One more time: Fracking largely operates OUTSIDE of Environmental Regulation

[cali]

It is exempt from the Clean Water Act. It is exempt from the Clean Air Act. Big Oil and Gas are taking wild advantage of their license to pollute and sorry, but President Obama has chosen to stand with big oil and gas. He did in 2005 when he voted for the Halliburton loophole and he does today when he extends fracking on public lands.

The US fracking industry has a dirty secret. It has secured a total of seven loopholes and exemptions that give it the power to pollute at will - and citizens have no comeback. Now it's time to fight back!

<snip>

Not surprisingly, the fossil fuel industry is pushing fracking hard. Big oil has even found a friend in President Obama, who touted natural gas as a "bridge fuel" in his most recent State of the Union address.

All due respect to the president, but fracking is not safe. Numerous studies have shown that it contaminates drinking water, threatens public health, and, in some cases, even causes earthquakes.

If any industry in the country needs regulation it's the fracking industry, but thanks in large part to Dick Cheney, it's exempt from having to follow most important environmental laws on the books.

<snip>

http://www.theecologist.org/blogs_and_comments/commentators/2280541/time_to_end_the_cheney_halliburton_loophole.html

[cali]

1. kick and I will keep kicking this.

and I will keep posting about fracking which is a huge threat.

[woo me with science]

2. K&R

Thanks, cali.

[cali]

3. I know I go on tangents

Do you remember a movie called "Sex, Lies and Videotape"?

There's a character in it who has this session with her therapist and says something like this:

"I just can't stop thinking about garbage..." and she goes on this obsessed rant about all the garbage we produce and where it goes and the barge with all the garbage that just sailed around for months.

I can't stop thinking about fracking and fracking fluid and that frackers can pollute at will.

thanks for commenting.

[woo me with science]

12. Yeah, I saw it, and I completely understand

that frame of mind. I have to tear myself away sometimes from my utter disgust and spinning and anger over the surveillance state, and the assaults on journalism and whistleblowers and a free internet, and the relentless looting and impoverishment of Americans. It is so hard to see all these assaults on the foundations of our lives...including the earth itself...and not drown in the anger and frustration.

You channel it really well. I can't express how much I appreciate your relentlessness here on fracking and on the TPP. Sometimes it's only the strong voices of other people who care that keep one recharging...

[cali]

4. kick

the only reason there's so much support for fracking on DU and so much scurrying away from threads about it, is that President Obama champions fracking.

[Cali_Democrat]

11. There's so much support for fracking on DU?

It's in your mind. I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of DUers are opposed to fracking. I can tell you that I'm opposed to it.

The notion that there is "so much support for fracking on DU" simply isn't true.

Do you have evidence of this enormous amount of support for fracking on DU?

I'm willing to guess that you don't.

Cheers!

[cali]

5. one of the fastest growing industries in the nation

and it has virtually no regulation.

What could go wrong?

[WhiteTara]

6. Better to ask for forgiveness than to

ask for permission. I think that's the motto.

[Jackpine Radical]

7. Nothing to see here, folks. Keep it moving.

Hey--Lookit the squirrel!

[cali]

8. banjo music in a lovely rural setting by a cute musician. Cool!

[TheKentuckian]

9. Not much respect is due here, he knows better and is accountable for his disregard

I don't buy he doesn't know better for a second either.

He may not be the dominating mega brain/over mind some of the bigger fans believe but he is certainly of above average intelligence with more access to data and expertise than perhaps anyone else on the planet while getting correspondence from miserable souls directly impacted.

[ProSense]

10. True,

"One more time: Fracking largely operates OUTSIDE of Environmental Regulation"

...but the reality is that the administation is in a position to try to regulate a problem controlled by states with laws that vary widely from Texas (http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024569123#post26) to Vermont, which banned fracking. Still, there is the reality.

The business of a natural gas pipeline in Vermont
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/article/20130908/NEWS01/309080017/Rutland-or-bust

Vermont pipeline expansion reignites fracking debate
http://america.aljazeera.com/watch/shows/the-stream/the-stream-officialblog/2013/10/4/vermont-pipelineexpansionreignitesfrackingdebate.html

Propane production up, but U.S. shortage looms

Shale gas producers across the country are pulling so much propane out of natural gas wells, they have quadrupled exports in the last three years. By the end of 2014, Sunoco Logistics Partners will have the capacity to load a million gallons a day of Marcellus Shale propane onto ships at its Marcus Hook terminal south of Philadelphia.

But this winter's weird weather, and a bumper crop of Midwestern corn that required four times more propane for drying, has triggered an unprecedented domestic shortage of the fuel, a byproduct of natural gas production and crude oil refining.

<...>

Elected officials in propane-dependent states are demanding relief. On Feb. 14, the congressional delegation from Vermont, where 15 percent of households heat with propane, called on the U.S. Commerce Department to impose a temporary export ban.

"The problem is that almost all new propane production over the past three years has been exported to more lucrative overseas markets instead of being used to meet consumer demand right here in the United States," said the letter from Sens. Bernie Sanders and Patrick Leahy and Rep. Peter Welch.

- more -

http://articles.philly.com/2014-02-24/business/47607065_1_much-propane-national-propane-gas-association-marcellus-shale

Emergency Proposal on Propane Prices
http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/recent-business/emergency-proposal-on-propane-prices

Colorado Becomes The First State To Regulate Methane Emissions From Fracking
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/02/24/3322651/colorado-methane-fracking/

Los Angeles City Council Bans Fracking
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024581344

One can be against fracking and still have to face the realities of the day. The Obama administration has ramped up solar (http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024547836) and other clean energy sources. Environmentalists hate the all-of-the-above approach, and rightfully so. Still, there is going to be a transition.

The Senate proposed an end to the Halliburton loophole and called for disclosure of all chemicals used in fracking.

Why hasn't the Boxer-Sanders climate bill gotten more attention?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024509463