Fracking and Government Corruption

[Steve R]

WEATHERFORD, Texas (AP) — When a man in a Fort Worth suburb reported his family's drinking water had begun bubbling like champagne, the federal government sounded an alarm: An oil company may have tainted their wells while drilling for natural gas.

At first, the Environmental Protection Agency believed the situation was so serious that it issued a rare emergency order in late 2010 that said at least two homeowners were in immediate danger from a well saturated with flammable methane. More than a year later, the agency rescinded its mandate and refused to explain why.

Now a confidential report obtained by The Associated Press and interviews with company representatives show that the EPA had scientific evidence against the driller, Range Resources, but changed course after the company threatened not to cooperate with a national study into a common form of drilling called hydraulic fracturing. Regulators set aside an analysis that concluded the drilling could have been to blame for the contamination.

[JustRalph]

http://youtu.be/J-WrqTj4wsQ

Gasland has been proven to be bullshit. You can learn more soon

Watch Fracknation on Jan 22 on Mark Cuban's TV channel

[Valuist]

Fracking will win; the opponents will lose. And that's a good thing because we need cheap energy and jobs. Steve, I think you have enough to worry about in Costa Rica. My fiancé has been to about 20 countries, and she says the country with the worst poverty, BY FAR, was Costa Rica. It even blew away Jamaica and Mexico.

[elysiantraveller]

Costa Rica is incredibly poor.

[ArlJim78]

in the universe of government corruption, this one amounts to a flyspeck. why do you suppose she sent all those private Richard Windsor emails anyway if not to hide wrongdoing.

[Steve R]

Fracking will win; the opponents will lose. And that's a good thing because we need cheap energy and jobs. Steve, I think you have enough to worry about in Costa Rica. My fiancé has been to about 20 countries, and she says the country with the worst poverty, BY FAR, was Costa Rica. It even blew away Jamaica and Mexico.
Your fiancé is clueless. The latest analysis of poverty in Latin America by the Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe shows Costa Rica with the third lowest poverty rate in Central and South America behind only Uruguay and Chile and well ahead of Brazil and Panamá. According to the World Bank and IMF, the GDP per capita is higher than for countries such as China and Brazil. Everyone, regardless of income, has access to free or ultra low-cost medical care. And every household, also regardless of income level, is guaranteed by law access to potable water and electricity. So, as usual, conservatives just make up s#!t and run with it because they are too lazy or dumb to actually do the research.

[Tom]

My suggestion, go frack yourself!

(investmentally speaking, of course!):D

[JustRalph]

Matt Damon's film (financed by Middle East oil interests) is officially a failure.

Promised Land (2012)

Domestic Total Gross: $7,597,898
Distributor: Focus Features Release Date: December 28, 2012
Genre: Drama Runtime: 2 hrs. 20 min.
MPAA Rating: R Production Budget: N/A. Wonder why this is missing?


http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=promisedland2012.htm
Lasted 30 days in theatre.

I'm sure Damon got more than 7 mil to be in the movie.

[boxcar]

Your fiancé is clueless. The latest analysis of poverty in Latin America by the Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe shows Costa Rica with the third lowest poverty rate in Central and South America behind only Uruguay and Chile and well ahead of Brazil and Panamá. According to the World Bank and IMF, the GDP per capita is higher than for countries such as China and Brazil. Everyone, regardless of income, has access to free or ultra low-cost medical care. And every household, also regardless of income level, is guaranteed by law access to potable water and electricity. So, as usual, conservatives just make up s#!t and run with it because they are too lazy or dumb to actually do the research.

Maybe we should define "free" and "ultra low-cost". Free = all the band-aids a sick/wounded person can handle. Ultra-low cost = the band-aids and two aspirin.

Boxcar

[therussmeister]

I'm sure Damon got more than 7 mil to be in the movie.
I'm sure he didn't. He was one of the producers, one of the writers, and was going to be the director, but bowed out due to scheduling conflicts. This was his baby, and would likely hire himself to act in it for a bargain basement price.

Wikipedia says the budget was $15 million, but I'm guessing that was the projected budget and not necessarily the final cost.

[JustRalph]

I'm sure he didn't. He was one of the producers, one of the writers, and was going to be the director, but bowed out due to scheduling conflicts. This was his baby, and would likely hire himself to act in it for a bargain basement price.

Wikipedia says the budget was $15 million, but I'm guessing that was the projected budget and not necessarily the final cost.

Good for him. He didn't take someone else's money to advance his politics

[therussmeister]

Good for him. He didn't take someone else's money to advance his politics
So I guess that makes him a bad politician.

[Tom]

Look at the border between NYS and Penn.
On one side, fracking has people employed, tax bases growing, economies prospering.

Then look at the NYS side, under the wise leadership of baby Mario the idiot governor.......end of story. Liberalism in action.

[hcap]

http://www.aneki.com/poorest_central_america.html

Poorest Countries in Central America
Cntry.....GDP per capita
1.
Nicaragua
$3,200
2.
Honduras
$4,400
3.
Guatemala
$5,100
4.
El Salvador
$7,600
5.
Belize
$8,400
6.
Costa Rica
$12,100
7.
Panama
$14,300

And....

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2012/03/picture.htm

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2012/03/images/PT_cht3.jpg

[JustRalph]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57594498/study-finds-fracking-chemicals-didnt-pollute-water-ap/


Breaking news..........Gasland is still full of it and fracking is safe

Federal Study.........

[fast4522]

http://www.aneki.com/poorest_central_america.html

Poorest Countries in Central America
Cntry.....GDP per capita
1.
Nicaragua
$3,200
2.
Honduras
$4,400
3.
Guatemala
$5,100
4.
El Salvador
$7,600
5.
Belize
$8,400
6.
Costa Rica
$12,100
7.
Panama
$14,300

And....

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2012/03/picture.htm

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/fandd/2012/03/images/PT_cht3.jpg


Birds of a feather fracking together.

[Boris]

http://news.sky.com/story/1121610/saudi-prince-fracking-is-threat-to-kingdom


A Saudi prince has warned that his oil-reliant nation is under threat because of fracking technology being developed elsewhere around the world.

Fracking might indeed break OPECs hold on oil. At some point states that have put in restrictions may have to reconsider due to the buckets of money to be made in taxes.

The money mineral owners are making in these shale plays can be life changing.

[bks]

It's stupid to make this a Republican/Democrat issue. Both are deep in the pocket of drilling/fracking interests. Surprised to see people denying the obvious. Read and learn. Links at original:

July 30, 2013

Obama Caves Again
EPA Censored Key Pennsylvania Fracking Water Contamination Study
by STEVE HORN

A must-read Los Angeles Times story by Neela Banerjee demonstrates that – once again – the Obama administration put the kibosh on a key Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study on hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) groundwater contamination, this time in Dimock, Pennsylvania.

Though EPA said Dimock’s water wasn’t contaminated by fracking in a 2012 election year desk statement, internal documents obtained by LA Times reporter Neela Banerjee show regional EPA staff members saying the exact opposite among friends.

“In an internal EPA PowerPoint presentation…staff members warned their superiors that several wells had been contaminated with methane and substances such as manganese and arsenic, most likely because of local natural gas production,” writes Banerjee . . .


Ed Rendell and Friends At Work Again?

Located in the heart of the Marcellus Shale basin, Dimock was featured prominently in both “Gasland” documentaries, as well as in “FrackNation,” the industry-fundedfilm created to counter Josh Fox’s films, produced and directed by climate change deniers Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney.

In the case of “FrackNation,” McAleer used EPA’s desk statement for propaganda purposes. He portrayed Craig and Julie Sautner – whose water was contamined by Cabot Oil and Gas – as “crying wolf” for expressing anger that EPA privately told them their water was contaminated, then publicly stated that it wasn’t.

The Sautners aren’t alone in their frustration, however, and they’re in good company.

“What’s surprising is to see this data set and then to see EPA walk away from Dimock,” Robert Jackson, co-author of the June 2013 Duke study that included Dimock water samples, told the LA Times. “The issue here is, why wasn’t EPA interested in following up on this to understand it better?”

Jackson raises the million dollar question: Who from the industry pressured USEPA to censor the actual results of the Dimock study? In Steve Lipsky’s case it was former head of the Democratic National Committee and Democratic Governor of Pennsylvania, Ed Rendell.

Rendell – tied to the shale gas industry via Ballard Spahr LLP law firm and venture capital firms Element Partners and Greenhill & Co. - privately lobbied EPA to shut down its study and lawsuit centered on Lipsky’s groundwater contaminated by the Pennsylvania-headquarted Range Resources. His lobbying proved successful, likely in part due to three of his former aides now working as industry lobbyists.

One of those lobbyists is K. Scott Roy, Rendell’s former “top advisor.” Roy not only lobbies for Range Resources, but also sits on the Executive Board of the Marcellus Shale Coalition. Prior to serving in the Rendell administration and becoming a fracking lobbyist, Roy worked in the office of former PA Republican Governor Tom Ridge, who went on to serve as “strategic advisor” to the Marcellus Shale Coalition in 2012. . . .

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/07/30/epa-censored-key-pennsylvania-fracking-water-contamination-study/

[JustRalph]

Oops......once again.......Fracking is safe......

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/06/04/epa-declares-no-widespread-harm-to-drinking-water-from-fracking-boosting/

[Greyfox]

Gasland has been proven to be bullshit.

In the 1960's, long before fracking was ever heard of, I lived in a small town where you could light the tap water on fire.

[_______]

In the 1960's, long before fracking was ever heard of, I lived in a small town where you could light the tap water on fire.


Hydraulic fracturing was tested experimentally in 1947 and has been used commercially in wells since 1950. It isn't new.

Combining it with horizontal drilling is what has powered the shale revolution. I guess "Fracking" just won out in the perception battle against "Hor-Drill" for best shorthand description.

[NJ Stinks]

Fracking will win; the opponents will lose. And that's a good thing because we need cheap energy and jobs. Steve, I think you have enough to worry about in Costa Rica. My fiancé has been to about 20 countries, and she says the country with the worst poverty, BY FAR, was Costa Rica. It even blew away Jamaica and Mexico.

Must have been in an area of Costa Rica I did not visit. I was there in February and visited a banana farm/plantation owned by Dole. I found out Costa Ricans don't want to work on these farms so jobs are filled by natives of Nicaragua. The way it was explained to me is that it's similar to Mexicans doing jobs Americans don't want to do.

I also found out that bananas consumed within Costa Rico are about 10 times more delicious than the ones that finally reach our shores. Still, I believe bananas grown in Costa Rico are like the Lexus of bananas so I look for bananas from "Costa Rica" at the grocery store.

[JustRalph]

http://youtu.be/YL7VqFWm5Qk

YL7VqFWm5Qk

[horses4courses]

You can frack to your heart's content down in Texas.

[Tom]

And Pennsylvania.
They are rolling in money and right across the border in NY cash flow is poor.

It's a fracking shame.

[hcap]

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/more-bigger-drilling-linked-earthquakes-rattle-oklahoma-073805543.html

More and bigger drilling-linked earthquakes rattle Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Several earthquakes shook Oklahoma on Monday as the state experiences a sharp increase in the frequency of tremors linked to wastewater disposal from gas and oil drilling, including from fracking, state and federal officials said.

I do not think this issue will fade away.