Discuss: The Whole Fracking Enchilada

I just saw “Gasland” on cable. Horrific- if those living in the eastern aquifer don’t stop it, NYC w/ be drinking methane soon.

OMG! My own brother believes that some of the people that have explosive gases in their well-water is a hoax and that we, as so-called ‘extreme environmentalists, don’t have our facts straight! How do we fight this monstrous calamity?

I just moved from Alaska, where it is almost a free-for-all for these
Big Oil corporations… the state of Alaska actually pays for their equipment and their Oil islands in the oceans, doesn’t tax them and then the oil companies sell it back to Alaskans for more than they sell the gas overseas…but that’s okay because an Alaskan get $1000 a year from investments of the Permanent Dividend Fund…money from Big Oil that is reinvested into Monsanto, Wells Fargo, etc. etc. etc. It’s a nightmare!)

I now live in the Appalachian area, where many mega-wealthy have ‘cabin-mansions’. I’m sure that many people invested in this type of calamity actually live or vacation right down the street from their own destructive investments.

I am also a new mom and I’m overwhelmed by this information to top off everything else that is secretly kept away from the mainstream media. Thank you Orion for giving me something plausible to send to people to read. We can only continue to educate ourselves and quit supporting these addictions to oil/gas, and synthetic living.

The biggest problem I see is how to heat my home? Hot water baseboards seem non-existent in this day and age…time to change this! In Alaska the old homesteads used hot water conduits through the wood-fired oven/stove in the kitchens….there are ways, but what will be practical?

In a sense this is similar to MPG in the new cars today. Every product made is geared towards the support of Big Oil and any new technology that doesn’t support Big Oil gets blasted off the market immediately. My Honda cars 10 and 20 years ago got 55 MPG and today, 30 MPG is supposed to be great? And Hybrids only get 55 MPG…

I wish someone could tell me that my son will have a natural world left to play in that is safe as he grows up. I did not get this emotion until I had a child of my own. Sadness and oppressive feelings regarding the issue of what’s left for the next generations are colossal understatements.

I have been organizing to educate folks in Otsego County and NYC for
3 years about the onslaught of hyddraulic fracturing. Your article is another plea for some sanity which does not exist with our fossil
fuel industry. The industry is after all of our geology! They will stop a nothing short of a grassroots revolt against fracking.

We are working hard in western PA, I live in Pittsburgh & one of our city council members is introducing legislation to ban drilling in the city, it’s hope that this will spark and inspire other cities & towns in PA to follow suit.  On Nov. 3 we are holding a Marcellus Protest in Pittsburgh & invite citizens from throughout the Marcellus region to attend.  Marcellus money can buy a lot of things.  It cannot buy our VOTES.

In 1962, I was a teenager and our water well in NW PA became contaminated with oil well shale and methane.  For more than two years, my family struggled with collecting drinking water in glass jugs, and doing our laundry and bathing in relatives’ homes.  When the plug was opened gas would escape from the top of our jet pump, and could be lit—with the flame rising from the basement to the floor joists.  There were no guidelines or safeguards requiring the oil and gas industry to correct this.  It was hell.

granted, this process has problems….what do y’all suggest as an alternative to heating your home? 
And how much are y’all willing to pay?

I don’t know if votes will do much to stop this. I’ve heard that there are virtually no regulations for fracking, that it has been under the radar in this regard and I don’t see this changing. Really, this is a nightmare. There have been a few articles on it in various publications I read on a regular basis but most people still know nothing about it. Honestly, what people are doing to the Earth in the name of profit, in the guise of providing us with the energy we supposedly demand in our daily lives, is evil, there is no other word for it. I say “supposedly” because there are other options, there are other technologies, and I know in my heart that given other choices most people would make the decision to change. Of course money to make those changes is an issue that can’t be ignored. And there it is: money again. I’m so sick of living in a world where everything boils down to money, whether it be corporate profits, my own inability to afford to install energy-saving/energy producing technology (that does exist but it’s rather expensive). It’s so disheartening. I had so much more belief in possibilities twenty years ago. Now, not so much.

See, there you go: “How much are y’all willing to pay?” I’d pay whatever it took, if I had the $ but I don’t. Here in Maine, we use mostly oil, propane, and wood to heat our homes. But I see the rest of the country, and the Earth, being destroyed by this technology (along with oil, propane, and even wood, I know), but in my personal circumstance the money to install, for instance, an on-demand hot water heater which would dramatically cut my sister’s and my use of propane, doesn’t exist. We don’t have it and we can’t borrow it. And even if we could borrow it, I have no idea how we’d pay it back. So if y’all have $ in the bank, then do something about it. But if y’all don’t then there’s a systemic issue here than needs to be addressed if the rest of us are to actively participate in transforming our own personal lives and choices. Like I said, it all boils down to $ $ $, and this is what absolutely must change. And it has to change in our mindsets too, otherwise there really is no hope.