Meanwhile, the Club is pushing natural gas as a transistion fuel while we lower green house gases.
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From: ec-bounces@osenergy.org [mailto:ec-bounces@osenergy.org] On Behalf Of Paul Wilson Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 7:52 PM To: WV Chapter Energy Committee Subject: [EC] from Center for Media and Democracy's email list: DrillingThrough the Appalachian Shale Gas Hype
Be A Citizen Journalist
Drilling Through the Appalachian Shale Gas Hype http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=hqzZc2Byp1yq6a%2BXNL pzUKezDAOLixtG
While the U.S. economy continues to reel from the fallout from the global financial crisis, there's a boom on in the gas industry wanting access to Appalachian areas underlain by the Marcellus Shale http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=ut0v%2Bltf6raf2Bul0Y 5aW6ezDAOLixtG deposits. The gas-industry boom has environmentalists and many residents worried about the environmental impacts. To make gas production profitable, the industry employs a practice referred to as fracking http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=m8mEO36WVYBC8HefykGl G6ezDAOLixtG , pumping large volumes of water, sand and a mix of chemicals down drill holes to fracture the rock formations and increase the volume of accessible gas.
While the Safe Drinking Water Act notionally protects water supplies, the gas industry is the only industry excluded from the scope of the legislation. Nor do many state government's regulate fracking practices. (A useful collection of articles http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=%2BFhlgqORzNLTkdY2JY o0MKezDAOLixtG on the issue has been published by the non-profit journalism group, ProPublica http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=zUpJPnDsjjmpZouy0DpF 0aezDAOLixtG ).
Right now, the issue is politically hot http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=4pPKe17qxrYmnKoebCYd 5KezDAOLixtG . Last week the U.S. House of Representatives adopted a resolution requesting the Environmental Protection Agency http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=Xo0PpQMSAxBfYOy%2F6b 2LpKezDAOLixtG re-examine the potential impact of fracking on water quality. While companies are busy hyping their involvement in Marcellus Shale projects, citizens groups are mobilizing to express their concerns about both fracking practices and gas production more generally.
You can help document the environmental and other issues involved with the exploitation of the Marcellus Shale by helping building the SourceWatch article on the issue. See SourceWatch:Project:Documenting environmental and other issues http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=GXtLQzK%2Bo%2BthsuqB gKupuKezDAOLixtG with the exploitation of Marcellus Shale on our collaborative SourceWatch encyclopedia for more details. If you have never added material to SourceWatch before, don't worry! Our regular editors are at hand to help get you started.
If this is your first time editing on SourceWatch, you can register here http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=LWxLd413qaxS6a96wL3f OaezDAOLixtG , and learn more about adding information to the site here http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=vnseSfF57oiQN%2BvmBx mhj6ezDAOLixtG , here http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=E6RqLYVIIqPlcji25%2B TagKezDAOLixtG and here http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=U90C14AOoEJ9dR6G1Voo oaezDAOLixtG .