Do you believe we will ever rid ourselves of the federal governance malfeasance of the Bush Years. Fracking isanother example of how we are ruining the environment in exploration and production of fossil fuel derivatives. The method of extracting natural gas also involves use of humongous amounts of water and I have read once used the water may be harmful for human consumption. If water is not fit for human consumption, I doubt it serves well for agricultural irrigation.
Fracking a simplistic view
Let’s take one last look at the impact of Fracking on human beings and water.
Of course, you know that Dick Cheney was a former CEO of Halliburton and placed copious financial holdings in “Trust’ while he served in the White House. Is it possible those trusts were frozen with no possibility of benefiting from the Halliburton Loophole? A rhetorical question like no other!
Do you know how the Halliburton Loophole came into existence?
Hydraulic fracturing, an increasingly common aspect of the oil and gas production process, is not subject to the same standards as other industries when it comes to protecting underground sources of drinking water.
Hydraulic fracturing involves the injection of fluids including toxic chemicals into oil or gas wells at very high pressure.
Other forms of underground injection are regulated to protect drinking water, but in 2005 Congress created exemptions for hydraulic fracturing to benefit Halliburton and other oil and gas companies.
Paragraph (1) of section 1421(d) of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300h(d)) is amended to read as follows:
‘‘(1) UNDERGROUND INJECTION.—The term ‘underground injection’—
‘‘(A) means the subsurface emplacement of fluids by well injection; and
‘‘(B) EXCLUDES—
‘‘(i) the underground injection of natural gas for purposes of storage; and
‘‘(ii) the underground injection of fluids or propping agents (other than diesel fuels) pursuant to hydraulic fracturing operations related to oil, gas, or geothermal production activities.’’
There, now you have the brief version. It is also important to know that the surge in US energy independence is, frankly, in part due to Fracking. We take the good with the bad? Is energy independence worthwhile when it leads to a damaged and depleted Earth and deleterious direct impact on the lives of people in the path of such extraction methods? Natural Gas Watch
This map shows the areas of the United States where natural gas fracking wells are either already in place or planned.
The natural gas industry has repeatedly denied that fracking destroys the environment, but a study by researchers at Duke Universitypublished today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates unequivocally that fracking does, in fact, contaminate the water in the area where is used.
The study examined groundwater obtained from 68 wells above the Marcellus and Uticashale formations throughout Pennsylvania and New York. The researchers found that the groundwater in the areas near active fracking wells contained, on average, methane concentrations 17 times higher than wells located where fracking was not taking place. Moreover, some of these wells had methane concentrations well above the “immediate action” hazard level as defined by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
A wave of anxiety and outrage grips Newton County, KY, as a proposed natural gas pipeline would rend a path through Ohio and Kentucky. TheBluegrass Pipeline—put forward as a joint venture by Williams Companies Inc. and Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, LP—would carry an estimated200,000 to 400,000barrels a day of shale gas from western Pennsylvania to Texas, where it will likely be shipped to overseas markets. Construction is expected to be completed by late 2015.
“Bluegrass would include building a new NGL [Natural Gas Liquids] pipeline to a Hardinsburg, KY, interconnect with Boardwalk’s Texas Gas Transmission LLC system and converting a portion of Texas Gas from Hardinsburg to Eunice, LA. (the TGT Loop Line) to NGL service.”
Pipelines, pipelines, pipelines. We as a nation hear the word “pipeline” more than we hear the word “jobs.” It is both intriguing and beguiling the extent to which the word pipeline takes on a few connotations. Keystone promises jobs in the thousands, and it appears the BlueGrass Pipeline also offers mirage promises. We have explored the business of fossil based energy extraction. There is more!
The BlueGrass Pipeline joins the Keystone XL Pipeline in three areas. I read the words “export” above. Keystone XL has the same primary purpose: export to the orient. Legislative approval is another word that is common to the two projects. Do you know what is synonymous with “legislative approval?” Try the word, “contributions.”
Another tragedy associated with more and or pipelines is best illustrated.
The pipeline map looks a bit like Las Vegas after one too many Long Island Teas or one joint beyond “blasted.”
When we add pipelines that do not have the singular purpose of improving life for Americans, we have an untenable problem. The problem is, commerce as a guiding force for decisions generally does not improve the quality of life for you and me.
This takes a moment, but if you skip to minute 5:50 you will see and hear a first hand accounting of how the motioning of telecommunications literal thwarted at least one bombing attack planned against New York City.
The Whirlwind Dot Com’s Benjamin T. Moore, Jr located a 2006 article about AT&T’s acquiescence and compliance in working with the NSA on phone monitoring. The story flew by the viewing and reading public like an asteroid with no noticeable acts of consternation of angst. The timing September 2006, was well before international banking scandals, well before the Bush Sub-Prime Bubble burst, and well before the US economy slipped into what turned into a Great Recession. The recession started in December of 2007 despite Bush Administration denials and was admitted just before Bush left office (December 2008). So, it really isn’t possible to lay the lack of interest in national communications monitoring to national economic crisis. We did not seem to care for good reason. Our fear of terrorism pushed concern for personal privacy to a back-burner. You might say we have delineated cases and information relative to NSA Phone monitoring, not the newly “leaked”, PRISM program. As we question the timing of all the leaks against the Obama Administration we are reminded that most of the alleged scandals are turning into non-issues. The IRS “scandal” is a prime example as data indicates more conservative certifications were granted than reported. The leaks appear strategically positions as we move towards 2014 and 2016, and frankly, I posit have roots in GOP and conservative money to individuals same as foreign governments pay US citizens to spy against the nation. The Washington Post released the PRISM story one day after Glenn Greenwald reported for the Guardian on Verizon’s compliance with NSA on phone monitoring. Slides leaked from the PRISM Washington Post story.
It should be noted the some of the nine internet services providers (depicted) in the last slide have denied “direct” access to their servers via the NSA.
The President respond in manner that should actually surprise no one.
Transparency has become the new buss word. It has come forth because candidate Obama clearly stated he would strive for more transparent government if elected in 2008. Well, life is such that transparency cannot related to state secrets and national security Can you imagine Russia and China chopping at the bits fora much more open and lax American intelligence community? Do you think Al Qaeda, Iran and North Korea love to have such transparency? CNN has run a few articles related to the monitoring. We cannot link each one, but we have taken a poignant excerpt from a June 6th piece.CNN James Clapper, Director of National Intelligence with 16 intelligence agencies reporting to his office.
….Yet several tech giants whose servers were reportedly ensnared in the program denied any knowledge of it Thursday.And James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, questioned the Guardian and Post articles in a statement Thursday night.
He referred to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which he noted was recently reauthorized by Congress — one of the bodies, along with the executive branch and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, with oversight over aspects of intelligence gathering.Section 702, Clapper added, “is designed to facilitate the acquisition of foreign intelligence information concerning non-U.S. persons located outside the United States.”“It cannot be used to intentionally target any U.S. citizen, any other U.S. person, or anyone located within the United States,” he said in his statement.
Yet several tech giants whose servers were reportedly ensnared in the program denied any knowledge of it Thursday.
And James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, questioned the Guardian and Post articles in a statement Thursday night.He referred to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, which he noted was recently reauthorized by Congress — one of the bodies, along with the executive branch and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, with oversight over aspects of intelligence gathering.Section 702, Clapper added, “is designed to facilitate the acquisition of foreign intelligence information concerning non-U.S. persons located outside the United States.”“It cannot be used to intentionally target any U.S. citizen, any other U.S. person, or anyone located within the United States,” he said in his statement.
The Post reported the program — called PRISM — underwent “exponential growth” since its founding in 2007. In fact, the newspaper said the program has become the leading source of raw material for the National Security Agency, the secretive U.S. intelligence operation that monitors electronic communications.
The issue boils down to two things. Either accept that the world is coming to an end all of a sudden with months of the Obama Second Term inauguration and not wonder (why all the leaks). Or, trust the nations top INTEL Officer and the 44th President of the United States.I am throwing my hat in with the latter gentlemen. Bush’d 2006 Linked PBS News Hour, May 2006 (Mark Shields and David Brooks) Linked
The following is not some attempt to induce shame in people who abhor racism. It is also not an effort to offend those who harbor unadulterated racism. The video depicts a real example of life for people who do not have what we call “White Privilege.”
The sad part of it all, people who accosted the minority kid, may consider themselves fair and balanced Americans. The may be such, but they are also people who exemplify exactly why we America is not in any way an exceptional nation.
The Pardu's Scroll 