FRACKING

=see tag frack for newer content, also FRACK2see three=heroic origins? bk mitchell<a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/energy-executive-launched-fracking-revolution/">https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/energy-executive-launched-fracking-revolution/</a>=<a href="http://littlesis.org/groups/frackerwatch/edits">http://littlesis.org/groups/frackerwatch/edits</a><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/29/fracking-rules_n_5737812.html">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/29/fracking-rules_n_5737812.html</a>  <div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="">Twenty states now require companies to disclose the chemicals they use in the hydraulic fracturing process used to pry gas and oil from tight geological formations. But, as part of the omnibus <a href="http://www.ncleg.net/Applications/BillLookUp/LoadBillDocument.aspx?SessionCode=2013&DocNum=7819&SeqNum=0" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 18.2px;">Energy Modernization Act, SB 786</a>, North Carolina Republicans want to impose civil and criminal penalties, including prison time, on anyone who makes such a disclosure.The bill has nine co-sponsors, all of them Republicans. Both houses of the state legislature have Republican super-majorities.Molly Redden at Mother Jones <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2014/05/north-carolina-felony-fracking-chemicals-disclosure" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">reports</a>: <blockquote style="margin: 1.2em 0px; padding: 20px; line-height: 18.2px; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(226, 226, 225); border-top: 1px solid rgb(226, 226, 225); color: rgb(36, 36, 36); background-color: rgb(246, 243, 236);">"The felony provision is far stricter than most states' provisions in terms of the penalty for violating trade secrets," says Hannah Wiseman, a Florida State University assistant law professor who studies fracking regulations.The bill also allows companies that own the chemical information to require emergency responders to sign a confidentiality agreement. And it's not clear what the penalty would be for a health care worker or fire chief who spoke about their experiences with chemical accidents to colleagues."I think the only penalties to fire chiefs and doctors, if they talked about it at their annual conference, would be the penalties contained in the confidentiality agreement," says Wiseman. "But [the bill] is so poorly worded, I cannot confirm that if an emergency responder or fire chief discloses that confidential information, they too would not be subject to a felony."</blockquote>Michael Biesecker of the Associated Press <a href="http://hamptonroads.com/2014/05/nc-board-members-met-lobbyist-fracking-rules" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 18.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">reported</a> last week that three members of the state's Mining and Energy Commission met privately with officials of companies that use fracking chemicals before the bill was introduced. Among them was Halliburton. The bill assigns the task of issuing fracking licenses to the commission.Greenpeace, which <a href="http://ecowatch.com/2014/05/16/emails-reveal-officials-close-with-fracking-lobbyest/" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">obtained a cache</a> of emails and meeting schedules from the MEC, concluded that there is a "cozy relationship" between the commission and industry.Please read below the fold for more on this bill.Sue Sturgis at the Institute for Southern Studies' "Facing South" blog <a href="http://www.southernstudies.org/2014/05/nc-fracking-bill-orders-prison-time-for-disclosing.html" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">wrote</a> that Halliburton's complaints had gotten an earlier bill pulled from consideration because it had more constraints on industry. A lobbyist for Halliburton and Koch Industries, D. Bowen "Bo" Heath, managed to get the bill removed in favor of model legislation drafted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC).The North Carolina Conservation Network <a href="http://frackfreenc.org/wp-content/uploads/s786-short-5-16-14.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(124, 71, 12); outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.4;">opposes</a> SB 786 for a number of reasons—for what it excludes as much as what is in it.Missing from the bill, the network says: regulation of "compulsory pooling," under which companies can drill on land without the owner's permission; disposal of fracking wastewater; contamination discovered after drilling is completed; and toxic air emissions from fracking. The bill would also cut in half the zone of liability for drillers who contaminate drinking water and would forbid local jurisdictions from banning fracking or regulating the siting of fracking wells.<a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/19/1300472/-NC-Republicans-push-industry-desires-in-bill-that-would-jail-anyone-who-discloses-fracking-chemicals" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/05/19/1300472/-NC-Republicans-push-industry-desires-in-bill-that-would-jail-anyone-who-discloses-fracking-chemicals</a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</div>=note not class action, presumably greg abbot not helpful?A jury in Dallas, TX today <a href="http://www.law360.com/energy/articles/530645/jury-awards-texas-family-2-9m-for-fracking-nuisance-claim" target="" style="color: rgb(0, 119, 136); text-decoration: none;">awarded $2.925 million</a> to plaintiffs Bob and Lisa Parr, who sued Barnett shale fracking company Aruba Petroleum Inc. for  <a href="http://www.wcmessenger.com/2014/update/trial-ends-with-3-million-award/" target="" style="color: rgb(0, 119, 136); text-decoration: none;">intentionally causing a nuisance</a> on the Parr's property which  <a href="http://www.myfoxdfw.com/story/25208355/first-fracking-trial-begins-in-dallas" target="" style="color: rgb(0, 119, 136); text-decoration: none;">impacted their health and ruined their drinking water</a>.The jury returned its 5-1 verdict confirming that Aruba Petroleum “intentionally created a private nuisance” though its drilling, fracking and production activities at 21 gas wells near the Parrs' Wise County home over a three-year period between 2008-2011.Plaintiffs attorneys claimed the case is “the first fracking verdict in U.S.history.” =see texas eagle ford shale sickness salon=<h1 class="title" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); text-rendering: optimizelegibility; line-height: 36px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Los Angeles Moves Closer To City Fracking Moratorium</h1>==

<a href="http://www.globalpossibilities.org/as-fracking-booms-growing-concerns-about-wastewater/"> http://www.globalpossibilities.org/as-fracking-booms-growing-concerns-about-wastewater/</a>

<a href="http://www.alternet.org/fracking/plan-proposed-allow-fracking-wastewater-be-shipped-barge-rivers-and-lakes">http://www.alternet.org/fracking/plan-proposed-allow-fracking-wastewater-be-shipped-barge-rivers-and-lakes</a>

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In this age of climate destabilization, including record bouts of drought, flooding and severe storms in the heartland, it seems almost unreal that the Democrat-controlled state of Illinois is leading the charge for a <a href="http://www.dontfractureillinois.net/" target="hplink" style=" color: rgb(202, 133, 0); text-decoration: none;">fracking</a> and <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/cheering-record-coal-expo_b_3202018.html" target="hplink" style=" color: rgb(202, 133, 0); text-decoration: none;">coal mining rush</a>.

And this week, as central and southern Illinois folks pick up the pieces from a horrific series of tornadoes, environmentalists and citizens groups are scurrying to respond to the unmitigated disaster of the <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-11-17/business/ct-biz-1117-fracking-analysis--20131117_1_fracking-key-provisions-natural-resources" target="_hplink" style=" color: rgb(202, 133, 0); text-decoration: none;">state's newly released fracking rules</a>.

"Behind the story you hear is the one I wish I could make you hear," my dear friend Dorothy Allison wrote in her book, Two or Three Things I Know For Sure.

While the <a href="http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-11-17/business/ct-biz-1117-fracking-analysis--20131117_1_fracking-key-provisions-natural-resources/2" target="hplink" style=" color: rgb(202, 133, 0); text-decoration: none;">news headlines</a> now tell us that "environmentalists feel betrayed by proposed fracking rules," the truth is -- as one southern Illinois resident told me -- the "criticisms are peanuts compared to what <a href="http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/pressreleases/coalition-denounces-legislation-that-would-pave-way-for-fracking-in-illinois/" target="hplink" style=" color: rgb(202, 133, 0); text-decoration: none;">environmentalists gave away to industry</a> in the negotiations that led to the statute."

Two or three things we know for sure: Southern Illinoisans have a long, long, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/extraction-frontlines-org_b_3880129.html" target="hplink" style=" color: rgb(202, 133, 0); text-decoration: none;">long history of betrayal over environmental</a> and community rights issues. Still deeply entrenched in poverty and unemployment, southern Illinois has been plundered for two centuries by the logging industry for its forests, plundered by the coal industry for its coal reserves, and is now on pace to be plundered for its oil and gas reserves (after a similar <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/8/16/boomtown-wrecks.html" target="hplink" style=" color: rgb(202, 133, 0); text-decoration: none;">oil rush in the 1940s</a>).

"The four organizations who betrayed Southern Illinoisans on the fracking bill -- Sierra Club, Natural Resources Defense Council, Environmental Law & Policy Center, Faith in Place -- are now whining that the legislation which they so loved last Spring has putrefied by Winter," said <a href="http://thesouthern.com/news/local/southern-star-sam-stears-shawnee-forest-are-inseparable/article_9fc23db8-df28-11df-993a-001cc4c002e0.html" target="_hplink" style=" color: rgb(202, 133, 0); text-decoration: none;">Sam Stearns</a>, a former oil rig worker, coal miner and long-time Shawnee National Forest activist in southern Illinois. "They might as well save their hand-wringing histrionics. We here in Southern Illinois have seen this show before."

Stearns added a quick history lesson:

It was the "professional" environmental organizations back in the 1970s who signed on to a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-biggers/extraction-frontlines-org_b_3880129.html" target="_hplink" style=" color: rgb(202, 133, 0); text-decoration: none;">watered down Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act</a> (SMCRA). SMCRA paved the way for the abomination of mountaintop removal mining. Here in Southern Illinois in the 1980s it was the Sierra Club which signed an agreement with the U. S. Forest Service allowing for logging on tens of thousands of acres of our Shawnee National Forest. This logging has been stayed for a couple of decades now thanks to the efforts of grassroots environmental activists; but in the interim this same Sierra Club has acquiesced to other environmental degradation on the Shawnee, including commercial development of Wilderness areas and the application of synthetic chemicals in designated Natural Areas on the Shawnee.

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And now, suddenly "betrayed" by Gov. Pat Quinn's Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), Chicago-based environmentalists like NRDC's Ann Alexander think the fracking regulations just "need fixing," to stem any concern about potential water contamination, earthquakes, air pollution, well abandonment and fracking.

Here are two or three more things we know for sure -- at least from environmentalists and citizens groups that live in the fracking-targeted region of southern Illinois, unlike those quoted in the various news articles:

1) Over the Next 40 Days, We Need to Bury the IDNR in Comments About the Loophole-Riddled Fracking Rule -- And Jump Start the Fracking Moratorium Movement: As Illinois native and renowned scientist <a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/planet/illinois-flawed-fracking-law-is-everyone-s-problem-ecologist-steingraber-says" target="hplink" style=" color: rgb(202, 133, 0); text-decoration: none;">Sandra Steingraber</a> has admonished -- and <a href="http://www.thirtydaysoffrackingregs.com/" target="hplink" style=" color: rgb(202, 133, 0); text-decoration: none;">done well in New York</a> -- the only way to keep Illinois from fast-tracking the incredibly flawed rules into law is to bury the understaffed IDNR officials during the public comment period, who are required to respond....

http://www.alternet.org/print/speakeasy/jeffbiggers/7-things-you-need-know-about-illinoiss-new-fracking-rules

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<figcaption class="credit" style="max-width: 100%; text-align: right; line-height: normal; margin: 2px; color: rgb(157, 157, 157);"><a title="image credit" href="http://crew.3cdn.net/29e185cb94de445559_rom6b5st3.pdf" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(119, 119, 119); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington</a></figcaption>

<figcaption class="caption" style=" max-width: 100%; margin: 0px 0px 4px;">Click to embiggen.</figcaption>

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The growing fracking industry is “yielding gushers” of campaign donations for congressional candidates — particularly Republicans from districts with fracking activity — according to <a href="http://crew.3cdn.net/29e185cb94de445559_rom6b5st3.pdf" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">a new report</a> [PDF] from the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

The report, “Natural Cash: How the Fracking Industry Fuels Congress,” examines a period spanning from 2004 to 2012. In that time, CREW finds, contributions from companies that operate hydraulic fracturing wells and fracking-related industry groups rose 180 percent, from $4.3 million nine years ago to about $12 million in the last election cycle.

These donations are flowing to members of Congress at a time when some legislators are trying to increase regulation of fracking, a process in which drillers inject a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals into the bedrock to release oil and natural gas reserves. The most serious of these legislative efforts is the <a href="http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.2766:" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">FRAC Act</a>. First introduced in 2009, the act would require EPA regulation of the industry and would force fracking companies to disclose the chemicals that they inject under high pressure into the ground. Both the House and Senate versions of the bill are stalled in committee.

“So far, the industry has successfully fended off almost all federal regulation of fracking,” CREW’s report notes. The report adds that the biggest increase in donations from the fracking industry came between 2010 and 2012, when Congress was particularly active on fracking issues.

Candidates from districts where fracking is concentrated — CREW identifies 94 such districts — experienced the biggest windfall. (CREW built an <a href="http://www.citizensforethics.org/pages/map-states-where-the-fracking-industry-is-active" target="_blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">interactive map</a> showing the industry’s contributions over time in states home to fracking.) The industry’s political contributions to those candidates rose 231 percent, from $2.1 million to $6.9 million. That’s nearly twice the increase in their contributions to senators and members of Congress from districts without any fracking activity. CREW identified ExxonMobil, Chevron, and Chesapeake Energy as the industry’s three largest donors.

The fracking industry’s increase in giving far outstrips the increase in political donations from the oil and gas sector at large, which rose 104 percent over the same period. The whole oil and gas sector gave $35.6 million to congressional candidates in last year’s election.

Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas) was head and shoulders above his fellow candidates in donations from the fracking industry. Barton accepted more than half a million dollars — $100,000 more than any other candidate. In the past, he chaired the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and he sponsored legislation in 2005 <a href="http://www.publicintegrity.org/2010/11/04/2359/joe-barton-energy-and-commerce-committee" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">to exempt the fracking industry</a> from the Safe Drinking Water Act. A version of that bill became law and prevented the EPA from exercising key oversight over fracking activity.

Republicans in general benefited from the industry’s largesse far more than Democrats. “Nearly 80 percent of fracking industry contributions to congressional candidates went to Republicans,” the report notes. Republican candidates from fracking districts saw their donations from this sector go up 268 percent. According to the report, only six of the top 50 recipients of fracking industry contributions among current members were Democrats.” Only one Democrat — Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana — cracked the top 10 list of fracking money recipients.

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<h1 class="title-news" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 20px 0px 0px; border: 0px; overflow: visible; color: rgb(17, 17, 17); line-height: 36px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">House Republicans Have Passed 3 Bills To Help The Natural Gas Industry Just This Week</h1>

Posted: 11/21/2013 5:33 pm EST  |  Updated: 11/21/2013 5:51 pm EST

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<p style="list-style: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; overflow: visible; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); text-indent: 1.5em; text-align: justify; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">WASHINGTON -- Republicans in the House have been busy this week, passing three pieces of legislation that would help the natural gas industry by circumventing environmental regulations and making it easier to drill for and transport fossil fuels.

President Barack Obama has issued a <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/190703-white-house-waves-veto-pen-at-gop-fracking-energy-bills" target="_hplink" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; overflow: visible; outline: 0px; color: rgb(0, 136, 195) !important; text-indent: 0px !important;">veto threat</a> for all three bills, and they are unlikely to make it through the Senate.

The bills, should they became law, would benefit the thriving domestic oil and gas industry. The sector is growing largely as a result of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a process that involves injecting wells with a mix of water, sand and chemicals to release oil and gas trapped in rock. But many Democrats and environmentalists worry that the bills help the energy industry at the expense of the environment.

The House approved the first bill on Wednesday, a measure to <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/20/house-oil-and-gas-bill_n_4312118.html?utm_hp_ref=green" target="hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; overflow: visible; outline: 0px; color: rgb(0, 136, 195) !important; text-indent: 0px !important;">expedite permitting</a> for oil and gas drilling. Later in the day, the House also voted to prevent the Department of the Interior from implementing proposed rules that would require full disclosure of fracking chemicals, and would govern<a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/votes/190977-house-votes-to-block-federal-fracking-rules" target="hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; overflow: visible; outline: 0px; color: rgb(0, 136, 195) !important; text-indent: 0px !important;">hydraulic fracturing</a> on public lands. Both bills garnered <a href="http://grist.org/news/the-three-anti-environmental-bills-that-are-wasting-congress-time/#.Uo4fQzwtqMc.twitter" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; overflow: visible; outline: 0px; color: rgb(0, 136, 195) !important; text-indent: 0px !important;">around 10 Democratic votes</a>.

Rep. Bill Flores (R-Texas) sponsored Wednesday's bill to block the Interior Department's rules for fracking on federal and Native American lands. The bill's supporters say the rules are unnecessary, as states often have their own fracking regulations or guidelines. Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee and a co-sponsor of the bill, <a href="http://naturalresources.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=362363" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; overflow: visible; outline: 0px; color: rgb(0, 136, 195) !important; text-indent: 0px !important;">argued</a> that "imposing a 'one-size-fits-all' federal regulatory structure, as the Obama Administration is attempting to do, is both unnecessary and simply will not work."

The bill's critics say that many state regulations are too weak, and that strong federal regulations should take precedence. Courtney Abrams, federal clean water program director for advocacy group Environment America, called the bill "reckless" in a statement, arguing that the bill "puts our special places and the communities that rely on them for drinking water and recreation at risk from fracking."

House Science Committee Chairman Lamar Smith (R-Texas) also attached a provision to the Flores bill that would modify the Environmental Protection Agency's ongoing study of fracking's effects on drinking water. "In its zeal to regulate, the EPA too often has rushed to link water contamination to hydraulic fracturing," <a href="http://science.house.gov/press-release/house-passes-science-committee-bill-improve-epa-s-hydraulic-fracturing-study" target="_hplink" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; overflow: visible; outline: 0px; color: rgb(0, 136, 195) !important; text-indent: 0px !important;">Smith said</a> in a statement after the bill passed, adding that the "legislation holds the EPA accountable by requiring the agency to provide context for any identified risks." WTF does that mean?

The other bill passed Wednesday came from Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.), and would speed up permitting for oil and gas drilling. Lamborn said the bill was meant to expand the domestic energy boom beyond state and private lands. "The only reason we haven't seen that same dynamic growth on federal lands is because of excess regulations," Lamborn told the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/20/house-oil-and-gas-bill_n_4312118.html?utm_hp_ref=green" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; overflow: visible; outline: 0px; color: rgb(0, 136, 195) !important; text-indent: 0px !important;">Associated Press</a>, in reference to energy development already underway in North Dakota, Montana, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia.

The third bill, passed mid-day Thursday, was the <a href="http://energycommerce.house.gov/fact-sheet/hr-1900-natural-gas-pipeline-permitting-reform-act" target="hplink" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; overflow: visible; outline: 0px; color: rgb(0, 136, 195) !important; text-indent: 0px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Natural Gas Pipeline Permitting Reform Act</a>, from Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.). The bill would compel regulators to issue rulings on natural gas <a href="http://www.kansas.com/2013/05/09/2796060/pompeo-co-sponsors-bill-to-speed.html" target="hplink" style="list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; border-image-source: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-width: initial; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; overflow: visible; outline: 0px; color: rgb(0, 136, 195) !important; text-indent: 0px !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">pipeline permits</a> more promptly. That bill passed with 26 Democratic votes, many from oil- and gas-producing states.

<a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/votes/190935-house-advances-third-energy-bill" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; overflow: visible; outline: 0px; color: rgb(0, 136, 195) !important; text-indent: 0px !important;">The Hill</a> reports that Rep. James McGovern (D-Mass.) expressed concern that the pipeline permitting bill "may result in truncated or inadequate environmental analysis, which threatens the health and safety of communities these potentially hazardous pipelines run through."

The White House also expressed skepticism of the measure. "The bill's requirements could force agencies to make decisions based on incomplete information or information that may not be available within the stringent deadlines, and to deny applications that otherwise would have been approved, but for lack of sufficient review time," the White House said in a <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/legislative/sap/113/saphr1900r_20131119.pdf" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; overflow: visible; outline: 0px; color: rgb(0, 136, 195) !important; text-indent: 0px !important;">statement</a>.

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<a href="http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/index.php/Eco-heroes#People">http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/index.php/Eco-heroes#People</a>

<a href="http://greenpride.typepad.com/greenpride_celebrating_be/2008/12/ruckus-at-blms-public-land-lease-auction.html" class="external text" title="http://greenpride.typepad.com/greenpride celebrating be/2008/12/ruckus-at-blms-public-land-lease-auction.html" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(253, 154, 38); text-decoration: none; background-image: url("http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png"); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding-right: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Tim DeChristopher</a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline !important;">, a student, bid up BLM oil lease auction, monkey-wrenching to protect our land from our companies, for which he will probably face charges. <a href="http://oneutah.org/2008/12/20/why-i-disrupted-a-fraudulent-auction/" class="external text" title="http://oneutah.org/2008/12/20/why-i-disrupted-a-fraudulent-auction/" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(253, 154, 38); text-decoration: none; background-image: url("http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png"); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding-right: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">His statement</a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline !important;"> on why he did it, with a link to his legal defense fund. <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=67983060464" class="external text" title="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=67983060464" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(253, 154, 38); text-decoration: none; background-image: url("http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png"); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding-right: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Facebook page</a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline !important;">. <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/22/now_is_our_time_to_take" class="external text" title="http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/22/now is our time to take" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(253, 154, 38); text-decoration: none; background-image: url("http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png"); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding-right: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Powershift 2011 talk</a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline !important;"> (video excepts). <a href="http://grist.org/list/tim-dechristopher-put-in-isolated-confinement/" class="external text" title="http://grist.org/list/tim-dechristopher-put-in-isolated-confinement/" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(253, 154, 38); text-decoration: none; background-image: url("http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png"); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding-right: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">UPDATE: he's been put under harsh conditions</a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline !important;"> 3/12. <a href="http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6598" class="external text" title="http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6598" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(253, 154, 38); text-decoration: none; background-image: url("http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png"); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding-right: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Indepth interview</a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline !important;"> by author <a href="http://www.commonbook.rctc.project.mnscu.edu/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={F7C6C6AB-CCB3-4574-9F5D-3750C864A303}" class="external text" title="http://www.commonbook.rctc.project.mnscu.edu/index.asp?Type=B BASIC&SEC={F7C6C6AB-CCB3-4574-9F5D-3750C864A303}" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(253, 154, 38); text-decoration: none; background-image: url("http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png"); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding-right: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Terry Tempest Williams</a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline !important;"> 4/12. <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/21/bidder-70-documentary-tim-dechristopher_n_1615406.html?view=print&comm_ref=false" class="external text" title="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/21/bidder-70-documentary-tim-dechristopher n 1615406.html?view=print&comm ref=false" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(253, 154, 38); text-decoration: none; background-image: url("http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png"); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding-right: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">New video documentary</a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline !important;"> 6.12. <a href="http://www.globalpossibilities.org/a-brilliant-activist-shows-us-a-path-to-real-change-through-civil-disobedience/" class="external text" title="http://www.globalpossibilities.org/a-brilliant-activist-shows-us-a-path-to-real-change-through-civil-disobedience/" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(253, 154, 38); text-decoration: none; background-image: url("http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png"); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding-right: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Tim DeChristopher,</a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline !important;">(profiled in the recent documentary, <a href="http://www.bidder70film.com/" class="external text" title="http://www.bidder70film.com/" rel="nofollow" style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(253, 154, 38); text-decoration: none; background-image: url("http://www.ic.ucsc.edu/college8core/c8wiki/skins/monobook/external.png"); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); padding-right: 13px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-position: 100% 50%; background-repeat: no-repeat;">Bidder 70</a><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 16.7031px; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); float: none; display: inline !important;">), famously bid on public lands in Utah to prevent their sale to gas and oil companies, and served two years in federal prison for his actions. His civil disobedience, though spontaneous, ultimately caused the cancellation of the auction sales.

[http://greenpride.typepad.com/greenpride_celebrating_be/2008/12/ruckus-at-blms-public-land-lease-auction.html Tim DeChristopher], a student, bid up  BLM oil lease auction, monkey-wrenching to protect our land from our companies, for which he will probably face charges.  [http://oneutah.org/2008/12/20/why-i-disrupted-a-fraudulent-auction/ His statement] on why he did it, with a link to his legal defense fund. [http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=67983060464 Facebook page]. [http://www.democracynow.org/2011/4/22/now_is_our_time_to_take Powershift 2011 talk] (video excepts). [http://grist.org/list/tim-dechristopher-put-in-isolated-confinement/ UPDATE: he's been put under harsh conditions] 3/12.  [http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6598 Indepth interview] by author [http://www.commonbook.rctc.project.mnscu.edu/index.asp?Type=B_BASIC&SEC={F7C6C6AB-CCB3-4574-9F5D-3750C864A303} Terry Tempest Williams] 4/12. [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/21/bidder-70-documentary-tim-dechristopher_n_1615406.html?view=print&comm_ref=false New video documentary] 6.12. Extensive [http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/nature/The-Trials-of-Bidder-70.html?page=all article at Outside Mag].

==

<a href="http://www.globalpossibilities.org/handouts-for-frackers-the-pennsylvania-plan-to-give-drillers-1-billion/">http://www.globalpossibilities.org/handouts-for-frackers-the-pennsylvania-plan-to-give-drillers-1-billion/</a>

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PARIS, Oct 11 (Reuters) – France’s constitutional council rejected on Friday a challenge to a law banning hydraulic fracturing for exploration and production of the country’s shale gas and oil.

The ruling is a boost for President Francois Hollande, who has opposed the technology alongside ecologist Greens in his ruling coalition – to the dismay of some allies who believe France is sacrificing access to a cheap source of energy.

U.S-based firm Schuepbach Energy had challenged on four counts a ban introduced in 2011 due to potential risks to the environment, which led to two of its exploration permits being cancelled in southern France.

“The constitutional council threw out these four complaints and ruled that the disputed components of the July 13, 2011 law comply with the constitution,” the court said in a statement.

The Constitutional Council, made up of judges and former French presidents, has the power to annul laws if they are deemed to be unconstitutional.

France’s Energy Minister Philippe Martin said the ruling meant the law banning fracking, in which pressurised water, chemicals and sand are pumped underground to release gas trapped in shale formations, was now safe from other legal challenges.

“It’s a legal victory, but also an environmental and political one,” Martin said at a news briefing.

==

[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/12/environmental-fracking-bill_n_3916763.html?view=print&comm_ref=false Environmental Groups Bail On California Fracking Bill] 9/13.

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<div class="byline environment" style="">Media Matters / By <a href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/denise-robbins" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Denise Robbins</a> [1]</div>

<h1 property="dc:title" datatype="" class="node-title">Media Tout Pro-Fracking Report, Fail to Mention it Was Funded By the Gas Industry</h1>

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<div class="story-date" style="">September 5, 2013  |  </div>

Multiple mainstream media outlets have covered a new report touting the economic benefits from hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") without disclosing the report's industry funding.

The recently released <a href="http://www.ihs.com/images/Americas-New-Energy-Future-Mfg-Renaissance-Main-Report-Sept13.pdf" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">study</a> [2], titled "America's New Energy Future: The Unconventional Oil & Gas Revolution and the US Economy," received widespread media attention on Thursday. The report, conducted by consulting group IHS CERA, was commissioned by multiple fossil fuel organizations that stand to benefit from growth in the oil and gas industry. According to the <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/09/04/us-energy-economy-impact/2742461/" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">report</a> [3], the increase in unconventional oil and natural gas extraction has added an average of $1,200 in discretionary income to each US household in 2012, and now supports 1.2 million jobs -- projected to increase to 3.3 million by 2020. These figures are much <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/09/04/us-energy-economy-impact/2742461/" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">larger</a> [3] than the findings of many previous economic studies.

However, multiple major news outlets, including <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/04/us-usa-oil-economy-idUSBRE9830NQ20130904" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Reuters</a> [4], <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/101008749" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">CNBC</a> [5], <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidblackmon/2013/09/04/behold-the-bounty-that-shale-oil-and-natural-gas-have-wrought/" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Forbes.com</a> [6], and the <a href="http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-oil-natural-gas-household-income-1200-20130904,0,5435572.story" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Los Angeles Times</a> [7], covered the new report with no mention of its financial ties to the industry. The research was monetarily <a href="http://www.ihs.com/images/Americas-New-Energy-Future-Mfg-Renaissance-Exec-Sum-Sept13.pdf" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">supported </a> [8]by America's Natural Gas Alliance, the American Petroleum Institute, the American Chemistry Council, the Natural Gas Supply Association, and others who stand to gain economically from an <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2012/06/21/myths-and-facts-about-natural-gas/184994#regulation">unregulated</a>[9] increase in fracking. Kyle Isakower, vice president of regulatory policy at the American Petroleum Institute -- the largest trade association for the oil and gas industry -- <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/shale-study-promises-huge-gains-33-million-jobs-by-20-701889/#ixzz2e1fv8APu" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">lauded</a> [10] the new report, saying "[f]or an organization like the American Petroleum Institute, being able to cite the findings and reputation of IHS goes a long way toward making its point to government officials." According to <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/stories/business/news/shale-study-promises-huge-gains-33-million-jobs-by-20-701889/#ixzz2e1fv8APu" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Steve Forde</a> [10], vice president of policy and communication at the Marcellus Shale Coalition (an industry trade group), economic impact studies such as this are "an important advocacy tool" for industry development.

<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-04/fracking-boom-seen-raising-household-incomes-by-1-200.html" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Bloomberg</a> [11], which did disclose the report's industry ties, reported that the IHS report didn't take potential environmental impacts from extracting unconventional oil and gas through drilling and fracking, such as <a href="http://mediamatters.org/research/2012/06/21/myths-and-facts-about-natural-gas/184994#water" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">groundwater contamination</a> [12] and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/science/earth/hydrofracking-could-strain-western-water-resources-study-finds.html?_r=0" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">strains on water resources</a> [13], into account.

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<div class="tags" style="">See more stories tagged with:

<div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/fracking-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">fracking</a> [14]</div>

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<div class="print-source_url" style="">Source URL: <a href="http://www.alternet.org/environment/media-tout-pro-fracking-report-fail-mention-it-was-funded-gas-industry" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">http://www.alternet.org/environment/media-tout-pro-fracking-report-fail-mention-it-was-funded-gas-industry</a></div>

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[http://grist.org/news/california-illinois-lawmakers-welcome-frackers/ California, Illinois lawmakers welcome frackers] 6/13 [http://www.globalpossibilities.org/california-poised-to-enact-dangerous-fracking-bill/ 9/13 update].

==

Edward McAllister

NEW YORK, Sept 9 (Reuters) - Chesapeake Energy Corp has agreed to release more than 13,000 acres of land leased for oil and gas drilling in New York state as a ban on fracking extends into its sixth year, a statement from lawyers involved in the case confirmed on Monday.

The Oklahoma-based company agreed to terminate the leases in Tioga and Broome counties in the southern portion of the state, ending a two-year legal battle with over 200 landowners, according to law firm Levene Gouldin & Thompson, which represented landowners.

The impending deal was reported by Reuters last month.

Chesapeake had been appealing a federal court ruling in November that stated the company could not use a state ban on high volume hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking, as a reason to declare force majeure and extend leases beyond their expiry without offering landowners better terms.

Some landowners, who signed their leases during the last 13 years before a U.S. drilling boom boosted land prices in gas-rich areas like New York, had been calling for a release from the leases to seek more lucrative deals from other energy firms. Other landowners are now opposed to any drilling on their land altogether.

Chesapeake's decision to now drop the leases is a sign of energy firms' growing frustration over operating in the Empire State, where most drilling has been on hold since 2008. It is also an indication of how the Oklahoma-based company is reining in spending after years of aggressive acreage buying left it with towering debt.

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On Thursday, August 29th, Dorothy Reik, a <a href="http://moveon.org/" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(25, 63, 146); line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MoveOn.org</a> member from Topanga, to delivered over 70,000 petition signatures from from MoveOn, CREDO, and Friends of the Earth to State Assemblyman Mike Gatto’s (CA-43) and Assembly Speaker John Pérez’s (CA-53) offices, urging them to add an immediate moratorium on fracking to State Sen. Fran Pavley’s regulatory bill (SB4). The bill originally contained a moratorium on fracking, but it was stripped out in the Senate due to industry pressure. MoveOn member

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pro publica coverage: <a href="http://www.propublica.org/series/fracking">http://www.propublica.org/series/fracking</a>

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<a href="http://grist.org/news/illinois-town-bans-stripping-because-of-fracking/">http://grist.org/news/illinois-town-bans-stripping-because-of-fracking/</a>

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With now-Secretary of State Scott Gessler as lead attorney, in 2009 Western Tradition Partnership filed suit against Longmont’s Fair Campaign Practices Act.  Western Tradition Partnership also funded the Longmont Leadership Committee who conducted a political campaign that unabashedly lied in order to oust certain council members in 2009 and replace them with members who would promote their radical agenda and who would consistently vote their rabid anti-environmentalism and their absolutism on property rights

After Bryan Baum, mayor, and his majority won the 2009 election, they directed that the Campaign Practices Act lawsuit be settled, and Gessler was paid $68,500.  Following that the Campaign Practices Act had much, if not most, of its transparency removed.  Only 19 words were changed because of the lawsuit.  The rest of the changes were instituted because the Baum majority wanted those changes.  They were dutifully following the Republican playbook which opposes campaign contribution restrictions and transparency.

Western Tradition Partnership renamed itself American Tradition Partnership.  Even though they are a 501c4 and can’t officially endorse candidates, they have thus far sent out two mailers — one that essentially endorses Bryan Baum and Heath Carroll (at-large) and the other against Sean McCoy and Sarah Levison.

Contrary to the assertion in the mailer, American Tradition Partnership is NOT a local organization.  They were organized first in the state of Montana by two Republican state legislators.  They later registered in Colorado.  However, I have no doubt that there are members of our community, who have had and likely will have business before the city, who have chosen this avenue to contribute sums in excess of the $200/per person candidate campaign limit and to keep those contributions secret.

Under their previous name, Western (now American) Tradition Partnership was taken before the Montana Political Practices Commission for their campaign practices and attacks against Democratic candidates in Montana for the same practices that WTP used in Longmont in 2009 through the Longmont Leadership Committee.

The Montana Political Practices Commission in its ruling effectively called the organization “corrupt.”  The Commission heard testimony from a former employee of Western Tradition Partnership that indicated that the organization promotes itself by telling contributors that their identities will never be known and that some of WTP’s contributions had origins in foreign countries, a violation of U.S. law.

Why all the interest in Longmont from an organization such as American Tradition Partnership?

In Western Tradition Partnership’s 2008  IRS “990” filing , Western Tradition Partnership had $665,725 in contributions.  That was their first year in existence and the only documentation located to date.  These contributions clearly come from the oil, gas and coal industries whose interests are the first priorities of Western/American Tradition Partnership and ultimately motivate other political activities.

During the first decade of the 21st century, Colorado’s state government shifted Democratic after a long history of being Republican.  This change did not facilitate the interests of American Tradition Partnership.  Longmont, a community that Republicans had consistently counted on as a Republican stronghold, was moving Democratic as well.  In order for Republicans to retake control of state government, Longmont needed to be recaptured.

Operating Oil/Gas Drill Sites

Because of advancements in oil and gas extraction technology, it is now possible to retrieve oil and gas that was previously uneconomical to recover.  These techniques include directional and horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing.  Colorado is among those states that have many of these deposits.  The Wattenberg field is the 10th largest gas field and 13th largest oil field in the nation.  It may come as a surprise that some of these deposits are under property owned by the City of Longmont.  At least 54 of the identified wells are at the edge of or under Union Reservoir itself!

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dn 7/12/13

<h1 class="pageTitle" itemprop="name" style=" margin: 0px 0px 15px 20px; padding: 0px; direction: ltr; width: 820px; color: rgb(62, 31, 33);">Josh Fox on Gasland Part 2, the Fracking-Earthquake Link & the Natural Gas Industry’s Use of PSYOPs</h1>

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Scientists are warning that the controversial practice of natural gas hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, may lead to far more powerful earthquakes than previously thought. Fracking injects millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals deep into the earth in order to break up shale rock and release natural gas. A new study published Thursday in the journal Science by a leading seismology lab warns that pumping water underground can induce dangerous earthquakes, even in regions not otherwise prone to tremors. The new report comes as Academy Award-nominated director Josh Fox has released the sequel to his highly acclaimed documentary "Gasland," which sparked a national discussion on fracking. The new film, "Gasland Part II," exposes how the gas industry and the government’s portrayal of natural gas as a clean and safe alternative to oil is highly suspect. He also discusses how drilling companies have admitted to having several former military psychological operations, or PSYOPs, specialists on staff, applying their skills in Pennsylvania to counter opponents of drilling. "What’s really disappointing about this is that this is a moment when an American president has come forward and spoken about climate change and exhibited his obvious and earnest desire to take on the problem; however, the emphasis on fracked gas makes this plan entirely the wrong plan," says Fox, noting that methane released from fracking sites is more potent than other greenhouse gases. "Moving from coal to fracked gas doesn’t give you any climate benefit at all. So the plan should be about how we’re moving off of fossil fuels and onto alternate energy."

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JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Scientists are warning that the controversial practice of fracking may lead to far more powerful earthquakes than previously thought. Fracking injects millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals deep into the earth in order to break up shale rock and release natural gas. Now a new study published Thursday in the journal Science by one of the world’s leading seismology labs warns that pumping water underground can induce dangerous earthquakes even in regions not otherwise prone to tremors. The research also reveals that long-term water pumping makes sites more vulnerable to sizable tremors triggered by earthquakes occurring in other parts of the world.

AMY GOODMAN: The new report comes as Academy Award-nominated director Josh Fox has released the sequel to his highly acclaimed documentary Gasland that sparked a national discussion on fracking. The new film, Gasland Part II, exposes how the gas industry’s portrayal of natural gas as a clean and safe alternative to oil is highly suspect. It shows that fracked wells inevitably leak over time, and these leaks can then contaminate the environment, sicken residents and exacerbate climate change. This is the film’s trailer.

JOSH FOX: My name is Josh Fox. It’s been five years since the first proposal to drill thousands of gas wells came knocking at my door. And with thousands of cases of water contamination, air pollution and health problems across the U.S., it’s not just the numbers that get you dizzy.

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UNIDENTIFIED: This is where we eat, sleep, live. This is our home.

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GAS INDUSTRY SPOKESPERSON: We have found no instance of hydraulic fracturing harming groundwater.

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UNIDENTIFIED: They want a street fight out of this.

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UNIDENTIFIED: Never underestimate the power of money.

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UNIDENTIFIED: It’s scary when your own government is afraid of a business.

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UNIDENTIFIED: People complain about the price of gas. Wait 'til you're paying twice that for water.

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AMY GOODMAN: That was the trailer of Gasland Part II. The film premiered earlier this week on HBO. Josh Fox’s previous documentary, Gasland, was nominated for an Academy Award.

AMY GOODMAN: What did you find in part two? And start by talking about the significance of this Science journal study in relating earthquakes with fracking.

JOSH FOX: Well, first, in terms of earthquakes, which we do cover in the new film because there’s a huge shale play in California, and in fact there’s a Legacy thousand-acre oil field in the center of Los Angeles, which is being drilled and fracked right on top of the Newport-Inglewood fault line—the earthquake study showed that earthquakes far away, you know, on the other side of the planet, could then trigger bigger earthquakes where they have injection well facilities. So, injection well facilities are used for fracking waste. Fracking, you know, creates an enormous amount of wastewater. When they frack the wells with two to nine million gallons per well of fluid and water, that fluid has to come back up and be disposed of somehow. The industry has a huge problem figuring out how to dispose of it, so they inject it back down into the ground. And what the report says is that fault lines are becoming critically stressed by the process of injection wells. It also says that the fracking itself can cause minor earthquakes.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Josh, your original film has provoked quite a bit of effort to discredit some portions of the film, especially the now-legendary portion of people’s faucets catching fire. Can you talk about the efforts of the industry to discredit your work?

JOSH FOX: Well, the oil and gas industry has been attacking the film, the families in the film, the scientists in the film, consistently for the last three years since it came out, and they’re at it again with this new film. It’s extraordinarily disheartening to see that this is their strategy. It’s deny, deny, deny, spread money around, try to influence politicians, spend lots and lots of money in the media to convince Americans that it’s a great idea to drill one to two million new gas wells. Those are the projections. The oil and gas industry has leased more land than the total landmass of California and Florida combined, which means that a lot of those adjacent properties in these 34 states where the drilling campaign is going on are also influenced, so it’s maybe twice that amount of area. It really is shocking that what they’re saying, similar to the way that they attack climate science, that some of these things are a hoax, that they’re not actually true. This is a really blatant attack on the science, on the way that this issue has been reported for the last three-and-a-half years. And they also revealed themselves to be doing some kind of dastardly things in the background without us knowing about it.

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s go to Jeremiah Gee—is that how you pronounce his name?

JOSH FOX: Sure, yeah.

AMY GOODMAN: —in Tioga County, Pennsylvania, explaining what it’s like to live next door to land being leased to Shell Appalachia for gas drilling.

JOSH FOX: Contaminants were running off the site onto his property and killing his family’s pond. Under the ground, methane had migrated into their water well.

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JEREMIAH GEE: Holy cow!

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JOSH FOX: Yeah. Well, this is very common. The gas migrates from these leaking gas wells into aquifers and then people who are using their groundwater.

AMY GOODMAN: Jeremiah Gee here explains the situation with his water supply.

JEREMIAH GEE: You know I’ll get a phone call in a few minutes asking why I was up here with a guy with a camera. We were told point blank that the word "freshwater" does not mean what you think it means. Freshwater means fresh to this site. Every bit of water that will be coming here and used in the frack tanks has already been used at a different site.

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AMY GOODMAN: Josh Fox, talk about how the industry deals with communities. You have an astounding section in Gasland II that has audio of the industry talking to each other, talking about how they’re using military, and talking about how they consider you and the people who are fighting back insurgents.

JOSH FOX: Well, this is audio that was recorded by a blogger named Texas Sharon, working for Earthworks, who was at an oil and gas industry conference where they were discussing all the bad PR that they were getting and how to counter it. And what they go on to do is explain how they’re using former PSYOPs officers, psychological operations officers, who were newly coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan, to write local laws, to develop techniques to divide local landowners. That’s Matt Pitzarella from Range Resources talking about that. Chesapeake then goes on to talk about people who are fighting the gas industry, like landowners, like you just saw, Jeremiah Gee, as insurgents. And one of the PR spokespeople for Anadarko, another huge petroleum company, says that what they should actually do is download the counterinsurgency manual, which is a 300-odd-page book about, you know, how to deal with an insurgency in Iraq and Afghanistan. These are terms of war, and it was very, very shocking to see that.

But it goes hand in hand with a strategy that’s very overt in the media, which is to buy—you can’t turn on the TV, except for perhaps this show, where you’re not going to see ads from the natural gas industry. And we’re seeing also editorials and these kinds of things on blog posts seeded to do things to try to discredit the very clear science, and in most cases the science that the industry themselves did. This is following the tobacco industry’s playbook. The tobacco industry for decades sponsored bogus science, went out to try to create doubt in the media as to whether or not the cigarettes were harmful to people. And that strategy was developed by a PR firm called Hill & Knowlton. The America’s Natural Gas Alliance hired the same PR firm in 2009, and we’re seeing that same kind of strategy of creating doubt and of creating a false debate in the media over whether or not this drilling contaminates water.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Well, Josh, let’s—I want to turn to Tom Ridge, the former governor of Pennsylvania, the first secretary of homeland security and an outspoken supporter of the natural gas industry. Ridge says natural gas is a matter of economic security and energy independence. I want to go to a clip of his in an interview on The Colbert Report.

TOM RIDGE: Pennsylvania is sitting on top of something I think could be a—could lead a renaissance in America with regard to energy, not only in terms of creating jobs, but making us more secure, less dependent on foreign sources. And so, my job—and I do have a paid job as a consultant with the industry—is to make sure, as Pennsylvania, that we take advantage of that resources—that resource and develop it in a way that’s consistent with workplace safety, with environmentally sound principles, and to help us become—create great jobs in Pennsylvania and become less dependent on foreign sources of fuel.

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JUAN GONZÁLEZ: The host, Stephen Colbert, then asked Tom Ridge about the phenomena of flaming water. This was Ridge’s response.

TOM RIDGE: Whether or not you want to send a billion dollars a day to foreign countries, some of whom were either unstable or unfriendly countries. It’s a matter of whether or not you want a bunch of leaders in a bunch of countries deciding they’re not going to increase their production of oil, which means our gas prices go through the roof. It’s a matter of economic security. It’s a matter of national security.

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JUAN GONZÁLEZ: That was Tom Ridge, former governor of Pennsylvania and an outspoken supporter of the natural gas industry.

JOSH FOX: Well, Tom Ridge had a $900,000 contract to be the chief spokesman for the Marcellus Shale Coalition. At around the same time, we noticed that the Department of Homeland Security, which—of course, Tom Ridge was the first Department of Homeland Security chair—the Pennsylvania Department of Homeland Security started circulating bulletins to law enforcement that listed anti-fracking organizations as possible ecoterrorists, which had no basis in reality. There had never been anything at all violent. These were people doing democratic organizing and organization. But then it was discovered that the Department of Homeland Security was actually circulating those bulletins directly to the Marcellus Shale Coalition and to other gas industry lobbyists and stakeholders. This was a scandal in Pennsylvania, which ended up with the DHS head resigning. But Tom Ridge and a lot of—three Pennsylvania governors in a row—Tom Ridge, Ed Rendell and now Tom Corbett—have heavy ties to the gas industry and go on to advocate for fracking and drilling without disclosing those ties in the media. It’s a situation where, in a <a href="http://public-accountability.org/2013/02/fracking-and-the-revolving-door-in-pennsylvania/" style=" color: rgb(51, 102, 153); text-decoration: none; outline: 0px;">report</a> by the Public Accountability Initiative called "Fracking and the Revolving Door in Pennsylvania," they describe as having the regulatory agencies and the democracy itself being taken away from the citizens. And that’s really the journey and the question behind this new film. The film is—you know, the first film features a lot of people lighting their water on fire. This is a film about the natural gas industry lighting our democracy on fire.

AMY GOODMAN: And it’s not just the industry. As you point out, I mean, Tom Ridge was former head of homeland security, former governor of Pennsylvania, now paid to speak for the energy industry. But then you have President Obama. Last month, he delivered a major address on global warming and hailed natural gas drilling. Let’s go to a clip.

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Now, even as we’re producing more domestic oil, we’re also producing more cleaner-burning natural gas than any other country on Earth. And again, sometimes there are disputes about natural gas, but let me say this: We should strengthen our position as the top natural gas produce, because in the medium term, at least, it not only can provide safe, cheap power, but it can also help reduce our carbon emissions.

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JOSH FOX: Well, this is President Obama advocating for fracking without ever saying the word "fracking," both domestically, also for export, and around the world in an initiative to promote shale gas and fracking around the world. What’s really disappointing about this is that this is a moment when an American president has come forward and spoken about climate change and exhibited his obvious and earnest desire to take on the problem; however, the emphasis on fracked gas makes this plan entirely the wrong plan. The plan focuses on carbon dioxide, but how we count global warming potential is in carbon dioxide equivalence, and methane, which is leaking out of these sites in very large quantities, is a super greenhouse gas. It’s up to a hundred times more potent than CO2 in the atmosphere, which means if you have more than 1 percent methane leakage, it’s like burning the gas twice. In the field, we’re seeing 7 to 17 percent of total production methane leaking into the atmosphere. Moving from coal to fracked gas doesn’t give you any climate benefit at all. So the plan should be about how we’re moving off of fossil fuels and onto renewable energy, which is what we know can power the planet, as we—with current technology. So, this administration—

AMY GOODMAN: What’s stopping that?

JOSH FOX: Well, you know, this administration has done a lot of meetings with the natural gas industry. We know that. There is, I think, an undue influence of their promotion of themselves on the policy. And what we’re doing right now is asking President Obama, "Please, meet with the families and the scientists and engineers in the new film. Give us an opportunity to make the case, have equal time." This president’s legacy should not be one of just meeting with the corporations. He should meet with the people who are coming out and are saying—who are emblematic of thousands who are suffering at the hands of this huge drilling campaign. So we’ve submitted those letters to the White House, to the vice president, to the energy secretary, to Valerie Jarrett, and done this in a very public way, appealing to say, "Listen, you can’t go ahead and advocate for fracked gas and try to deal with climate change at the same time. It’s a policy contradiction."

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And speaking of speaking with the people, New York state has—continues to have an ongoing very vocal and extensive popular campaign that has actually been preventing Governor Cuomo from doing what a lot of people think he wants to do, which is go ahead with fracking here.

JOSH FOX: New York state did something very unusual that other states didn’t do: They used democracy. They did an environmental impact study, and that environmental impact study has comment periods. And New Yorkers flooded those comment sessions. The latest comment review got 204,000 public comments by New Yorkers. This is unprecedented. The last record for pre-fracking issue on an environmental impact study was a thousand comments. So we’ve seen an unprecedented outpouring of people in New York participating democratically, and that has stopped the most powerful industries on the face of the planet. And it’s still not over, of course. But I think people are seeing the citizens of New York and the way the government in New York has handled it to allow citizen participation as an example, and we can only hope that that is something that inspires people around the world to do the same.

AMY GOODMAN: Let’s end in another neck of the woods. This is from Gasland Part II, Lisa Parr of Wise County, Texas, explaining how her family’s health deteriorated after natural gas drilling began around their home.

LISA PARR: My daughter looks up. Her rash is all over her face. She has nosebleed. Bob has a nosebleed, burning throat, burning eyes. I had a rash. It covered my scalp. It went through my entire body, literally to the bottoms of my feet. My throat would start swelling. I started gasping for air. I started stuttering. I started stumbling. My face drew up on my left side like I had Bell palsy.

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http://insideclimatenews.org/news/20130617/fracking-bill-triggers-rift-among-illinois-green-groups

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"Oh say can you see [through the frackers' big lie?]" One who has peeked behind their star spangled curtain is investigative digger Joel Dyer, editor of the Boulder, Colorado Weekly. What he uncovered is "one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated on America."

Far from independence, we're going to get the pollution and other problems, but foreigners will get the energy, for the gas extracted from our fractured land is destined for the export market. How do we know that? First, because the industry and its government enablers admit it in their internal communications. But, secondly, guess who's paying for the fracking of America? Dyer cites reports by Bloomberg news that China has pumped over five billion dollars into the US drilling "boom" – not only so it can export the energy back to their people, but especially so the Chinese can "redeploy the best US practices and technologies" back to China.

Other foreign owners fracking us are Japan ($5 billion invested so far), India ($3.5 billion), France ($4.5 billion), as well as multi-billions more from Korea, England, and even Norway.

Norway? Come on, America – don't let the profiteers wrap you up in our own flag. It's the 4th of July – let's rebel!

"Hiding behind the flag," <a href="http://npaper-wehaa.com/boulder-weekly/2013/05/23/#?article=1909409" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(141, 3, 0);">www.boulderweekly.com</a>, May 23, 2013.

"Energy Department Authorizes Second Proposed Facility to Export Liquefied Natural Gas," <a href="http://energy.gov/articles/energy-department-authorizes-second-proposed-facility-export-liquefied-natural-gas" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(141, 3, 0);">www. energy.gov</a>, May 17, 2013.

"China Joining U.S. Shale Renaissance With $40 Billion," <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-03-05/china-joining-u-s-shale-renaissance-with-40-billion.html" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(141, 3, 0);">www. bloomberg.com</a>, March 6, 2013.

"China Plans Shale-Gas Investment Floor to Tap Largest Reserves,"<a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-23/china-to-set-minimum-investment-rule-to-boost-shale-exploration.html" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(141, 3, 0);">www.bloomberg.com</a>, April 23, 2013.

jim h

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<a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/epas-abandoned-wyoming-fracking-study-one-retreat-of-many" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; cursor: pointer;">ProPublica's Abrahm Lustgarten reports:</a>

When the Environmental Protection Agency abruptly retreated on its multimillion-dollar investigation into water contamination in a central Wyoming natural gas field last month, it shocked environmentalists and energy industry supporters alike.

In 2011, the agency had <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/epa-finds-fracking-compound-in-wyoming-aquifer" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">issued a blockbuster draft report</a> saying that the controversial practice of fracking was to blame for the pollution of an aquifer deep below the town of Pavillion, Wy. – the first time such a claim had been based on a scientific analysis.

The study drew heated criticism over its methodology and awaited a peer review that promised to settle the dispute. <a href="http://governor.wy.gov/media/pressReleases/Pages/WyomingtoLeadFurtherInvestigationofWaterQualityConcernsOutsideofPavillionwithSupportofEPA.aspx" target="_hplink" style=" list-style: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; color: rgb(57, 152, 0); outline: 0px; text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer;">Now the EPA will instead hand the study</a> over to the state of Wyoming, whose research will be funded by EnCana, the very drilling company whose wells may have caused the contamination.

Industry advocates say the EPA’s turnabout reflects an overdue recognition that it had over-reached on fracking and that its science was critically flawed.

But environmentalists see an agency that is systematically disengaging from any research that could be perceived as questioning the safety of fracking or oil drilling, even as President Obama lays out a plan to combat climate change that rests heavily on the use of natural gas... http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/03/epa-fracking-study-pavillion-wyoming_n_3542365.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

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grist:

<h1 class="headline" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 0.4em; padding: 0px; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.2em; color: black;">EPA abandons investigation into fracking pollution</h1>

By <a href="http://grist.org/author/john-upton/" title="Posts by John Upton" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none;">John Upton</a>

<a href="http://grist.org/news/epa-abandons-investigation-into-fracking-pollution/">http://grist.org/news/epa-abandons-investigation-into-fracking-pollution/</a>

The EPA is dropping its only investigation that has found evidence of water contamination from fracking.

Following a three-year study of groundwater pollution around Pavilion, Wyo., the EPA <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/us/epa-says-hydraulic-fracturing-likely-marred-wyoming-water.html" target="_blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">concluded in a draft report</a> in 2011 that fracking chemicals were a likely cause. The finding was obviously controversial — frackers would like us to believe that injecting poisonous chemicals into the ground couldn’t possibly poison water. Critics of the research found fault with the EPA’s methodology and said contamination could have predated fracking.

In the face of these controversies, the agency backed down Thursday, announcing that it was halting the research and abandoning its own draft findings. <a href="http://thehill.com/blogs/e2-wire/e2-wire/306961-epa-wont-confirm-fracking-link-to-wyoming-water-pollution-" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">From The Hill</a>:

The EPA said it will not complete or seek peer review of a 2011 draft study, which found that groundwater pollution in the Pavillion, Wyo., area was consistent with chemicals used in gas production.

The EPA said … it would now support further study led by the state of Wyoming.

“While EPA stands behind its work and data, the agency recognizes the State of Wyoming’s commitment for further investigation and efforts to provide clean water and does not plan to finalize or seek peer review of its draft Pavillion groundwater report released in December, 2011,” the EPA said as part of a joint release with the state of Wyoming.

“Nor does the agency plan to rely upon the conclusions in the draft report,” the EPA said.

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Though the announcement was welcomed by industry, the frackers still weren’t satisfied. “EPA should not only drop the Pavillion work from consideration, it should fully retract it,” American Petroleum Institute official Erik Milito <a href="http://www.api.org/news-and-media/news/newsitems/2013/june-2013/epa-acknowledges-pavillion-study-deficiencies" target="_blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">said in a statement</a>. “Our environmental performance is strong. It is a shame this reality is sometimes overshadowed by misinformation generated by faulty procedures and analysis from a federal agency.”

So the investigation will now be handed off to the state of Wyoming, whose officials were critical of the EPA’s draft finding. And the research will be funded by the very company that did the alleged polluting. <a href="http://hosted2.ap.org/RIPRJ/a96b1f7e5e10494297858eca63b5b522/Article_2013-06-20-Fracking-Groundwater%20Pollution/id-b00d6fee76de44a2b76142a42ed265ef" target="_blank" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">From the AP</a>:

The new research led by Wyoming officials would be funded at least in part by a $1.5 million grant from Encana Corp.’s U.S. oil and gas subsidiary, which owns the Pavillion gas field. The state will issue a final report in late 2014, Gov. Matt Mead’s office said in a news release.

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We’ll give the last word to Josh Fox, director of Gasland, the Emmy Award-winning documentary about fracking: “I’m dumbfounded,” <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-06-20/wyoming-replaces-u-s-to-study-water-woes-tied-to-fracking-1-.html" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(157, 157, 157); text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">he said</a>. “Wyoming was openly hostile to this investigation from the get go. And to have Encana pay for it? That’s insane.”

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sky is pink http://vimeo.com/44367635 stats on lobby $

rfk2:

epa report said fracking (Haliburton #1) wd exceed benzene, data revised so not 85

(waxman q never answered) 85

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<h1 class="headline" style=""><a class="post-title" href="http://grist.org/news/france-looks-at-america-says-non-to-fracking/">France looks at America, says non to fracking</a></h1>

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<h1 class="headline" style=""><a class="post-title" href="http://grist.org/news/boulder-and-other-colorado-cities-try-to-fight-fracking/">Boulder and other Colorado cities try to fight fracking</a></h1>

By <a href="http://grist.org/author/john-upton/" title="Posts by John Upton">John Upton</a>

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<a href="http://www.alternet.org/print/fracking/four-examples-last-week-prove-obama-full-hot-air-climate-protection">http://www.alternet.org/print/fracking/four-examples-last-week-prove-obama-full-hot-air-climate-protection</a>

moniz and jewell not tough

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Missouri: <a href="http://www.alternet.org/print/food/look-out-corporations-promote-right-farm">http://www.alternet.org/print/food/look-out-corporations-promote-right-farm</a>

<div class="byline environment" style=""><a href="http://www.populist.com">Progressive Populist</a> [1] / By <a href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/margot-ford-mcmillen">Margot Ford McMillen</a> [2]</div>

<h1 property="dc:title" datatype="" class="node-title">Look Out: Corporations Promote ‘Right to Farm’</h1>

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Every year for the last six or eight, family farmers and small-town residents in Missouri have had to fight off legislations designed to take away our local control and put all the lawmaking privileges in the hands of state lawmakers. Taken to the extreme, this would mean that county, city and township ordinances and laws would be void. No more city zoning, no health ordinances guaranteeing special treatment such as special regulations against noise, air pollution, water pollution and so forth, for county residents that demanded it.

The beneficiaries of these laws would be corporate do-badders who want to export costs like cleanups or health care for employees. Without regulations, they could get taxpayers to pay for pollution and social justice atrocities. It would be business as usual for them, only better!

This year, we have been dealing with bills introduced simultaneously in the Missouri House of Representatives and Senate to ensure “modern farming practices” forever. The resolutions on the House side said, “No state law shall be enacted which abridges the right of farmers and ranchers to employ agricultural technology and modern livestock production and ranching practices, unless enacted by the General Assembly.”

Never mind that “agricultural technology,” “modern livestock production,” “ranching practices” are not defined. And never mind that they would seem to suggest methods of production like Confined Animal Feeding Operations and genetically altered crops. If these resolutions passed, citizens would be asked to vote this dangerous language into our state constitution. Where it would reside forever.

As I write this, just a few days after tax day, it looks like we’ve beaten back this particular monster. It is possible, of course, that all we’ve done is cut off one head to reveal two or three more, but the citizens have been calling lawmakers, pointing out the errors of the bills, and gaining support as the session moves forward.

But here’s the larger question: Where the heck did this idea of changing the constitution come from? We know who it benefits — the industrial agriculture system — and we know who it hurts — ordinary citizens. But who wrote this bill, now called “right to farm,” and who financed the possibility that it would get traction?

Thanks to the magic of Google, I quickly found three states with efforts for constitutional amendments similar to Missouri’s proposals. Another few keystrokes and I found the source of the language. It came from ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council. And on the ALEC website, a few more clicks took me to the list of legislative members from Missouri.

In November 2012, North Dakota, a state besieged with fracking (and, yes, ALEC has policies and sample legislation favoring that subject also) passed a “right to farm” amendment into the constitution. Its language is eerily like the proposal in Missouri: The right of farmers and ranchers to engage in modern farming and ranching practices shall be forever guaranteed in this state. No law shall be enacted which abridges the right of farmers and ranchers to employ agricultural technology, modern livestock production and ranching practices.

While you might think this guarantees farmers against the frackers, please note the seriously vague and troubling words “modern,” “technology,” and the confusing phrase “no law shall be enacted …” So, in North Dakota, no county, township, parish, city or any governmental body will be able to pass a law or ordinance to protect themselves from chemicals, GMOs, CAFOs or any other kind of industrial farming scheme.

Not only will farmers be affected. This amendment can have serious repercussions for consumers: North Dakota, one of our chief wheat-raising states, will not be able to refuse to plant untested (and untrusted) GMO wheat under this Constitutional clause.

The same sort of language is being considered in Montana, another primary wheat-raising state, and in Indiana, one of the buckles on the corn belt. The Hoosier experience, summed up by Indiana’s TribStar.com, sounds just like Missouri. They say:

“House Joint Resolution 5 and Senate Joint Resolution 27, identical pieces of legislation making their way through the two chambers, seek to amend the Indiana Constitution to prevent any legislative body from adopting any rules regulating farming ...

“The amendment, apparently, would prevent any rules regulating large industrial agricultural businesses such as confined animal feeding operations. It would also prevent any laws that protect public health and private property rights for Hoosiers who are not farmers. Even zoning laws could be challenged.”

These dangerous laws could spell the end of rural life and the endorsement of fields farmed with robot tractors, sprayed by drones carrying Agent Orange and growing untested GMO crops with serious health consequences.

State by state, beginning in Indiana this fall, voters will confront this amendment and industry will spend the big bucks to get it passed. Find out if it’s active in your state, and who supports it.

Then call your friends and neighbors and work to defeat it.

</div>

<div class="tags" style="">See more stories tagged with:

<div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/right-farm" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Right to farm</a> [3],</div>

<div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/missouri-house-representatives" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Missouri House of Representatives</a> [4],</div>

<div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/confined-animal-feeding-operations" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">confined animal feeding operations</a> [5],</div>

<div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/constitution" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">constitution</a> [6],</div>

<div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/deregulation" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">deregulation</a> [7],</div>

<div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/american-legislative-exchange-council" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">american legislative exchange council</a> [9],</div>

<div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/north-dakota" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">north dakota</a> [12],</div>

<div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/house-joint-resolution-5" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">house joint resolution 5</a> [13],</div>

<div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/senate-joint-resolution-27" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">senate joint resolution 27</a> [14],</div>

<div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/modern-farming-practices" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">modern farming practices</a> [15]</div>

</div>

===

"7 billion" series logoCheck out our whole series on Walmart's greenwashing. Among the top 10 state-level recipients of Walmart's cash during this period are three prominent climate-change-denying governors: Rick Perry (R-Texas), Mitch Daniels (R-Ind.), and Bob McDonnell (R-Va.). Also on the list are Pennsylvania's Gov. Tom Corbett (R) and Lt. Gov. Jim Cawley (R), both of whom have been waging a veritable crusade on behalf of the natural-gas fracking industry.

===

ca: The first step to Banning Fracking in California, has been approved in Sacramento! There is a lot more work to be done though. The Natural Resources Committee voted 5-3 to temporarily halt fracking till further health assessments can be done. The moratorium bills passed including  Santa Monica Assemblyman Richard Bloom's Bill 1301. Which would stop fracking until further legislation is enacted outlining how it can occur safely. We know it cannot be proven safe.

Two similar bills; AB 1323 by Holly Mitchell, and AB649 by Adrin Nazarian, call for creating an advisory committee to review health, environmental, economic and other effects. They would recommend regulatory changes. They both deserve praise. Now the studies need to be conducted and data collected. That ball has already started rolling.

Those bills from Holly Mitchell of Baldwin Hills and Culver City, and Assemblyman Adrin Nazarian, of Sherman Oaks, would require state officials to decide by January 2019 if fracking should occur in California.

It is still an uphill climb! California was the 3rd largest producer of oil and gas last year, and those natural resources were also the biggest export for the US in 2011! It is very frustrating that our neighborhoods and agricultural farms, and groundwater are getting poisoned,  while we are getting gauged at the pump so people overseas can drive cars for $9 per gallon and up!

===

http://grist.org/news/wyoming-and-energy-companies-can-keep-fracking-chemicals-secret-court-rules/

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edf vol pgm http://grist.org/news/environmentalists-and-gas-companies-sing-kumbaya-create-voluntary-fracking-standards/

---

democ school:

<a href="http://celdf.org/our-work-issues-gas-drilling-non-rights-based-fracking-ordinances">Non-Rights-Based Ordinances</a>

The communities being sued for their attempts to regulate or prohibit gas drilling and fracking are the ones that adopted non-rights-based ordinances. They base their ordinances on state regulatory law and receive the blessings of municipal solicitors that the ordinances are legal. And when the corporations sue, the laws are stacked on behalf of the corporations: violations of their constitutional and civil rights. The corporations win. The communities lose.

<a href="http://celdf.org/our-work-issues-gas-drilling-non-rights-based-fracking-ordinances">Click here to learn more about Non-Rights-Based Ordinances </a>

==

<h2 style="">Lobbying and donations</h2>

A 2012 press release by MarcellusMoney.org stated that the "natural gas industry and related trade groups have now given nearly $8 million to Pennsylvania state candidates and political committees since 2000.... Top recipients of industry money given between 2000 and April 2012 were Governor <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Tom_Corbett&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Tom Corbett (page does not exist)">Tom Corbett</a> (R) with $1,813,205.59, Senate President <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Joseph_Scarnati&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Joseph Scarnati (page does not exist)">Joseph Scarnati</a> (R-25) with $359,145.72, Rep. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Dave_Reed&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Dave Reed (page does not exist)">Dave Reed</a> (R-62) with $137,532.33, House Majority Leader Rep. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Mike_Turzai&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Mike Turzai (page does not exist)">Mike Turzai</a> (R-28) with $98,600, and Sen. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Don_White&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="Don White (page does not exist)">Don White</a> (R-41) with $94,150.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Pennsylvania_and_fracking#cite_note-15">[16]</a>

The 2011 Common Cause report, <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.commoncause.org/atf/cf/%7BFB3C17E2-CDD1-4DF6-92BE-BD4429893665%7D/Pennsylvania--Deep%20Drilling%20Deep%20Pockets%20Nov%202011.pdf">"Deep drilling, deep pockets, in Washington and Pennsylvania,"</a> found that "from 2001 through June 2011, the fracking industry gave $20.5 million to current members of Congress and spent $726 million on lobbying."

Two Pennsylvanians, Rep. Tim Murphy, and Sen. Pat Toomey, ranked among the leading recipients in Congress in gas industry donations (10th and 28th respectively). Murphy has received $275,499 and Toomey $160,750. Other PA recipients included Rep. Jason Altmire (D) with $65,365; Rep. Jim Gerlach (R) with $60,800; Rep. Bill Shuster (R) with $59,000; Rep. Charles Dent (R) with $56,500; and Rep. Glenn Thompson (R) with $52,000.

The natural gas industry contributed about $1.6 million to Gov. Corbett’s political campaigns from 2001 to 2011, about $1.1 million of that for his campaign for governor.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Pennsylvania_and_fracking#cite_note-16">[17]</a>

===

<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/United_States_and_fracking">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/United_States_and_fracking</a>

<a href="http://www.prwatch.org/node/11943">http://www.prwatch.org/node/11943</a>

Before Gus Van Sant's latest film Promised Land even premiered, the energy industry was up in arms, gearing up to counter the film's apparent anti-fracking stance with a barrage of "community" responses (read: thinly veiled corporate PR). James Schamus, chief executive of Focus Features the distributor of the film, <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443294904578042620641185816.html" target="_blank">expressed shock</a> about the attacks on Promised Land: "We've been surprised at the emergence of what looks like a concerted campaign targeting the film even before anyone's seen it." With blogs, astroturf websites, Facebook pages, internet ads, and theater ad buys in advance of the movie, the industry is working hard to spin the conversation in a more fracking-friendly direction.

The film chronicles the story of a gas industry salesman, played by Matt Damon, and his attempt to convince the residents of a rural Pennsylvania town to agree to fracking development. The questions raised by actors in the film mirror the debates taking place in communities across the country. What type of chemicals are used in fracking? What is the effect of fracking on air and water? While the industry may make a few struggling families rich, what is the cost for the community as a whole?

Conveniently, the fracking industry has launched a number of websites to answer these questions for you.

<h2 style="">Energy in Depth Launches "Real Promised Land" Site</h2>

The fracking industry was caught unprepared by the brilliant, 2010 documentary Gaslands by Josh Fox, whose indelible images of tap water bursting into flames introduced fracking to the American public. Having learned their lesson, the industry was not eager to repeat its mistakes.

Before it was even released, Energy in Depth (EID) took issue with the new movie, which is not a hard-hitting documentary like Gaslands and has more romantic content than factual content. Through a new website titled <a href="http://realpromisedland.org/" target="blank">RealPromisedLand.org</a>, EID rolled out "real stories" from "real Americans" about their positive experiences with fracking. Videos from Ohio, Colorado, Texas, and Pennsylvania highlight seemingly ordinary citizens who have benefited from fracking development in their area. On their glossy <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Realpromisedland" target="blank">Facebook</a> page you can learn that: "the natural gas industry takes all the safety measures possible in order to protect the earth and water from any contamination" and other tall tales.

The website does not disclose that EID was launched by the Independent Petroleum Association of America to serve as the PR mouthpiece for the gas industry. <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/12/11921/%E2%80%9Cenergy-depth%E2%80%9D-%E2%80%93-reporters%E2%80%99-guide-its-founding-funding-and-flacks" target="_blank">As CMD has documented</a>, EID is funded by the likes of Shell, BP, Chevron, and XTO Energy, a subsidiary of ExxonMobil. EID has also privately described itself, in a memo, as the "online resource center to combat new environmental regulations."

<h2 style="">Industry Buys Ads for PA Movie Theaters</h2>

===

<h1 class="title-news" style="">Fracking's Toxic Secrets: Lack Of Transparency Over Natural Gas Drilling Endangers Public Health, Advocates Say</h1>

<div class="comments_datetime_new border_none relative v05" style="">Posted: 11/21/2012 4:13 pm EST Updated: 11/21/2012 5:27 pm EST</div>

Some frustrated residents and anti-fracking activists are finding new names to call the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) -- "Don't Expect Protection," "Department of Energy Production" -- according to Dana Dolney of <a href="http://www.shaletest.org/" target="_hplink">ShaleTest</a>, a nonprofit that provides free air and water quality testing for low-income residents near natural gas wells.

The department is <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/111821139/Krancer-Letter" target="_hplink">taking heat</a> for providing what critics see as incomplete water quality test results to property owners who are concerned about pollution from nearby fracking operations. Withholding such information, the critics say, could endanger residents' health.

"Based on what is happening in the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcellus_Formation" target="_hplink">Marcellus Shale</a>, we saw a huge desperate need for this kind of testing," Dolney said. "We wouldn't have to do what we do if it wasn't for the failures of the DEP."

The DEP and natural gas companies are defending the testing methods, asserting that the contaminants most likely to be associated with fossil fuel extraction are included in what is shared with the DEP and, subsequently, with homeowners....<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/21/natural-gas-fracking-chemicals-testing-disclosure_n_2170030.html?view=print">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/21/natural-gas-fracking-chemicals-testing-disclosure_n_2170030.html?view=print</a>

</div>

==

<a href="http://grist.org/news/university-gives-frackademics-the-boot/">http://grist.org/news/university-gives-frackademics-the-boot/</a>

==

<a href="http://www.alternet.org/print/fracking/5-weird-and-frightening-effects-fracking-you-may-not-know-about">http://www.alternet.org/print/fracking/5-weird-and-frightening-effects-fracking-you-may-not-know-about</a>

<div class="byline environment" style=""><a href="http://www.alternet.org">AlterNet</a> [1] / By <a href="http://www.alternet.org/authors/alyssa-figueroa">Alyssa Figueroa</a> [2]</div>

<h1 property="dc:title" datatype="" class="node-title">5 Weird and Frightening Effects of Fracking You May Not Know About</h1>

</div>

<div class="story-date">October 20, 2012  |  </div>

This article was published in collaboration with <a href="http://globalpossibilities.org/" style=" color: rgb(133, 143, 62); text-decoration: none;">GlobalPossibilities.org</a> [3].

What comes to mind when you think of fracking? Perhaps it’s images of tap water being lit on fire or stories of families suffering health problems after nearby wells are fracked. Indeed, the health and environmental impacts of fracking are being documented, but it’s important to know that fracking is a catalyst for widespread negative consequences. This list includes five effects of fracking you may not have heard about.

1. Methane Geysers

This past June, a methane geyser was found in Pennsylvania’s Tioga County. Yes, a geyser — shooting methane-infused water 30 feet up in the air.

Once the geyser was discovered, the county immediately turned to Shell, which was drilling in three nearby locations. Shell and the Department of Environmental Protection began investigating, and it was correctly suspected that an abandoned well from the 1930s contributed to the problem. Last week, a new <a href="http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2012/10/09/perilous-pathways-how-drilling-near-an-abandoned-well-produced-a-methane-geyser/">report</a> [4] confirmed that Butters well, drilled in 1932, was part of the chain reaction that triggered the geyser. But the main problem was Shell’s fracking, as it displaced methane pockets underground, which then moved into Butters well and shot up to the surface.

Improperly abandoned wells, like Butters well, are hard to uncover, as they were drilled long before permits were required or any kind of records were kept. With as many as 300,000 wells drilled in Pennsylvania over the past 150 years, it’s unknown how many abandoned wells there may be that could be dangerous. For example, the DEP informed Shell of Butters well, but there was no information on whether or not it had been plugged. Meanwhile, regulators don’t require drilling companies to search for, inspect and plug abandon wells.

Though abandoned wells provide an easy pathway for methane to reach the earth’s surface, once displaced by fracking, the harmful gas can also make its way upward through cracks in the ground. Methane is an odorless, flammable gas that can cause breathing problems at high concentrations and is more than 20 times more effective in trapping heat and contributing to global warming than carbon dioxide.

2. Stolen Land

What happens if you’re a land owner who lives on a profitable mineral site, but doesn’t want corporations fracking on your land? Well, apparently, they will maneuver a way to frack your land anyway.

In a new <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/02/us-chesapeake-landgrab-substory-idUSBRE8910E920121002">report</a> [5] published last week, Reuters explored oil and gas companies’ nationwide land grab. The report focused on Chesapeake Energy Corporation, which has become the leader in petitioning state agencies when land owners refuse to sign over their land to fracking or oil drilling companies. In Texas, since 2005, Chesapeake had made 1,628 requests to drill on land that owners refuse to lease— nearly twice as many sought by its rival Exxon Mobil — and the state has only rejected five of them.

Chesapeake has made land-leasing one of its top priorities, controlling 15 million acres and spending more than $31 billion to acquire drilling rights. Playing the land grab game allows corporations to attain prospective drilling locations while locking out competition. With such a profitable opportunity, Chesapeake is making sure it’s getting its way by any means necessary. One employee was even caught saying on tape: “If properties don't want to sign, if we have 90 percent secured of the well that we need, we have the power to put these people in the lease without their permission. …We can do whatever we want.”

When it comes to profit, property rights just don’t seem to matter. And a mix of money in politics, as well as a desire for profit, has weakened regulation.

"I don't think the state should be able to take a landowner's rights to generate a profit for a private company," said David Conrad, an Ohio resident who opposes fracking, but will soon have a Chesapeake well under his home.

However, as Reuters reported:

In its petition, Chesapeake told regulators its proposed drilling unit could produce 4.5 million barrels of oil and 3.5 billion cubic feet of natural gas — if the plots of the 49 land owners who didn't lease their property to Chesapeake were included.

If not, Chesapeake said, the unit would be 75 percent less productive and would miss out on an additional $71 million in revenue, according to its application. That math carried the day.

3. Waste-Filled Wine

If you don’t hate fracking already, what if you learned that it can affect wine? Furious? Me too.

Vineyard owners in California are <a href="http://pipeline.post-gazette.com/news/archives/24833-with-gas-firms-entering-central-california-vineyard-owners-unsure-of-fracking-effects-on-land">growing increasingly wary</a> [6] of fracking as gas companies begin preliminary operations. Venoco has started exploring Monterey Shale for both oil and gas drilling. Last year, the company filed an application for drilling permits in Monterey County, according to Simon Salinas, a member of the county’s Board of Supervisors, and it already holds hundreds of thousands of acres in the formation, has drilled more than 20 wells and has invested $100 million in oil exploration.

With vineyards and farmlands covering 200,000 acres of Monterey that help make up an $8 billion agricultural business, Salinas told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, “Anything that can taint our water and food supply could be devastating to our economy.”

Paula Getzelman, a grape-grower in Monterey, said, “If you don't have a good water supply, your land is worthless.”

Besides fears of contaminated water, Salinas also mentioned that when residents realize the fracking process uses millions of gallons of water that they need for their crops, they will be quite upset.

But even if these threats don’t come to fruition, residents are still concerned that fracking will have a negative effect on their marketability. After all, with cities like Napa and Sonoma not too far away, who’s going to want Monterey’s fracking wine?

Across the country, in Brooklyn, NY, a winery with similar fears about fracking in the Marcellus shale, recently hosted an anti-fracking benefit.

The winery <a href="http://bkwinery.com/brooklyn-winery-fought-fracking-with-nycs-leading-chefs/2186">stated</a> [7] on its Web site:

The potential for fracking affects Brooklyn Winery, as we source grapes for our wine from a number of vineyards in New York state and many of our wine bar’s seasonal menu items include ingredients grown on upstate farms.

4. Dairy Cows At Risk

Got milk? Maybe not for long. According to <a href="http://live.psu.edu/story/58174">research</a> [8] from Penn State University, fracking has been found to reduce dairy production.

The university researchers set out to uncover how fracking in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale region is affecting dairy farming, the state’s top agricultural sector. The researchers examined dairy cow numbers, milk production and fracking activity among various counties in Pennsylvania between 2007 and 2010. They found that counties with 150 or more Marcellus Shale wells saw a 19 percent decrease in dairy cows, while counties with no wells saw only a 1.2 percent decrease. In a similar fashion, milk production in these counties with 150 or more wells declined by an average of 18.5 percent, while counties with no wells had about a 1 percent decline.

This research seems to challenge the popular narrative that farmers use the money they receive from fracking companies through leasing their land to improve their farms. The researchers note that additional research is needed to figure out the exact cause of the decrease of dairy production. One researcher wondered whether farmers were taking the money they received from their leases and going into a new occupation, or if they are being forced out of farming due to fracking’s environmental effects or a decrease in their farm’s marketability.

5. Contaminated Food, Stillborn Calves and Poisoned Animals

Imagine fracking fluid seeping out of your next burger — not appetizing? It may be a reality as more and more livestock are raised near fracking sites. Hundreds of animals have already been <a href="http://marcelluseffect.blogspot.com/2012/05/fracking-affects-animal-health.html">affected</a> [9] after coming into contact with fracking fluid. Last year, 28 beef cattle in Pennsylvania were exposed to the fluid. Only three of the 11 calves these cattle gave birth to survived. In Louisiana a few years ago, 16 cows dropped <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/16-cattle-drop-dead-near-mysterious-fluid-at-gas-drilling-site-430">dead</a> [10] after drinking fracking fluid.

As New York Governor Cuomo soon decides whether or not to frack in the state’s economically struggling areas, Rita Yelda of <a href="http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/">Food & Water Watch</a> [11] recently wrote a <a href="http://www.stargazette.com/article/20121004/VIEWPOINTS02/310040017?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1">commentary</a> [12] urging him to consider fracking’s detrimental effects on food.

She wrote:

New York is a national leader in a variety of agricultural products, and about 25 percent of the state’s land area is used for food production. This space may end up being shared with thousands of air polluting drill rigs, and could also be affected by soil contamination from leaks, flares, explosions, fires and experimental waste disposal methods.

Definitely doesn’t sound delicious.

</div>

<div class="tags" style="">See more stories tagged with:

<div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/fracking-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">fracking</a> [13],</div>

<div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/methane" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">methane</a> [14],</div>

<div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/geyser" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">geyser</a> [15],</div>

<div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/tioga-county" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">Tioga County</a> [16],</div>

<div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/pennsylvania" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">pennsylvania</a> [18],</div>

<div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/chesapeake" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">chesapeake</a> [20],</div>

<div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/oil-corporations" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">oil corporations</a> [21],</div>

<div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/gas-corporations" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">gas corporations</a> [22],</div>

<div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/oil-and-gas-industry" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">oil and gas industry</a> [23],</div>

<div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/winery" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">winery</a> [24],</div>

<div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/vineyards" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">vineyards</a> [25],</div>

<div class="field-item odd"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/monterey" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">monterey</a> [26],</div>

<div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/dairy-production" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">dairy production</a> [27],</div>

<div class="field-item even"><a href="http://www.alternet.org/tags/water-0" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel">water</a> [29]</div>

</div>

<div class="print-source_url" style="">Source URL: <a href="http://www.alternet.org/fracking/5-weird-and-frightening-effects-fracking-you-may-not-know-about">http://www.alternet.org/fracking/5-weird-and-frightening-effects-fracking-you-may-not-know-about</a></div>

<div class="print-links" style="">Links:

[1] http://www.alternet.org

[2] http://www.alternet.org/authors/alyssa-figueroa

[3] http://globalpossibilities.org/

[4] http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/2012/10/09/perilous-pathways-how-drilling-near-an-abandoned-well-produced-a-methane-geyser/

[5] http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/02/us-chesapeake-landgrab-substory-idUSBRE8910E920121002

[6] http://pipeline.post-gazette.com/news/archives/24833-with-gas-firms-entering-central-california-vineyard-owners-unsure-of-fracking-effects-on-land

[7] http://bkwinery.com/brooklyn-winery-fought-fracking-with-nycs-leading-chefs/2186

[8] http://live.psu.edu/story/58174

[9] http://marcelluseffect.blogspot.com/2012/05/fracking-affects-animal-health.html

[10] http://www.propublica.org/article/16-cattle-drop-dead-near-mysterious-fluid-at-gas-drilling-site-430

[11] http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/

[12] http://www.stargazette.com/article/20121004/VIEWPOINTS02/310040017?gcheck=1&nclick_check=1

[13] http://www.alternet.org/tags/fracking-0

[14] http://www.alternet.org/tags/methane

[15] http://www.alternet.org/tags/geyser

[16] http://www.alternet.org/tags/tioga-county

[17] http://www.alternet.org/tags/new-york

[18] http://www.alternet.org/tags/pennsylvania

[19] http://www.alternet.org/tags/land-grab

[20] http://www.alternet.org/tags/chesapeake

[21] http://www.alternet.org/tags/oil-corporations

[22] http://www.alternet.org/tags/gas-corporations

[23] http://www.alternet.org/tags/oil-and-gas-industry

[24] http://www.alternet.org/tags/winery

[25] http://www.alternet.org/tags/vineyards

[26] http://www.alternet.org/tags/monterey

[27] http://www.alternet.org/tags/dairy-production

[28] http://www.alternet.org/tags/food-0

[29] http://www.alternet.org/tags/water-0

[30] http://www.alternet.org/%2Bnew_src%2B</div>

===

Clearly, we need stronger rules and policies to safeguard our water. Yet two obstacles bar the path to tougher protections. First, our nation's clean water laws are now hampered by significant loopholes and exemptions. The very reach of the Clean Water Act has been undermined by a set of court decisions. As a result, nearly 60 percent of our streams -- including those feeding drinking water sources for 117 million Americans -- may no longer be protected. This loophole has hobbled literally hundreds of enforcement cases against known polluters. Similarly, despite its wide-ranging damage, <a href="http://www.earthworksaction.org/files/publications/FS_OilGasExemptions.pdf" target="_hplink">fracking is exempt</a> from key provisions of several laws designed to protect our water and our health -- including the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Clean Air Act.

Second, big polluters--from oil and gas to mega-agribusiness -- are working to further undermine the laws and regulations that protect our waterways. For example, in the 112th Congress, the House of Representatives voted <a href="http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/index.php?q=legislative-database-anti-environment&legislation=All&topic=All&statute=All&agency=All" target="_hplink">no fewer than 38 times</a> to dismantle the Clean Water Act, including passing a package of clean water act attacks as the last vote before they adjourned for elections.

Thus, at the 40-year mark, clean water stands at a crossroads. To truly protect our rivers, streams, and drinking water, we will need to overcome these two obstacles -- to reverse the loopholes in our laws and to confront and turn back the heavy guns of polluting interests in Washington. And as with the passage of the Clean Water Act itself, it will take nothing less than the sustained effort of citizens raising their voices to do so.

</div>

===

The romance between ALEC and fracking continued at this year's ALEC meeting in Utah -- an appropriate location for the frack-friendly ALEC crew. In May, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar <a href="http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2012/may/nr_05_08_2012.html" title="reference on approved" target="blank">approved</a> a major shale gas project by Texas-based <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Anadarko_Petroleum" title="reference on Anadarko Petroleum" target="self">Anadarko Petroleum</a> Corp. in Utah's Uinta Basin -- expected to develop more than 3,600 new wells over the next decade.

In another industry-friendly move, Utah's Governor Gary Herbert, who spoke the ALEC conference's opening luncheon, <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/24/us-utah-lands-idUSBRE82N03420120324" title="reference on signed a bill into law" target="blank">signed a bill into law</a> in March demanding that Congress hand over 30 million acres of federal land to the state by 2015 or the state will sue. <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/lawmakers-pick-fight-feds-over-public-lands-083347841.html" title="reference on According" target="blank">According</a> to the Associated Press, Lawmakers in Utah and Arizona have said the legislation is endorsed by ALEC. As documented by the Center for Media and Democracy's <a href="http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed" title="reference on ALEC Exposed" target="blank">ALEC Exposed</a> Project, ALEC drafted the "<a href="http://heartland.org/sites/all/modules/custom/heartland_migration/files/pdfs/6252.pdf" title="reference on Sagebrush Rebellion Act" target="blank">Sagebrush Rebellion Act</a>," which was "designed to establish a mechanism for the transfer of ownership of unappropriated lands from the federal government to the states." According to the <a href="http://www.suwa.org/2012/07/30/herbert-dodges-on-costs-and-effects-of-his-federal-land-grab-efforts/" title="reference on Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance" target="_blank">Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance</a>, the governor's initiative would open up millions of acres of the "Wilderness Study Areas and proposed wilderness areas to oil and gas development" but in the process would cost Utah taxpayers enormously.

At the meeting, the CEO of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Institute_for_Energy_Research" title="reference on Institute for Energy Research" target="self">Institute for Energy Research</a> (IER) Dr. Robert Bradley was one of the featured speakers. Bradley, formerly a director of policy analysis at Enron, also spoke at the 2011 ALEC conference in New Orleans. He is also an "adjunct scholar" at the right-wing think tank the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Cato_Institute" title="reference on Cato Institute" target="self">Cato Institute</a> and specializes in "global warming alarmism." IER is a non-profit group focused on global energy markets that pushes for deregulation, advances climate change denial, and attempts to discredit renewable energy sources. The group's 2010 IRS 990 form said that its focus was narrowed in on "impediments to domestic energy production, including government restrictions on access, burdensome regulations, and the favoritism of energy sources that are unsustainable in the marketplace."

The PR Bus of AEA and Koch's AFPIER <a href="http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=115" title="reference on received" target="blank">received</a> some $307,000 from Exxon Mobil between 2003 and 2007, according to the publicly traded company's "Corporate Giving Reports." IER also received a total of $235,000 from Koch Family foundations between 1997-2010, according to a <a href="http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/en/campaigns/global-warming-and-energy/polluterwatch/koch-industries/institute-for-energy-research/?utma=1.1699501272.1343492602.1343492602.1344377276.2&utmb=1.1.10.1344377276&utmc=1&utmx=-&utmz=1.1344377276.2.2.utmcsr=sourcewatch.org%7Cutmccn=%28referral%29%7Cutmcmd=referral%7Cutmcct=/index.php&utmv=-&utmk=176160674" title="reference on Greenpeace report" target="blank">Greenpeace report</a>. Koch Industries, an ALEC member, also profits from the <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/03/02/436669/how-the-kochs-are-fracking-america/" title="reference on expansion" target="_blank">expansion</a> of fracking. Unlike Exxon, because Koch is not a publicly-traded company, any corporate donations to groups like IER, AEA, or AFP are not publicly disclosed.

IER is a "partner" organization of the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Energy_Alliance" title="reference on American Energy Alliance" target="self">American Energy Alliance</a>, a 501(c)4 organization which calls itself the "grassroots arm" of IER. Thomas Pyle is president of both organizations, and is a former lobbyist for Koch Industries and former energy policy aide for former House Majority Leader <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Thomas_D.DeLay" title="reference on Thomas D. DeLay" target="self">Thomas D. DeLay</a>, who resigned from the leadership following his indictment on conspiracy charges. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Wayne_Gable" title="reference on Wayne Gable" target="self">Wayne Gable</a>, also a former lobbyist for Koch Industries and former president for two of the Koch Family foundations, is on the board of both IER and AEA.

In 2011 IER and AEA launched "<a href="http://www.energyforamerica.org/" title="reference on Energy for America" target="blank">Energy for America</a>" as a joint initiative with a laser point in on fracking, with an aim to "educate" the public on the practice. In October 2011, AEA and IER, in partnership with Koch Industries' astroturf group <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity" title="reference on Americans for Prosperity" target="self">Americans for Prosperity</a>, started a "Energy for America" <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2011/10/18/346518/kochs-afp-starts-big-oil-bus-tour/" title="reference on bus tour" target="_blank">bus tour</a> to encourage the expansion of domestic exploration of oil, gas and coal, targeting U.S. Senate battleground states for the upcoming 2012 elections.

Additionally, <a href="http://www.bhfs.com/" title="reference on Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck" target="blank">Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck</a> is one of the three chairs of the ALEC <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Energy,Environment,and_Agriculture_Task_Force" title="reference on Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force" target="self">Energy, Environment, and Agriculture Task Force</a>. One of its clients is <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=LNG_Terminals" title="reference on Freeport LNG" target="blank">Freeport LNG</a>, which owns and operates one of the first liquefied natural gas import terminals built in the United States. According to the law firm's <a href="http://www.bhfs.com/Practices/CaseStudies/ShiftingGearsforFreeportLNGsChangingNaturalGasMarket" title="reference on website" target="blank">website</a>, "For the last nine years, Brownstein has been the lead counsel in the structuring, strategy and development of the $1.2 billion receiving and regasification facility with commercial output capacity of more than 2.0 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day."

===

<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/24/fracking-lawsuit-new-york-dismissed-by-judge_n_1911275.html?ir=Green">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/24/fracking-lawsuit-new-york-dismissed-by-judge_n_1911275.html?ir=Green</a>

===

CA: AB 685 (Eng) - Will establish a right to water for basic human needs as a policy of the state of California. This currently proposed Bill, states that every human being has the right to clean drinking water. As you know, Fracking irreversibly pollutes drinking water. Here is a link about <a href="http://www.uusc.org/blog/entry/2588/the_human_right_to_water_in_california_ab_685_it_will_keep_you_alive" class="external text" title="http://www.uusc.org/blog/entry/2588/the human right to water in california ab 685 it will keep you alive" rel="nofollow">AB 685</a>. Here is a <a href="https://secure3.convio.net/fww/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=261" class="external text" title="https://secure3.convio.net/fww/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&page=UserAction&id=261" rel="nofollow">link to sign a petition</a> to Governor Brown asking him to pass this Bill, and to make it into a legislative Act.

===

COINTELPRO

---

<h3 style="color: rgb(0, 0, 153);">The Government Is Using Its Police Powers to Protect Fracking</h3>

Fracking is <a title="polluting water all over the country" href="http://www.grist.org/natural-gas/2011-09-14-josh-fox-natural-gas-fracking-documentary-gasland-wins-emmy" target="blank">polluting water all over the country</a>. A new study published in the journal Ground Water predicts that the highly-toxic fluids used in fracking can migrate to aquifers <a target="blank" title="within a few short years" href="http://www.propublica.org/article/new-study-predicts-frack-fluids-can-migrate-to-aquifers-within-years">within a few short years</a>.

The government has <a title="the government has also officially stated that fracking can cause earthquakes" href="http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/08/its-official-human-activity-can-cause-earthquakes.html">officially stated that fracking can cause earthquakes</a>. And see <a target="blank" title="this" href="http://www2.seismosoc.org/FMPro?-db=Abstract_Submission_12&-sortfield=PresDay&-sortorder=ascending&-sortfield=Special+Session+Name+Calc&-sortorder=ascending&-sortfield=PresTimeSort&-sortorder=ascending&-op=gt&PresStatus=0&-lop=and&-token.1=ShowSession&-token.2=ShowHeading&-recid=224&-format=%2Fmeetings%2F2012%2Fabstracts%2Fsessionabstractdetail.html&-lay=MtgList&-find">this</a>. Some fracking companies now <a target="blank" title="admit" href="http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-11-07/europe/30368594_1_shale-gas-fracking-process-tremors">admit</a> this fact.

And yet a <a target="blank" title="new law" href="http://www.legis.state.pa.us/CFDOCS/Legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=PDF&sessYr=2011&sessInd=0&billBody=H&billTyp=B&billNbr=1950&pn=3048">new law</a> passed in Pennsylvania will allow doctors to access information about chemicals used in fracking, but will restrict them from sharing that information with their patients. See the writeups by <a target="blank" title="Mother Jones" href="http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/03/fracking-doctors-gag-pennsylvania">Mother Jones</a> and <a target="_blank" title="Truthout" href="http://truth-out.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=7323:fracking-pennsylvania-gags-physicians">Truthout</a>.

The director of the Emmy-award winning documentary on fracking – Gasland – was <a target="_blank" title="arrested for attempting to film a Congressional hearing on fracking" href="http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/01/gasland-filmmaker-arrested-at-capitol-hearing/">arrested for attempting to film a Congressional hearing on fracking</a>.

Actor Mark Ruffalo was <a title="put on a terror watch list after he organized showings of Gasland" href="http://blog.sfgate.com/dailydish/2010/11/23/mark-ruffalo-on-terror-advisory-list/#ixzz16GVkAsQR" target="_blank">put on a terror watch list after he organized showings of Gasland</a>. see als o <a href="http://www.alternet.org/print/newsandviews/article/362465/actor_mark_ruffalo_lands_on_terror_list_for_screening_film_against_fracking">http://www.alternet.org/print/newsandviews/article/362465/actor_mark_ruffalo_lands_on_terror_list_for_screening_film_against_fracking</a>  TURNS OUT NOT, denied anyway by Penn (on fed list no way to know)

The Washington Post reported in March that the FBI is investigating anti-fracking activists as <a target="_blank" title="potential terrorists" href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/as-eco-terrorism-wanes-governments-still-target-activist-groups-seen-as-threat/2012/02/28/gIQAA4Ay3R_story.html">potential terrorists</a>.

The state of Pennsylvania hired an Israeli-American company with extensive military and intelligence ties to put out “terror” alerts. The company – ITRR – <a title="describes" href="http://www.terrorresponse.org/" target="_blank">describes</a> itself as:

<blockquote style="">The preeminent Israeli/American security firm providing training, intelligence and education to clients across the globe.</blockquote>

ITRR <a title="explains" href="http://www.terrorresponse.org/images/stories/press_room/press_release/The_Institute_of_Terrorism_Research_and_Response_background_information_16Sep2010.pdf" target="_blank">explains</a>:

<blockquote style="">The Institute of Terrorism Research and Response’s research and analysis center, known as the Targeted Actionable Monitoring Center (TAM-C), is located in Israel. The Targeted Actionable Monitoring Center is staffed with former law enforcement, military, and intelligence professionals experienced in the production and utilization of intelligence products.</blockquote>

ITRR <a target="_blank" title="considered" href="http://web.archive.org/web/20100926050924/http://www.weny.com/News-Regional.asp?ARTICLE3890=9156026">considered</a> opponents of fracking to be potential terrorists.

Fracking companies are also using <a title="military psychological operations techniques to discredit opponents" href="http://www.cnbc.com/id/45208498" target="blank">military psychological operations techniques to discredit opponents</a> (and <a title="see this" href="http://www.businessinsider.com/10-counterinsurgncy-tactics-your-local-fracking-corp-will-use-against-you-2011-11" target="blank">see this</a>).

---

<div id="bodycount" style="">Rendell and Ridge: From "Militant" Labelers to Terrorist Enable

In the fall of 2010, while Ed Rendell was <a href="http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/pennsylvania-homeland-security-eco-terror-bulletin/3145/">Governor</a> and Tom Ridge was <a href="http://marcelluscoalition.org/2010/07/gov-ridge-joins-the-marcellus-shale-coalition-as-strategic-advisor/">Strategic Advisor</a> of the <a href="http://marcelluscoalition.org/">Marcellus Shale Coalition</a>, the <a href="http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2010/09/post_122.html">media</a> <a href="http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/09/14/5109591-pennsylvania-tracks-fracking-protestors">discovered</a> that Pennsylvania's Office of Homeland Security (DHS) was <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2010/09/9475/welcome-home-war-pennsylvania-and-marcellus-shale">monitoring</a> and <a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/pennsylvania-intelligence-bulletin-no.-131-aug.-30-2010">filing intelligence reports</a> on citizens speaking out against the then nascent shale gas industry's presence in the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/5401">Marcellus Shale basin</a>. In one bulletin, PA Homeland Security refers to <a href="http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/pennsylvania-intelligence-bulletin-no.-131-aug.-30-2010">"militants" and "environmental extremists</a>" who dare to question the fossil fuel industry's practices.

That incident came and went, with <a href="http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/pennsylvania-homeland-security-eco-terror-bulletin/3145/">many believing it was an isolated incident</a>. It wasn't. <a href="http://truth-out.org/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=7153:fracking-and-psychological-operations-empire-comes-home">Far from it, in fact</a>.

PSYOPs, Insurgents, and "Eco-Terrorists" in the Marcellus and Eagle Ford

The industry was again caught red-handed in the fall of 2011 when DeSmogBlog, with the help of Earthworks' activist <a href="http://www.texassharon.com/">Sharon Wilson</a>, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/gas-fracking-industry-using-military-psychological-warfare-tactics-and-personnel-u-s-communities">uncovered a bombshell story</a>.

The short version: at an <a href="http://www.media-stakeholder-relations-hydraulic-fracturing.com/">October 2011 Houston, TX conference for shale gas industry public relations professionals</a>, PR flacks for gas industry corporations Range Resources and Anadarko Petroleum Corporation revealed that they <a href="http://www.earthworksaction.org/media/detail/local_anti_gas_drilling_activist_catches_execs_pushing_psyop_to_deal_with_i">utilize psychological warfare tactics on concerned stakeholders</a> in the areas in which they are <a href="http://desmogblog.com/fracking-the-future/">fracking</a>, and that they see themselves fighting a counterinsurgency war against these stakeholders, who in this fight are viewed as "an insurgency."

Then in <a href="http://www.publicherald.org/archives/15283/investigative-reports/uncategorized/">February, The Public Herald</a> reported that, during an August 2011 team reporting trip at <a href="http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/forestry/stateforests/tioga/index.htm">Tioga State Forest</a> in Troy, PA, some of its journalists were accused by Seneca Resources truck drivers as being "<a href="http://www.publicherald.org/archives/15283/investigative-reports/uncategorized/">trespassing eco-terrorists</a>." That's ironic given that <a href="http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/ucmprd2/groups/public/documents/document/D_000881.pdf">Tioga is a public park</a> operated by PA's <a href="http://www.dcnr.state.pa.us/index.aspx">Department of Conservation and Natural Resources</a>. Seneca proceded to threaten to detain these journalists without legal authority to do so and also attempted to seize the camera of The Herald's reporting crew.

The Herald <a href="http://www.publicherald.org/archives/15283/investigative-reports/uncategorized/">stated</a> in response,

<blockquote>"To be labeled as, or even associated with, an ecoterrorist is no small thing…Clearly, a need for government to protect the people within the United States from real acts of aggression or violence has been usurped by private interests when journalists, or the public, can be so easily labeled as 'ecoterrorists.'"</blockquote>

There's more. On February 28, The Washington Post <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/as-eco-terrorism-wanes-governments-still-target-activist-groups-seen-as-threat/2012/02/28/gIQAA4Ay3R_print.html">reported</a> that the FBI is labeling anti-fracking activists in Texas' <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/7759">Eagle Ford shale basin</a>, in the city of Denton, TX, as "eco-terrorists."

"Even as environmental and animal rights extremism in the United States is on the wane, officials at the federal, state and local level are continuing to target groups they have labeled a threat to national security, according to interviews with numerous activists, internal FBI documents and a survey of legislative initiatives across the country," <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/as-eco-terrorism-wanes-governments-still-target-activist-groups-seen-as-threat/2012/02/28/gIQAA4Ay3R_print.html">wrote The Post</a>.

The Hypocrisy Reeks

An <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgency">insurgent</a>, by definition in U.S. lexicon, is <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgency#Terrorism">another name for a "terrorist."</a>

While citizens concerned about the impacts from fracking and reckless gas industry practices are being labeled "eco-terrorists" and "an insurgengy," those responsible, directly or indirectly for having them labeled as such, are shilling on behalf of a State Department-designated terrorist organization.

The hypocrisy here reeks any way you slice it.

</div>

steve horn

<a href="http://www.nationofchange.org/rendell-and-ridge-militant-labelers-terrorist-enablers-1335453791">http://www.nationofchange.org/rendell-and-ridge-militant-labelers-terrorist-enablers-1335453791</a>

===

ohio

cuts off water for fracking

<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/08/muskingum-watershed-conservancy-fracking_n_1580976.html?ref=topbar">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/08/muskingum-watershed-conservancy-fracking_n_1580976.html?ref=topbar</a>

===

By Jessica Goad

As the New York Times reported last month, the American Legislative Exchange Council, a right-wing <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/08/05/288823/alec-exposed-corporations-funding/">corporate front group</a>, has been behind various efforts to enact <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/us/alec-a-tax-exempt-group-mixes-legislators-and-lobbyists.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&ref=politics&pagewanted=all">watered down state regulations</a> for the natural gas drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.

The Times noted that ALEC’s model legislation being shopped to state legislators was<a title="sponsored" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/us/alec-a-tax-exempt-group-mixes-legislators-and-lobbyists.html?pagewanted=2&ref=politics" target="_blank"> sponsored</a> by Exxon Mobil. And now, new documents show how Exxon’s donations to ALEC match up with the timing of the development of fracking legislation.

According to Exxon’s 2011 <a href="http://www.exxonmobil.com/Corporate/Files/gcr_contributions_pubpolicy11.pdf">corporate giving report</a>, ALEC was listed as the recipient of $86,500:

American Legislative Exchange Council, Washington, D.C.

-  General Support:  74,000

-  ALEC States and Nation Policy Summit:  12,500

</blockquote>

The “<a href="http://www.alec.org/meetings/states-nation-policy-summit-2011/">ALEC States and Nation Policy Summit</a>,” to which Exxon gave $12,500, took place in Scottsdale, Arizona, in December 2011.  And according to both the Times and an ALEC blog, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/us/alec-a-tax-exempt-group-mixes-legislators-and-lobbyists.html?_r=1&ref=politics&pagewanted=all">hydraulic fracturing disclosure language</a> was approved by the organization as a <a href="http://www.americanlegislator.org/2012/03/alec-encourages-responsible-resource-production/">model bill</a> in December 2011.

At issue is whether natural gas companies should be required to inform the public about the type of chemicals being pumped underground to facilitate the extraction of gas. Some of those chemicals are <a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/fracking-chemicals-cited-in-congressional-report-stay-underground">known or suspected carcinogens</a>.  At first glance Exxon and ALEC’s sponsorship of fracking disclosure laws seems commendable; however, a closer glance reveals that the legislation actually <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/us/alec-a-tax-exempt-group-mixes-legislators-and-lobbyists.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2&ref=politics&pagewanted=all">contains serious loopholes</a> for companies wanting to protect “trade secrets.”

Ohio is “<a href="http://www.nationofchange.org/alec-slips-exxon-fracking-loopholes-new-ohio-law-1338539750">in the final stages</a>” of enacting regulations address hydraulic fracturing chemical disclosure. But as Connor Gibson at Nation of Change <a href="http://www.nationofchange.org/alec-slips-exxon-fracking-loopholes-new-ohio-law-1338539750">notes</a>:

<blockquote style="">At least 33 of the 45 Ohio legislators who co-sponsored SB 315 are ALEC members, and language from portions of the state Senate bill is similar to ALEC’s “Disclosure of Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Composition Act.”</blockquote>

Exxon is the <a href="http://www.chron.com/business/article/Exxon-Mobil-moves-to-expand-chemical-plant-3603742.php">largest producer of natural gas in the country</a>, a position solidified after its purchase of natural gas company XTO in 2010.

===

fracking study tainted <a href="http://www.motherjones.com/print/177816">http://www.motherjones.com/print/177816</a>

===

Good news, coal down, but bad news:

Right you are. On April 12, representatives from the <a href="http://www.aga.org/Pages/default.aspx">American Gas Association</a> (AGA) and the <a href="http://federalperformancecontracting.com/">Federal Performance Contracting Coalition</a> (FPCC) <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/1904_meeting_04112912">met at the White House</a> with administration officials from DOE, CEQ, and OMB. At that meeting they offered <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/assets/oira_1904/1904-04112012-1.pdf">this issue brief</a> [PDF], which called on Congress to “substantially modify or eliminate EISA section 433.” You can bet that issue brief hit all the relevant congressional offices as well.

Less than a month later, Rep. Rodney Alexander (R-La.) of the House Appropriations Committee <a href="http://appropriations.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=292584">offered an amendment</a> to the Fiscal Year 2013 Energy and Water Appropriations Bill that would “prohibit funding” to implement Section 433.

What is motivating this stealth attack on one of the few genuinely ambitious energy laws in the U.S.?

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One of the key controversies about fracking is the chemical makeup of the fluid that is pumped deep into the ground to break apart rock and release natural gas. Some companies have been reluctant to disclose what's in their fracking fluid. Scientists and environmental advocates argue that, without knowing its precise composition, they can't thoroughly investigate complaints of contamination.

Disclosure requirements vary considerably from state to state, as ProPublica recently charted. In many cases, the rules have been limited by a "trade secrets" provision under which companies can claim that a proprietary chemical doesn't have to be disclosed to regulators or the public.

Impact

Focusing Public Attention—and Staying With a Story Relentlessly

Drilling Regulatory Staffing in Your State

Search for how many wells have been drilled and how many gas regulators are in your state.

Graphics

What is Hydraulic Fracturing?

Anatomy of a Gas Well

Video

Fracking: The Music Vide0

One apparent proponent of the trade secrets caveat? The American Legislative Exchange Council, better known as ALEC, a nonprofit group that brings together politicians and corporations to draft and promote conservative, business-friendly legislation. ALEC has been in the spotlight recently because of its support of controversial laws like Florida's "Stand Your Ground" provision.

This weekend, as part of a story on ALEC's political activity, The New York Times noted that the group recently adopted "model legislation" on fracking chemical disclosure, based on a bill passed in Texas last year. According to The Times, the model bill was "sponsored within ALEC" by ExxonMobil, which runs a major oil and gas operation through its subsidiary, XTO Energy. The advocacy group Common Cause, which provided the documents on ALEC's lobbying efforts to The Times, describes model legislation, in many cases identifying by name the company that proposed it to ALEC's task forces.

ALEC has recently removed its list of model bills from its main website, and did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for XTO Energy confirmed that the company is a member of ALEC, but he did not provide details on the company's involvement with the disclosure bill.

The spokesman said ExxonMobil supports "full disclosure of the ingredients and additives in hydraulic fracturing fluids," but added that when vendors request it, ExxonMobil has "respected the trade secret status of their products." Last year, the company began voluntarily uploading chemical disclosures to FracFocus, a clearinghouse website run by the Groundwater Protection Council and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission.

In a recent blog post, ALEC claimed that legislators in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Indiana, New York and Ohio have introduced versions of its model bill, but many of those states vary in the level of disclosure required and how they handle the trade secrets provision. Laws in 11 states require at least partial disclosure, and the Bureau of Land Management recently drafted disclosure guidelines for drilling on federal land.

These laws have been relatively well-received by environmental advocates, though the trade secrets issue remains a concern for some. In Ohio, for example, proprietary chemicals don't have to be disclosed to regulators or the public. In Pennsylvania, they are disclosed to regulators, and the public can request information on them from the state Department of Environmental Protection on a case-by-case basis.

The Texas law, which ALEC cites in the post as its template, codifies the trade secrets exemption, and who can challenge it:

The "trade secret" exemption (p. 3)

Otherwise, Texas' law requires that companies post disclosure forms for each completed well on the FracFocus site. They must disclose all chemicals but only report the concentrations of those that are hazardous. The law also requires that the companies give the total volume of water used in fracking.

The Environmental Protection Agency cannot regulate fracking in order to protect groundwater, because in 2005 Congress exempted fracking from the Safe Drinking Water Act, which controls how industries inject substances underground.

According to ALEC's blog, the model disclosure legislation is designed to promote "responsible resource production" and "aims to preempt the promulgation of duplicative, burdensome federal regulations" from the EPA, in particular. ALEC has consistently opposed any federal control over fracking. In 2009, the group adopted a "Resolution to Retain State Authority Over Hydraulic Fracturing."

<a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/alec-and-exxonmobil-push-loopholes-in-fracking-chemical-disclosure-rules">http://www.propublica.org/article/alec-and-exxonmobil-push-loopholes-in-fracking-chemical-disclosure-rules</a>

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<h1><a href="http://www.republicreport.org/2012/koch-fracking/" rel="bookmark">Seven Ways Koch Industries Is Monetizing The Fracking Business</a></h1>

<a href="http://www.republicreport.org/author/lee-fang/" title="Posts by Lee Fang" rel="author">Lee Fang</a> 3.2.2012

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Koch Industries helped design this facility in Texas to process natural gas fracked from the Eagle Ford formation.

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Ever notice the endless procession of television ads praising the value of fracking, or the amazing number of D.C.-based “institutes” and “foundations” promoting the controversial drilling method, despite <a href="http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=epa-finds-fracking-compound-wyoming-aquifer">growing scientific evidence</a> that this sort of natural gas extraction is poisoning the water table and leaking carcinogenic chemicals into the environment?

Many of the pro-fracking think tanks, like the <a href="http://heartland.org/policy-documents/house-lawmakers-oppose-premature-fracking-rules">Heartland Institute</a> and the <a href="http://www.alec.org/wp-content/uploads/IA_JulAug2011_reduced.pdf">American Legislative Exchange Council</a>, are <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/heartland-institute-exposed-internal-documents-unmask-heart-climate-denial-machine">funded</a> by the petrochemical conglomerate Koch Industries. To get a better idea of why Koch-funded organizations are so desperate to force fracking on local communities, Republic Report has compiled the ways in which Koch Industries has monetized the fracking business:

– 1. Koch Pipeline is partnering with NuStar Energy to develop a dormant pipeline from Pettus, TX to refineries in Corpus Christi. The pipeline will transport crude from fracking sites in southern Texas. Koch Pipeline is a Koch Industries subsidiary.

– 2. Flint Hills Resources recently purchased a small craft pier and wharf in Ingleside, TX to store shipments of natural gas from fracking operations in the Eagle Ford shale formation. Flint Hills Resources is a Koch Industries subsidiary.

– 3. Koch Supply & Trading, a Koch Industries company that deals with commodity trading and financial products, is “already trading Eagle Ford crude” to help supply Koch companies and other customers, <a href="http://www.republicreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/kochfracking.pdf">according</a> to a Koch Industries newsletter.

– 4. Koch Chemical Technology Group is designing a processing facility near Yoakum, TX to help process natural gas fracked in southern Texas. Koch Chemical is a subsidiary of Koch Industries.

– 5. John Zink, a Koch Industries company, is providing flares for a natural gas processing plant in Helena to service the fracking industry.

– 6. Georgia Pacific <a href="http://lufkindailynews.com/news/local/article_328679ee-8284-11e0-b2bd-001cc4c002e0.html">produces</a> resins used for chemicals used to prop open micro-fractures, an important process for fracking to occur. Koch Industries acquired

– 7. Koch Fertilizer, a Koch Industries company, has tapped into increased natural gas production from fracking to develop fertilizer.

<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011/03/01/146847/charles-koch-welfare/">As I’ve</a> <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/03/01/147376/koch-polluter-bailout/">reported</a>, Koch Industries is owned by David and Charles Koch, two men each worth over $22 billion dollars who have plunged untold millions into an array of front groups that help lobby the government for policies that benefit Koch businesses.

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<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/05/frac-sand-mining-midwest_n_1186892.html?utm_campaign=010512&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-green&utm_content=FullStory">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/05/frac-sand-mining-midwest_n_1186892.html?utm_campaign=010512&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Alert-green&utm_content=FullStory</a>

frack sands

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walmart $:

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The companies participating in the online registry are:

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.anadarko.com%2FHome%2FPages%2FHome.aspx&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=Anadarko+Petroleum+Corporation&index=3&md5=7d7eafaa7f90e9f4b42f9373d449c55a" target="_blank">Anadarko Petroleum Corporation</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.apachecorp.com%2F&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=Apache+Corporation&index=4&md5=a9ec4ccc67160f6951671bf3fe02021f" target="_blank">Apache Corporation</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bp.com%2Fbodycopyarticle.do%3FcategoryId%3D1%26contentId%3D7052055&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=BP+America+Production+Company&index=5&md5=892ec2f323b00453dbc7d207015500c5" target="_blank">BP America Production Company</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cabotog.com%2F&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=Cabot+Oil+%26+Gas+Corporation&index=6&md5=71b17f0a0504cefb3e6fbff74ab42e67" target="_blank">Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.chk.com%2FPages%2Fdefault.aspx&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=Chesapeake%C2%A0Energy+Corporation&index=7&md5=6e8a4cef3b0fb6675efaa006024fab1e" target="_blank">Chesapeake Energy Corporation</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fchiefog.com%2F&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=Chief+Oil+%26+Gas+LLC&index=8&md5=dac1b7a82b0604ee540fdbee1bab3e88" target="_blank">Chief Oil & Gas LLC</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.conocophillips.com%2FEN%2FPages%2Findex.aspx&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=ConocoPhillips+Company&index=9&md5=657d6fdc0a90fe7718c73115d5dbc85f" target="_blank">ConocoPhillips Company</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.devonenergy.com&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=Devon+Energy&index=10&md5=bcbcc85573c13eff23fa6bd970236919" target="_blank">Devon Energy</a> NEWT

blog:

<h1 class="entry-title" style="">Energy Execs Prefer Anonymous Fracking</h1>

<div class="post-info" style="">March 16, 2011 By <a href="http://asherblack.com/author/admin/" title="Posts by Asher Black">Asher Black</a> <a href="http://asherblack.com/2011/03/energy-execs-prefer-anonymously-fracking/#comments">Leave a Comment</a></div>

Oil and Gas executives in Texas have called emergency meetings this week over proposed legislation in Texas that might force them to reveal what chemicals they inject into the ground and groundwater in a process called “fracking” (or hydraulic fracturing). Whole towns along the Barnet Shale, where ten of thousands of fracked wells exist, have reportedly been poisoned, wildlife obliterated, and children afflicted with serious illnesses, while natural gas pumps and stations advertise natural gas as a “clean, green fuel” and Ohio Governor John Kasic prepares to open up state parks to fracking, a move which elicited a rare comment to the press by former Vice President Dick Cheney, “it’s about fracking time.”

Readers may remember that the former Vice President had an exemption inserted into a 2005 energy bill, which fans call the “Haliburton loophole”, removing EPA authority to regulate fracking. A video made it onto Youtube shortly afterward, purportedly featuring the Vice President saying “Frack those mother frackers. They can fracking go get fracked. And frack their kids too.” A bystander is heard asking “Mr. Vice President, who exactly do you mean?” at which point an apparently inebriated Cheney replies “humans. Fracking humans. Those fracking frackers. Frack all of them.” Shortly thereafter, Eminem, released his hit song “Without Me” which included the words “Dick Cheney fracked me s’why I so fracked up.”

In Oklahoma, where fracking originated, Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon and Larry Nichols, Executive Chairman of Devon Energy, companies that get 100% of their natural gas from fracking, told the press in a joint statement, “We don’t think most people want to know what we’re injecting into the ground where they live. If they knew, they’d be unhappy about knowing, and that’s the message we have to send to the few, overly inquisitive people who are asking questions about this.” Immediately after providing the statement to the press, the executives commissioned a marketing study to look at renaming fracking to something less disturbing, such as “poking shale”, “laying pipe”, “glory hole pile driving”, “the hot mystery injection”, or “bumping oilies with a stranger”.

Update: Shortly after our report was published, Sarah Palin expressed displeasure that she hadn’t been interviewed on the subject. When asked for comment, she asked what the subject was, and then replied “Nevermind. It’s more of those fat cats at the EPA trying to keep America down with another blood libel. But that’s not what we’re about, we’re not Katie Couric. We’re about, and you know, the little pockets of America, and we’re not talking about the rapture.”

Short URL: http://tinyurl.com/4hlwu8s

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<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.elpaso.com%2Fep%2F&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=El+Paso+E%26P+Company&index=11&md5=c185c56c9a347b95095898bca17abb0e" target="_blank">El Paso E&P Company</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eogresources.com%2Fhome%2Findex.html&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=EOG+Resources%2C+Incorporated&index=12&md5=4e27f5c24b899b296ea23f2852bd2e59" target="_blank">EOG Resources, Incorporated</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eqt.com%2F&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=EQT+Production&index=13&md5=93ab989de83ad412be30eb8147749935" target="_blank">EQT Production</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.highmountep.com%2F&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=High+Mountain+Exploration+%26+Production+LLC&index=14&md5=ee5cb94ee110f00a9a465bba85414b77" target="_blank">High Mountain Exploration & Production LLC</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.marathon.com%2F&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=Marathon+Oil+Corporation&index=15&md5=3791a6ecdd4b72b9610e30009c9bb2a7" target="_blank">Marathon Oil Corporation</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.newfld.com%2F&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=Newfield+Exploration+Company&index=16&md5=0722058fcefb18605c866f8bd8d11abc" target="_blank">Newfield Exploration Company</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pioneernrc.com%2F&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=Pioneer+Natural+Resources&index=17&md5=99550605f9b150d5761db086ea304cb2" target="_blank">Pioneer Natural Resources</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pxp.com%2F&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=Plains+Exploration+%26+Production+Company&index=18&md5=d0e21448021b25a2cfe77b2fa208b7ea" target="_blank">Plains Exploration & Production Company</a> NEWT

<h2 style="margin-top: 3em;">6. OIL AND GAS: Wyoming Range drilling project garners 40,000 comments (03/10/2011)</h2>

<h5 class="reporter" style="">Scott Streater, E&E reporter</h5>

A voluntary agreement by a Houston-based energy company to scale back a drilling project in the Bridger-Teton National Forest and win public support for the proposal appears to have galvanized opposition to it.

The Forest Service has received nearly 40,000 written comments since it released a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) in December of Plains Exploration & Production Co.'s proposal to drill as many as 136 natural gas wells on 17 well pads across a roughly 20,000-acre section of the southwest Wyoming national forest. The public comment period ends on Friday.

A day after the draft EIS was unveiled, PXP and two advocacy groups -- the Wyoming Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife and the Wyoming Outfitters and Guides Association -- announced they had negotiated an agreement in which the company could drill the wells but would not apply for any additional drilling permits, regardless of the volume of natural gas discovered in the region, and pay more than $6 million to protect wildlife habitat and monitor air and water quality in the area (<a href="http://www.eenews.net/Landletter/2010/12/16/archive/1">Land Letter</a>, Dec. 16, 2010).

<table align="right" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="6" width="325" style=""><tbody><tr><td align="center"> </td></tr><tr><td align="left">Despite agreements to leave 20,000 acres of its lease holdings in the Wyoming Range untouched, Texas-based Plains Exploration & Production Co. continues to face opposition to its proposal to drill for natural gas in the northwest Wyoming area. Photo courtesy of the Wyoming Outdoor Council.</td></tr></tbody></table>

PXP also agreed to permanently remove from drilling 28,240 acres inside the Bridger-Teton where the company has a valid drilling lease west and north of the Hoback River and to set aside a 4,000-acre corridor for big-game migration and livestock grazing.

PXP hoped the agreement would demonstrate its intent to carry out the drilling project in an environmentally friendly manner that is respectful of the pristine Wyoming Range region; the outdoors groups believed the agreement was the best deal possible, noting that PXP has valid federal leases to drill on the forest and is under no obligation to retire leases or fund wildlife habitat restoration projects.

But the agreement has drawn widespread derision from national and regional environmental groups, some of whom contend the terms of the agreement do not do much to protect the area and do not require the company to make any great sacrifices.

In a Dec. 21, 2010, letter to the Forest Service, a coalition of environmental groups that included Western Resource Advocates and the Wyoming Outdoor Council warned that PXP's pledge to limit drilling activity in the forest is not enough by itself to safeguard wildlife that are already suffering declines from nearby energy development (<a href="http://www.eenews.net/Greenwire/2010/12/22/archive/10">Greenwire</a>, Dec. 22, 2010).

"Most of the mitigation things they agreed to, with the exception of the lease retirement, were restrictions the Forest Service could have imposed without the agreement," said Dan Smitherman, a spokesman for Citizens for the Wyoming Range, a coalition of residents and business owners opposed to the drilling proposal whose members include Wyoming state Rep. Keith Gingery (R).

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.qepres.com%2F&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=QEP+Resources%2C+Inc.&index=19&md5=a1f97e5092028882c22065b8422bcec1" target="_blank">QEP Resources, Inc.</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Finvestor.nationalfuelgas.com%2Fphoenix.zhtml%3Fc%3D90873%26p%3Dirol-irhome&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=Seneca+Resources+Corporation&index=20&md5=b5f6efb05e17f83ce38a9df19b8e646a" target="_blank">Seneca Resources Corporation</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.shell.us%2Fhome%2Fcontent%2Fusa%2Faboutshell%2Fshell_businesses%2Fupstream%2F&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=Shell+Exploration+and+Production+Company&index=21&md5=89a1583b08a310d2cdf4a6285eeaa9db" target="_blank">Shell Exploration and Production Company</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fsm-energy.com%2F&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=SM+Energy&index=22&md5=b2bbd3eb94a7166ef8fe437cfc2064c4" target="_blank">SM Energy</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.swn.com%2FPages%2Fdefault.aspx&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=Southwestern+Energy+Production+Company&index=23&md5=5ba5e96a0f0f398b50267664b72d1ca3" target="_blank">Southwestern Energy Production Company</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.talisman-energy.com%2F&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=Talisman+Energy+USA+Incorporated&index=24&md5=c1ea4c0479974cd76e35a3d9a89bf256" target="_blank">Talisman Energy USA Incorporated</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwilliams.com%2F&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=Williams&index=25&md5=827d53eb1df2e69aa5900c659d67af22" target="_blank">Williams</a>

<a href="http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.xtoenergy.com%2Fen%2Fhome.html&esheet=6679085&lan=en-US&anchor=XTO+Energy+%2F+ExxonMobil&index=26&md5=d9f0a024c3beaec420f31a80924cb773" target="_blank">XTO Energy / ExxonMobil</a>

<a href="http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/04/12/24-companies-agree-to-publish-fracking-chemicals/" style="">http://www.environmentalleader.com/2011/04/12/24-companies-agree-to-publish-fracking-chemicals/</a>

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