Robert Catell, former chairman of National Grid, USA and currently Chairman of the Advanced Energy Center Advisory Board at Stony Brook University weighed in today in an opinion piece in Newsday about his views on gas drilling using the method known as "hydraulic fracturing". (Opinion; Newsday "Don't Reject Gas Drilling Out of Hand" July 30, 2010) He suggests the Marcellus Shale under New York and five other states could "fulfill the entire nation's natural gas needs for many years." I suggest Mr. Catell watch Sundance Film Festival's Award Winning documentary on HBO called "Gasland" by Josh Fox, a Pennsylvania native who was offered $100,000 dollars for the rights to drill for gas on his property. Instead of jumping at the money Mr. Fox opted on a journey across America to see the environmental consequences to what is now known as "fracking".
The documentary outlines the environmental devastation and irreversible destruction caused by this obscene method of drilling for gas in large sections of shale rock under the earth.
The process uses Volatile Organic Chemicals, (VOC's) which will never biodegrade and poison the land into which it is pumped. The process which except for the "Halliburton Loophole" contained in the Bush-Cheney Energy Policy Act of 2005, would be in violation of both the Safe Water Drinking Act and the Clean Air Act. The loophole allows them to pump millions of gallons of VOC's into the ground without even having to identify the chemicals used. The process wastes millions and millions of gallons of clean water and the water that is "created" is toxic and where is that going? Much of it stays in the ground, leaches out and nearby homeowners have found their wells are now unsafe to drink. Some are so contaminated, the tap water can light on fire with a match right out of the faucet. The pictures are irrefutable evidence of the problem with the "new technology".
Mr. Catell calls these "highly isolated incidents of well-water contamination in some locations" and continues that "there are questions about the safety of water management and disposal. But the industry is well aware of these issues, and knows that they can be handled with proper design and management of water resources enforced by state regulations."
These "issues" are making many people sick in more than five states, according to the documentary. Healthy people find themselves with serious neurological and gastrointestinal problems soon after the wells were drilled nearby to their homes. The process is destroying the land forever with volatile organic compounds; shown in the documentary labelled with the skull and crossbones and necessary hazardous material warnings they deserve and must display on the tanks they are stored in. The worst part is, Bush and Cheney leased our public lands in Colorado adjacent to Yellowstone where formerly animals would make their annual migrations. Pictures of these frightened creatures looking up at these monstrous wells- a scene likened to a moonscape covered with hundreds of wells, where trees and forest used to be are startling and saddening. How could this have been allowed to happen on federally owned land which was supposed to be being protected for generations to come for the people?
Mr. Catell wants state regulations to cure the problems? There is an official from the United States Department of Environmental Protection Agency who spoke in the documentary as an individual citizen, because he is forbidden to speak as an EPA representative. He said the workers and officials at the EPA were told to "do nothing" by the officials in the Bush-Cheney administration and until he is told he can now do his job again, his hands are tied. The people who allowed this to happen should be in handcuffs and sent to prison. This is un-American and to tell EPA officials to stand down and not to do their job is tantamount to treason. We pay for the EPA officials to protect our environment.
The Marcellus Shale formation in which the gas companies have obtained leases to drill in Pennsylvania and New York sits underground directly adjacent to the upstate aquifers that represents the largest unfiltered clean water source in the world. These aquifers supply drinking water to millions of people in the northeast region and it is insanity to even think about using this already proven toxic method of obtaining energy. There is currently a moratorium on drilling in New York. It is a temporary measure that must be made permanent.
Mr. Catell now touts the New York Energy Policy Institute at Stony Brook to do the assessment of the technology to determine if it's safe. What a surprise he wants millions of dollars to do a study at his University....Stony Brook. No bias or conflict there right? The time for these studies was BEFORE they ravaged the people and land with this toxic technology Mr. Catell. (Mr. Catell is also the Energy Policy Advisor Council Chairman). Why should we now waste millions to do an assessment of what we have already clearly seen to be a disaster in Colorado, Texas, Pennsylvania and several other mid-Atlantic states? The emperor has no clothes and all you need to do is spend one hour and watch "GASLAND" on HBO to know this. Stop wasting taxpayer dollars. The lawmakers need to make "fracking" illegal and stop this insanity of putting technology and energy first no matter the costs to humanity and the environment.
For once let us look to other sources of energy like solar and wind which are renewable and do no harm to the land or people.
The moratorium on hydraulic drilling must be made into law permanently and on a federal level......
period.
By the way...Mr. Catell is also a member of the Association of Energy Engineers, National Petroleum Council (NPC) and the Society of Gas Lighting (SOGL
Mr. Catell is a past Chairman of the American Gas Association, the U.S. Energy Association (USEA). He is a Vice-Chairman of the National Petroleum Council's Natural Gas Committee and also a member of its' Finance Committee. So, no bias there...right?
http://www.newsday.com/opinion/oped/opinion-don-t-reject-hydraulic-fracturing-out-of-hand-1.2153920
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