseen that the Gas Rush, with its ever-growing track record of hazards, spills, leaks, explosions, water and air contamination, and health dangers, would have strained the monitoring capacities of state governments, and over-ridden the rights of ordinary citizens to the extent now seen.
Calling for bi-partisan support, Fox calls for an end to federal subsidies, reporting that "fossil fuel industries receive three times the level of federal subsidies as compared to renewable energy sources," creating an "unfair advantage in the marketplace for fossil fuel drilling technologies," like fracking.
Based on the "dire crisis occurring across America," Fox recommends:
1. Expanding the planned EPA study to extend beyond 2011, to address issues of hazardous and cumulative emissions from gas drilling, and to be conducted by scientists without conflict of interest.
2. Conducting a five-year parallel health impact assessment in all of the most areas by an independent third party working alongside the EPA, either from an unbiased charitable foundation or an esteemed University.
3. Requiring EPA, and state and local departments of environmental protection/planning to oversee and issue permits for fracking
4. Managing immediate health and ecological crises in drilling areas to include:
Fox further asks that the burden of proof for safety be shifted to the gas companies, requiring them and their associated industries to:
Fox asserts that
"if a chemical listed by the product manufacturers is found in a citizens private well or in a municipal water source, and is not found to be naturally occurring in the geology before drilling, both the product manufacturer and the drilling and extraction companies should have the burden to prove that contamination was not caused by the drilling company."
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Natural Gas may be a cleaner burning fuel, but the extraction of it as practiced today makes it the most serious threat to the environment we are facing. If they are so efficient and safe, why then do they insist on not being regulated by the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts? Maybe it could be done in a safe way but will they pay the cost. Just like the cost of the cement for the oil rigs in the Gulf, the cement casings on Fracking rigs are faulty. There have already been too many accidents, illegal dumpings of their toxic Frack water into rivers and streams and the air quality where they are operating, well i could go on and on. Here in PA unfortunately, we have proof of all of this with many more wells scheduled to start asap. We need to stop this now, before any more irreversible damage is done to our water, land, air and PEOPLE!
Can people even image what a disaster that would be if these chemicals made their way into the water supply of millions of an area like NYC? In some places people have been told to not even wash their clothes in the toxic water......so what do they do about water to bathe in?
measly 500 foot setback from the Delaware River and it tributaries. The Delaware supplies the potable water for 10% of the American population, 15 million people.
Below is a link to the latest Action Alert from Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy,
catskillcitizens.org.
Within the Action Alert there are links to the proposed DRBC regs, talking points to help folks
write common sense comments on the regs and the information to submitt comments.
http://org2.democracyinaction.org/o/5952/blastContent.jsp?email_blast_KEY=1152382&t=
Help us out, we need all hands on deck!
Here is some information for you.
Regarding Renewables:Two scientists from Stanford University and the University of California report in two parts, links below, that the world could eliminate fossil fuel use and rely entirely on clean, renewable energy in as little as twenty years. The recipe for sustainability? Fifty percent wind, 40 percent solar, 4 percent geothermal, 4 percent hydroelectric, and 2 percent wave power.
http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/JDEnPolicyPt1.pdf Part 1
http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/DJEnPolicyPt2.pdf Part 2
Of course we can only move to clean, sustainable energy if and when governments stop propping up the fossil fuel industry with taxpayer money. In 2009, dirty-energy companies received a whopping $309 billion dollars in government subsidies!
In his State of the Union address, President Obama called on Congress to eliminate "the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies." Our new Congress claims it wants to slash spending-let it begin by defunding destructive corporate welfare.
Josh Fox affirms Gasland. The truth is the movie is factual, this should scare you me and the rest of us into action. Action to protect our health our communities and our country.
http://catskillcitizens.org/learnmore/Affirming-GASLAND.PDF
In the end, shale gas cannot and will not be extracted safely. Learn more at catskillcitizens.org. Type in a few key words, start with radioactivity, uranium, contamination, toulene, cancer, earthquakes...
Interesting article is posted about the industry and their message not resignating with the public.
http://fuelfix.com/blog/2011/02/16/fracking-message-isnt-working-says-industry-exec/#comment-13873
Moves like these, past and present, leave people exposed to industries' heedless stampede to their next quarter's earning goals. Fox calls for the burden of proof to be transferred to the gas industry where it belongs. (You can read his detailed account of how to do that at www.healthjournalistblog.com) In that, Fox proposes that non-radioactive isotopes be used as tracers.
Our infrastructure is crumbling, our schools are failing, our roads are full of potholes, our healthcare/insurance system is legalized extortion ... these are not left or right or party issues ... these are issues in our society. Coming together in peaceful unity is what will make change.
10 years of evidence is ready....... they knew and used it to their advantage so they could talk us into illegal wars.