Posted on 05/27/2010 2:16:57 PM PDT by neverdem
Sen. Bob Casey, D-PA, is campaigning against hydraulic fracturing in natural gas drilling by introducing a bill to remove the long-standing exemption in the Safe Drinking Water Act that allows energy companies to use the process.
Hydraulic fracturing - or "fracking,' as it is more commonly known in the industry - involves injecting liquids, 95 percent of which are water, into rock formations far below the land surface in order to create access to vast quantities of natural gas. Casey's home state of Pennsylvania has a major portion of one of the country's largest undeveloped natural gas resources, the Marcellus Shale Formation.
The Marcellus Shale Formation covers 34 million acres. in New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia and Kentucky. The formation is estimated to hold as much as $7 trillion in recoverable natural gas, "enough to pay off the national debt," according to Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-PA.
But Casey has joined environmental extremists in government and the liberal non-profit activism community in a national campaign to stop the use of fracking. The process has been used more than a million times in the past half century, especially in Texas and Oklahoma where it was first utilized.
Casey says fracking "often occurs near underground sources of drinking water and involves the use of pollutants that may contaminate the water, such as salt, arsenic, and heavy metals.”
The issue is especailly relevant to Pennsylvania, according to Casey, "because we have the second highest number of private wells for drinking water in the nation. My priority is to protect the health and safety of Pennsylvanians as we develop the Marcellus."
So he's introduced the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act to repeal the long-standing Clean Water Act exemption that allows fracking.
But somebody should explain to the senator that fracking is done thousands of feet below the ground water level, which is probably why there isn't a single proven example of ground water contamination caused by fracking.
As for the presence of salt, arsenic and heavy metals, Casey could easily enough check the list of ingredients commonly used in fracking by going to the Pennsylvania Department of Environment Protection site, the industry-backed Energy in Depth web site, and the U.S. Department of Energy web site.
At those sites, Casey will learn that none of the three substances he listed are used in fracking.
So why is a U.S. senator pushing legislation based on so clearly mistaken assumptions?
Those are not the only inaccurate assumptions behind Casey's bill. Energy in Depth details the rest of this story here.
Sen. Casey has been asked for a response to this post.
I’m willing to bet that Bob Casey actually has the lowest IQ of any sitting senator.
Actually Cabot has been fined and ordered to close 3 wells in Dimock,PA. Although they admitted no wrong doing...
Gas and oil production, economics, freedom; there’s all manner of subjects that politicians in general, and democrats in particular, do not understand but have no problem passing laws.
Probable motivation is the absence of an offer of off shore cash to the Congress Critter.
One reason why Pennsylvania has become the primary location for gas extraction for the Marcellus Shale formation is that neighboring New York has prohibited gas extraction in much of the region. This is because of the sensitivity of the protected areas of the Catskill Mountains where the reservoirs that make up New York City's water supply are located.
Casey is an ass. Fracking has been occurring in PA since I was sitting in my Dads’s truck while he blew wells and taught me about demolitions. Casey, and his father, and brothers have never had jobs. He only feeds off information from whatever asshole tells him this crap. By the way, fracking started 52 years ago.
ROFL!
It's how he *feels* that's important.
Thinking is for right-wing extremists.
Surely not. Why, it's millions of degrees down there!
He got all his info from wacko eco-nuts
Casey is an empty suit. He got where he is today on his father’s name.
the flaw in the logic here is that it subsumes that democrats actually give a rip about the truth. A quick review of democrat leaders will easily reveal that is a fallacy.
True.
But how did Casey's Dad get where he got? He was an empty suit, too.
I see an optimal location for drilling there on the right.
Casey proves, once again, that ignorance is power...for a liberal.
Educated or not, read for yourselves...
A child would tell you not to put water at risk, I’d say starting at 5 or 6 years old.
Why is it that people intelligent enough to invent fracturing aren’t intelligent enough to admit the risks, or when they’ve clearly contaminated wells. What’s in that void of otherwise intelligent capable people, could it be...greed?
The single biggest, most concentrated, irreversible threat to clean water ever created has and exemption to the Clean Air and Water Act.
http://www.propublica.org/article/16-cattle-drop-dead-near-mysterious-fluid-at-gas-drilling-site-430
http://www.journeyoftheforsaken.com/fracpage.htm
Forget your agendas, your politics, your fancy slogans, it’s water, don’t put it at risk.
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