Groups Pan 'Toothless' Fracking Rules As Industry Giveaway

[RiverLover]

Groups Pan 'Toothless' Fracking Rules As Industry Giveaway
3/20/15


The Obama administration on Friday unveiled the nation's first major federal regulations on fracking, sparking negative responses from green groups, who say the "toothless" new rules don't go far enough to protect public health and the environment and represent a "giveaway" to the fossil fuel industry.

The Interior Department regulations (pdf), the result of four years of study and debate, apply only to public lands—despite the fact that the vast majority of oil and gas drilling activity takes place on private lands.

Still, about 100,000 oil and gas wells operate on federally owned territory, including tribal land, and about 90 percent of them employ fracking techniques.

..."This country needs real climate leadership from President Obama, not weak regulations that do nothing to stop the devastating impacts of climate disruption."
—Kate DeAngelis, Friends of the Earth

...Charging the BLM with overseeing fracking on federal lands is akin to letting the fox watch the hen house, according to Americans Against Fracking, an umbrella group representing more than 250 organizations from across the country who support banning fracking:

The BLM has a history of insufficient regulation that has put the public and the environment at risk. It currently oversees 100,000 oil and gas wells on public lands, but the Associated Press has found that the agency has failed to inspect 4 in 10 new oil and gas wells deemed by well operators as “high-risk” for environmental damage and water contamination. Furthermore, Cornell University scientists discovered that newer oil and gas wells drilled between 2000 and 2012 are more likely to leak methane than older ones.

"Instead of following the lead of New York in banning fracking, the Obama Administration has devised fracking regulations that are nothing more then a giveaway to the oil and gas industry," added Americans Against Fracking advisory board member and actor Mark Ruffalo....

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/03/20/groups-pan-toothless-fracking-rules-industry-giveaway

Also see~
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/energy-environment/234638-we-need-leadership-from-obama-on-fracking-or-history

[marym625]

1. K&R!

[DFW]

2. I have one thing to say to oil companies that want to use fracking to get their oil and gas

FRACK YOU!

[Fred Sanders]

3. Another minor group demanding Obama be a dictator and magically conjure up Eden. Notice how the

voices attacking Obama, who only has control over federal lands, are the ones amplified?

More propaganda...recognize it. Obama can NOT "ban fracking"! He still does not have magic ju ju sticks he can rattle and make all the boo boos created by runaway capitalism disappear!

How much of total fracking is currently controllable by Executive Orders and how much is controlled by Congress?

Folks need to point their spears in the right direction!

LW 'outrage' is always well covered by media....when it is outrage against Obama, that is.....

Anyone rec'ing this thread care to answer how precisely, legally and Constitutionally Obama should deploy the ju ju sticks on fracking? While a coup against him is underway?

Change is a process, not instant noodles.

Wake up and smell the fascism!

P.S.: What is with all the articles from Karl Roves's Machevellian RW "The Hill" of BS, lately?

[RiverLover]

5. fyi, The Hill publishes op eds from all sides. Pro-Hillary, Pro-Kasich(just read that sickening one

this morning), pro-liberal, pro-Warren, pro-RW. All viewpoints are seen there.

ie, Obama cracks down on fracking
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/236421-obama-cracks-down-on-fracking

[Fred Sanders]

6. The Hill covers itself like Fox covers itself..transparently not fair or balanced, some folks buy it

What more can Obama do....legally?

Does The Hill have a helpful suggestion?

Did not think so....let the Obama bashing continue...not enough yet directly from the fascists?

[RiverLover]

8. What more could Obama do?

Here's a start~

The rule falls far short of proposals from environmental and health groups, who urged the federal government to require that companies disclose their chemicals before beginning to drill.

The rules only sightly modify companies' practice of withholding chemical identities under the premise that they are proprietary information. The new rules will compel companies to go through more effort to claim chemical mixtures as trade secrets, by requiring affidavits for any request for exemption from disclosure. Study after study has highlighted the lack of toxicity information available on fracking fluid. The toxicity of fracking fluid chemicals is obscured in some cases because the exact composition of the fluid and the chemicals used are protected as trade secrets, and therefore not reported by the company that makes them.

http://www.newsweek.com/obamas-new-fracking-rules-dont-apply-majority-us-fracking-operations-315485

[Fred Sanders]

9. The companies will have to provide evidence, actual evidence, of safety...they will not be able to.

It is not not "doing enough", it is doing what is able to be done...without magic ju ju sticks.

[fasttense]

4. If only our truly elected 43rd president

had been allowed by the supremes to hold office. Just think how much better off the world would be.

[Fred Sanders]

7. Just think what the world will be like in 2017 with President Christfukuistan in charge?

Forward.

We have a Warrior for the Middle Class...elected NOW!

Pining for what may have been is......unhelpful.

Support President Obama, support President Gore, support them unconditionally for now, because now they are both is under unhinged Attack by Oligarths and Fascists and Religious Zealots worming their way out of all their wormy places.

Worry about that.

[mountain grammy]

10. Ha, they got that right. Welcome to our world,

Colorado, the home of the toothless fracking rules.

Yes, NY has the only real rules.. BAN fracking