The Issues - Where Do You and Your Candidate Stand on Fracking?

[rhett o rick]

As it becomes more difficult to extract gas from the ground, oil companies are turning more and more to processes like fracking.

Fracking is the injection of a high pressure mixture of water and chemicals into shale to crack the shale to release the trapped gas. (1)

Fracking uses extremely large amounts of fresh water plus a secret mixture of chemicals.

“Fracking requires between two and five million gallons of local freshwater per well - up to 100 times more than traditional extraction methods. “ (1)

While fracking may be beneficial to oil company profits, it's extremely bad for the environment. Water is one of the most important resources we have and fracking is contaminating billions of gallons, rendering it unfit for normal human use.

The chemicals used include carcinogens and toxins like, lead, uranium, mercury, ethylene glycol, radium, methanol, hydrochloric acid, formaldehyde, and over 500 more types. (2)

And what happens to the billions of gallons of contaminated fresh water? Great question.

While oil company profits are rising, peoples around the world are protesting the effect of fracking on their environments.

“PHILADELPHIA -- Demonstrators in the United States and other countries protested Saturday against the natural gas drilling process known as fracking that they say threatens public health and the environment.” (3)

So where do the candidates stand on this process of fracking our environment?

Hillary Clinton is a strong proponent of fracking. While working for the taxpayers as Secretary of State, she used the power of the US of A to convince foreign governments to begin or increase their use of fracking in spite of the protesting peoples in those countries.

“Clinton urged Bulgarian officials to give fracking another chance. According to Borissov, she agreed to help fly in the "best specialists on these new technologies to present the benefits to the Bulgarian people." But resistance only grew. The following month in neighboring Romania, thousands of people gathered to protest another Chevron fracking project, and Romania's parliament began weighing its own shale gas moratorium. Again Clinton intervened, dispatching her special envoy for energy in Eurasia, Richard Morningstar, to push back against the fracking bans.” (3)

So while peoples in countries around the world are protesting the destruction of their fresh water, Secretary Clinton was using our tax dollars to help Haliburton, Chevron, and other oil giants convince governments to use the environmentally damaging process of fracking.

While some try to say that Clinton and Senator Sanders are close on most issues, the fricking fracking issue shows that they are miles apart.

"I'm very proud that the state of Vermont banned fracking. I hope communities all over California, and all over America do the same."
Senator Bernie Sanders (4)

Oil companies are using the fracking process around the world to increase their profits while destroying the freshwater supplies of the people. And where are they going to dump their billions of gallons of toxic waste water? Probably not in their own backyard.

(1) http://www.cleanwateraction.org/page/fracking-process

(2) http://dangersoffracking.com/

(3) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/22/global-protests-fracking-globalfrackdown_n_1905034.html

(4) http://www.betterworld.net/quotes/bernie12.htm

[cali]

1. Hillary is champion for fracking interests!

[RoccoR5955]

23. Why not.

They help fund her campaign, while robbing the environment, and making the future impossible for generations to come.

[Puzzledtraveller]

34. She would say its

part of her position on job creation and infrastructure investment!

[RoccoR5955]

39. Would that be

the creation of HER job?

[Le Taz Hot]

2. K & R

[bvf]

3. K&R!

[jeff47]

4. Look at this terrible right-wing talking point attack!!!!

[Jim Lane]

5. Governor O’Malley imposed a moratorium on fracking in Maryland in 2011.

To read more about his environmental record, see this article from Grist magazine: "Martin O’Malley, long-shot presidential hopeful, is a real climate hawk".

A difference between O'Malley and Sanders is that O'Malley has been a governor. That's both a strength and a weakness. The advantage for O'Malley is that he can point to more progressive accomplishments. He had the powers of an executive, with a generally friendly legislature, while Sanders was merely one Senatorial vote out of a hundred. Sanders didn't impose a fracking moratorium, because of course he couldn't.

The disadvantage for O'Malley is that he had to get involved in the messy sausage-making of crafting state policies. This sometimes resulted in his making decisions that accepted compromises or otherwise provided a basis for attack. Fracking is a case in point. From that same Grist article:

O’Malley is leaving office with a mixed, or at least nuanced, record on fracking. Western Maryland, just south of Pennsylvania, has natural gas deposits that are recoverable by fracking, but they have yet to be exploited. O’Malley imposed a moratorium on fracking in Maryland in 2011. But he’s about to be succeeded by Republican Larry Hogan, an enthusiastic fracking proponent. So after the November election, O’Malley announced that he will unveil regulations this month that will allow fracking under limited circumstances, following the best practices of other states and imposing additional, stricter rules to curb air and water contamination and restrict where drilling can take place.

For some environmentalists, O’Malley’s willingness to allow fracking at all is their one disappointment in his record. “I would prefer that O’Malley would come out in favor of a ban on fracking in Maryland,” says Tidwell. But others say O’Malley is making a shrewd move. With rules in place before Hogan comes in, Hogan may find it more politically difficult to repeal them than he would have to simply not write any himself. “The fact that we have a governor-elect who wants to move forward on fracking means we want to get some protections in place as soon as possible,” Karla Raettig, executive director of the Maryland League of Conservation Voters, told The Washington Post.

To me, O'Malley's maneuver makes sense. Nevertheless, I can see how activists, like the one quoted in this excerpt, could criticize it.

It's worth noting that that activist, Mike Tidwell, while disagreeing with O'Malley on the fracking strategy, is generally laudatory about him. Same article:

O’Malley is the rare elected official who seems genuinely motivated to address climate change. “I deal with a lot of politicians in my work as a climate advocate,” says Mike Tidwell, director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. “Martin O’Malley, more than any politician I know, really loses sleep over climate change. He is deeply concerned about climate change and his actions over the last eight years reveal that. He’s pushed the envelope more than anyone I’ve seen. He’s the kind of politician where his staff comes in and says, ‘Here’s what we propose to do,’ and most politicians would say, ‘Let’s cut that down a little,’ and Martin O’Malley regularly says, ‘We can’t do better than that? Push a little harder?’”

Incidentally, the growing anti-fracking sentiment is evident in Maryland. The Republican Governor was unable to block legislation earlier this year that wrote O'Malley's moratorium into law.

[sabrina 1]

8. Good for him. NY also banned fracking, which surprised many people here as Cuomo seemed to be

for it.

Bernie too is against it and VT won't allow it.

Hopefully more states will end it. We know now for sure that it is the cause of small earthquakes, according to scientists and they are now researching whether it is the cause of larger quakes.

[dorkzilla]

12. Yep, color me shocked on that one but i think

Howie Hawkins and Zephyr Teachout had a lot to do with Cuomo’s flip on that issue.

[sabrina 1]

16. I think you are right. I remember eg, when DU's H20 Man was trying to get an interview

with Cuomo over fracking and Cuomo wouldn't meet with protesters at all.

I think they huge resistance of NYers all over the state, plus Zephyr Teachout who really gave him a challenge in that race, did have something to do with it.

I hope Zephyr runs for Congress. Or the Senate, against Schumer.

[RoccoR5955]

25. I think that is incorrect

I think that the record number of feedback documents had something to do with it. They had to push the decision back twice, so that they could trudge through the comments. There were literally millions of comments. It was originally 30 days, but it got extended twice. Then there were the meetings, of which I went to two, and both times mentioned things that they had not thought of.
I don't think that it was Hawkins or Teachout that had much to do with the NY ban on fracking. I do believe that it was WE THE PEOPLE, united against it. And you know what they say, don't you? Well here's a reminder: The people united shall NEVER be defeated!

[sabrina 1]

30. Thanks, I remember the pushback. Cuomo was up for reelection and probably knew

what would happen if he went ahead with fracking. I was afraid that it would happen anyhow, after the election. But was very surprised when he banned it. In a good way.

[Elmer S. E. Dump]

28. And massive, destructive sinkholes!

[sabrina 1]

31. Yes, and with CA in such a serious drought, it's insane to allow Fracking there.

[rhett o rick]

33. Profits Uber Alles. nm

[FSogol]

14. It was the right maneuver. Hogan's admin has been unable to start fracking because O'malley tied

their hands. Without O'Malley's regulations, fracking would have begun on day 1 of the Hogan debacle.

[CharlotteVale]

6. K&R. No way to spin this one.

[hifiguy]

32. But it WILL be spun

by the Usual Suspects. Count on it.

[beam me up scottie]

7. Well done, rhett o rick!

[Doctor_J]

9. Issues? I prefer to base my vote on popularity, polls, and gender

[L0oniX]

13. Nailed it.

[RoccoR5955]

26. You mean hair has nothing to do with it?

Shame on you

[abelenkpe]

10. Wish CA would ban fracking nt

[SoapBox]

11. K & R!

Go Bernie!

[blackspade]

15. What about Chaffee, Webb, and (maybe) Biden?

Edit: O'Malley answered!

[sabrina 1]

17. O'Malley is against it. Don't know about the others.

[blackspade]

18. I just saw that! Thanks!

[rhett o rick]

20. Only those against it will answer. Others might be ashamed of their corporate friendly stands. nm

[Zorra]

19. When elected POTUS, I suspect Bernie will issue an EO banning fracking

nationwide.

[LondonReign2]

21. Kick

According to Hillary SuperPAC training, we should avoid talking about the issues

[artislife]

22. Why does it matter?

It only ruins ground water...

[MyNameGoesHere]

24. Well Clinton should have told her boss not to push that

agenda. Or she could have resigned in protest to the Obama fracking interests.

[rhett o rick]

27. I think that part of the reason he hired her is because they have very similar agendas.

One wouldn't have guessed they had similar agendas when Obama was pretending to be a progressive in 2007.

[MyNameGoesHere]

29. Politics is full of pretenders

even ones that say that socialism or some form thereof can coexist within a capitalist framework. Never happen.

[Armstead]

35. As far away from it as possible

[reddread]

36. and people want Jerry Brown to run...

You can have him, but he will be fracking offshore in marine sanctuaries ASAP.
if not already.

[LWolf]

37. I am strongly opposed to fracking.

So is my candidate.

[rhett o rick]

38. If Clinton supporters support her position on fracking, why don't they come forward and give

their best argument? That was rhetorical. They have no argument. The best I can guess is that they are ambivalent about fracking and will follow H.Clinton regardless of what she stands for.

[LondonReign2]

40. They are smart enough to know that any policy discussion is a losing proposition

for Hillary. Sad, isn't it? A candidate whose superPAC trains her supporters how to avoid discussing issues?

[rhett o rick]

41. They don't have to be trained. They follow personalities and don't care about issues. nm

[Uncle Joe]

42. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, rhett o rick.

[Scuba]

43. K&R

[davidpdx]

44. I'm against fracking

[rhett o rick]

45. I am disappointed not to see the Clinton side of this issue. She obviously thinks fracking is very

important. But why?