Frack (Counter) Attack

by Jason Mark – August 17, 2010Follow Jason Mark on Twitter

Keep Your Eye on this Environmental Battleground

Throughout this steamy, restless summer, most greens were consumed with fighting one of two battles: Either struggling to hold BP accountable for its giant mess in the Gulf of Mexico, or else fighting to defend the ultimately doomed climate legislation in the US Senate. But in communities across the country, from the arid Rocky Mountain West to the dairy lands of New York and Pennsylvania, another environmental battle is rumbling: The efforts to halt, suspend, or, at the very least, learn more about the natural gas extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing.

If you haven’t yet seen the eco-indie flick Gasland, or read the fracking exposes in Earth Island Journal, The Nation, or The American Prospect, here’s the deal: Hydraulic fracturing, better known as “fracking,” uses millions of gallons of high pressured water, sand, and chemicals to break apart (or crack) bedrock and cause fissures that allow petroleum and natural gas to escape from underground reservoirs. According to ProPublica (which has a handy illustration here), the process is used in 9 out 10 natural gas wells in the US. The method is so effective at extracting gas from deep within geologic formations like the Marcellus Shale (in New York and Pennsylvania) and the Barnett Shale (in Texas) that is has spurred a natural gas rush in the US and around the world. In Texas alone, more than 13,000 gas wells have been drilled in the last ten years, so many that there is something of a natural gas glut. Gas imports to the US are a fraction of what they once were. At the same time, as Journal editor Amy Westervelt reports at SolveClimate, fracking’s ability to extract shale gas has upended energy markets around the world, especially in Europe, where countries are eager to break away from Russia’s grip on the gas market.

Natural gas burns much cleaner than coal, and so the new supplies have prompted excitement about using natural gas a “bridge fuel” to the clean energy future. But there’s a downside: water pollution. At least 1,000 wells have led to contamination of aquifers, spills of fracking fluid wastes, and the escape of methane gas. Last month, a well blowout in north central Pennsylvania spewed natural gas and toxic fracking fluids out of control for 16 hours.

No wonder, then, that there’s a backlash brewing as local communities and national green groups demand a moratorium on new wells or ask that the gas companies at least disclose what exactly is in their fluids.

Groups like EarthWorks are organizing communities to demand a stop to gas drilling. Emotional videos like this one,

produced by Agit-Pop, are going viral, and deepening worries about fracking. The issue is so controversial that the EPA recently had to postpone fracking hearings at Binghamton University because they expected some 8,000 people to show up. Did you get that? Eight-thousand people!

The anti-fracking forces are starting to chalk up some impressive wins. Earlier this month, the New York Senate, in a 48-9 bipartisan landslide, imposed a nine-month moratorium on new wells there. And in Wyoming —  a state that has been described as “being run by the fossil fuel industry” — the oil and gas commission, with the support of the governor, voted unanimously to require the disclosure of the chemicals used in fracking. Amazingly, the industry didn’t oppose the measure.

At the national level, Democratic Senators Charles Schumer (NY) and Bob Casey (PA) have floated legislation (the FRAC Act) that would give the EPA authority over the drilling practice. Of course, the industry has fought the proposal aggressively. But given the growing strength of fracking opponents, I think the fossil fuel industry is at best fighting a rear guard action. This is one environmental battle that you should keep your eyes on.

 

Jason Mark, Editor, Earth Island Journal
Jason Mark is a writer-farmer with a deep background in environmental politics.  In addition to his work in the Earth Island Journal, his writings have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, The Nation, The Progressive, Utne Reader, Orion, Gastronomica, Grist.org, Alternet.org, E magazine, and Yes!  He is a co-author of Building the Green Economy: Success Stories from the Grassroots and also co-author with Kevin Danaher of Insurrection: Citizen Challenges to Corporate Power. When not writing and editing, he co-manages Alemany Farm, San Francisco’s largest food production site.

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