Pennsylvania asks, "What the frack?"
July 9, 2010
null
A New York Times article leads off with a chilling picture of the consequences or under-regulated gas drilling, or fracking, in Pennsylvania:
Around suppertime on June 3 in Clearfield County, Pa., a geyser of natural gas and sludge began shooting out of a well called Punxsutawney Hunting Club 36. The toxic stew of gas, salt water, mud and chemicals went 75 feet into the air for 16 hours. Some of this mess seeped into a stream northeast of Pittsburgh.Four days later, as authorities were cleaning up the debris in Pennsylvania, an explosion burned seven workers at a gas well on the site of an abandoned coal mine outside of Moundsville, W.Va., just southwest of Pittsburgh.
The story by ClimateWire's Joel Kirkland is a must-read to get a picture of not only what exactly can happen when fracking is allowed to happen without strict oversight, but also the mentality of the oil and gas companies fighting hard to keep expanding this dangerous process. In response to state government's efforts to tax them to offset the damage they cause, fracking interest group The Marcellus Shale Coalition is completely tone-deaf to Pennsylvanians worried about the safety of their families and quality of life:
The group's president, Kathryn Klaber, has crisscrossed the state to press the industry's case. "If you tax something, you get less," she says. "Not everyone takes this economic argument to heart."
Okay Kathryn, let's press the case of people who live on and drink from the shale: If you tax something, you have money to clean up that something's explosions of poison and fire.
But not everyone takes this economic argument to heart.