Congress Introduces Anti-Fracking Legislation
Here in the Town of Ulysses, plans to drill for natural gas are provoking opposition, with concerns about the impact of hydraulic fracturing, a gas drilling procedure commonly referred to as fracking. Companies that produce the fluids used in the fracking process are currently protected by a special loophole that allows them to keep the contents of the fluids secret, even if they endanger public health. There have been cases of these fluids breaking out and contaminating ground water, and so many Ulysses residents are worried that gas wells on their neighbors’ properties could ruin their own well water, and perhaps even contaminate municipal water sources.
Yesterday, U.S. Representative Diana DeGette, from Colorado, introduced legislation that would close the loophole that keeps the toxic contents of fracking fluids a secret. The proposed law would also give the Environmental Protection Agency the power to regulate the fracking process.
A similar bill was introduced in the Senate by Senator Bob Casey, from Pennsylvania, which shares the Marcellus Shale with our area. Congressman Maurice Hinchey, who represents Ithaca and other portions of the Southern Tier, has cosponsored the legislation. “It’s time to fix an unfortunate chapter in the Bush administration’s energy policy and close the ‘Halliburton loophole’ that has enabled energy companies to pump enormous amounts of toxins, such as benzene and toluene, into the ground that then jeopardize the quality of our drinking water,” Hinchey said.
Senator Chuck Schumer has also cosponsored the legislation. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, and our own district’s U.S. Representative, Michael Arcuri, are not yet officially supporting the bills.
[...] the House and Senate, the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act of 2009 seeks to close this loophole, requiring the disclosure of the toxic chemicals in fracking fluid to [...]
Yes, by all means, shut it down and regulate it …… we would not want the US to have a cheap,abundant and relatively clean source of energy……that tactic worked to kill nuclear development in the US.
Ok…go ahead and do that…kill what is left of American energy production and put thousands upon thousands of people out of work…instead of shutting it down, derive different fluids used and keep America working….don’t be stupid and kill the working American more!!!!
you’re fooling yourself if you think letting this go on is a good idea…what’s the point of having natural gas if your dead! The stuff they used to frack is dangerous…it will either kill you or leave you sterile or invalid. The money we (our government) waste on subsidizing oil and gas companies could have been used to move us into a new era an energy independence, if we had had the foresight and desire to forsake greed for health and security.
We need to get a grip on reality and start thinking more that 2 days into the future!!
Yes, that’s a great idea…let’s keep fishing till there are no more fish left, after all we don’t eant to deny fishermen jobs. And while we’re at it, let’s keep on drilling using fracking until the 500 or so toxic chemicals & massive water use leave the enitre Catskills & Delaware watersheds a dead zone. Of course, it would be downright un-American to invest in clean green energy instead because there is nobody/nothing to kill!
Perhaps J. Hawkins and A. Daily don’t mind flammable tap water; their logic suggests they are already victims of neuro-toxins.
For further information, try to see “Gasland.” Here’s a link to the trailer:
Yes,Yes,Yes shut them down and move the jobs to solar energy.What good are jobs if people are dead due to unsafe drinking water and death at there jobs due to contamination effects of all the toxins?
The HBO film “Gasland” was a real eye opener. How very stupid and short sighted is it to assume pumping toxic chemical into the ground, pooling them on the surface and evaporating them into the air won’t result in pollution of the ground water. Our political system has sold out to big oil at a tremendous cost. It is a known fact that when shale is “Fractured” the drill hole is not the only place where “wet gas” escapes. It comes up through the ground polluting every rock, well, water source along the way. When the planet is destroyed where will we live? – American we
It is about time! It is sick to think that any industry has gone unregulated for so long…. pumping toxic chemicals into the ground! Has everyone gone insane!!!!! This should be a criminal investigation allowing this poison to pollute our land and our drinking water…. I say again, Has the Government gone insane by allowing this !!!!!!!!!!! Please pass this legislation and empower the environmental protection Agency to follow up!!!! Perhaps we should be looking at clean energy not energy that pollutes worse then anything imaginable…..
I spent 20 years in the Air force defending this country and it pains me to see that big business is so money driven and greedy that they would sell our kids to pad their checking accounts. for all of you that say that this is good for the economy and we need to keep people working, I say that you should buy some land and plant some fruit trees, buy a couple cows and get on with life. I hate that this government simply wants to collect taxes and denies us the most important protection and that is protection of the land. It is not our land we are just borrowing it from our kids and I have developed a deep respect for the european countries, especially Germany for the simple reason that no persons rights are more important than the protection of the land. In my opinion, no one has the right to do whatever they want to with a piece of property that they choose to call theirs, because it is NOT theirs, It belongs to all of us. If my neighbor is doing something with his land that affects me or my children then that has gone too far. those people that have sold the mineral rights to the gas and oil companies are not the people that are going to get brain cancer and tumers. They aren’t the ones that are going to have multiple miscarriages and still births or have handicap children. It is all the rest of us that didn’t have a choice. This country is my backyard and I refuse to watch it be destroyed by big business and greedy landowners that think that they have won the lottery. I want this fracking stopped and I want the ones that gave the gas companies a get out of jail free card behind bars.
I am for a national ban on fracking, it’s in my web site. I am also awaiting a written response from Congressman Hinchey’s office on whether the allegation that his wife Allison was a Gas Industry lobbyist is true or not. For those that wish to support me, please contact me through my web site email link. Also, one thing not in my web site yet is discussion of HR 3808 which the President is going to veto. Read the Bill and ask why all 100 US Senators including Schumer and Gillibrand, approved it by ‘unanimous consent’.
Dr. Scott Noren
Ithaca, NY
For the reform of the Democratic Party
Not for Corporate Democrats
If you sit by and do the “Sean Hannity” drum beating of the Democratic Party, then there is no one else to blame but ourselves…we need reform.
Dr. Noren
Sorry…one last thing. Ask me to come speak in the December/January time frame in Ulysses and I will come.
Dr. Noren
It has become apparent, if not obvious, that damage caused by irresponsible corporations doing the so-called ‘fracking’ is permanent and poses without any doubt, very serious health [and economic] consequences for those exposed to these practices. [See the documentary "Gasland"].
This industry is leaving behind a blighted and despoiled landscape with ill inhabitants, by brazenly practicing what amounts to de facto environmental terrorism.
It must be stopped, with the perpetrators held legally AND financially accountable to those who were harmed.
Legislation enabling these thugs was enacted by unscrupulous lobbyists and politicians in high places, seemingly motivated by greed and must be reversed. Scientific studies by qualified, independent parties were brushed aside and during secret meetings an insane energy policy was formulated.
Stunningly, the EPA was sidelined and the Gas Inc’s were deliberately exempted from complying w the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act by legislators who did not have the health and well-being of the public in mind -just their own.
I advise proponents of ‘fracking’ to educate themselves and not fall victim to propaganda, advanced by the industry touting more jobs and greater energy independence.
Sick people cannot remain productive citizens and pay taxes. Crops and animals cannot thrive on poisonous water [over 550 toxic and cancer causing chemicals are used in the process of 'fracking']. The very health of our country is at stake.
Awaiting moderation?
The truth about fracking needs to become public knowledge, so people can make wise decisions related to their wellbeing…
I am completely disgusted by what they are doing to our clean water, and sure some places have filtering plantations and such. For those who go off their well water and/or tap water, they are being poisoned by the larger companies that are going for natural gas. Sure every way we do something for energy there is something bad about it, but do you not see that those companies are killing off wild life and those who are working for them! Those chemicals that are use by fracking, JUST breathing those in is enough to cause asthma, lung complications, heart problems. They dont see the problem of those chemicals because they just want the money and to get something from return. They are slowly killing the wild lands that we call ours, just to see the money in their greedy pockets. I recommend the people above to watch Gasland. Sure, it can put people out of jobs… but is it worth dying from cancer, your brain slowly dying due to chemicals you would be breathing in?! This is just pure nonsense for those people to be out there working around the hazardous chemicals those companies are pumping into the ground and air. Im truly disappointed in this country that I, an amarican citizen, calls home. I am now waiting for my water to go bad… and when that happens, im going to make the president drink my contaminated water.
What can we do about this problem? All I hear are complaints but no solutions? Is there any more recent legislation coming about?
This has been said a thousand times, and Will be said again…. There Are Alternatives to Methane……There are NO Alternatives to Water! Stop Fracking. Now.
Bill Carr sept 4 2010. I sympathize with you sir. Well stated. Keep up the good fight. BTW call into washington and Albany this tuesday with millions of others and we will try to get across to these legislators that Their jobs are at stake, along with our health and water!
I just finished watching GASLAND and saw what the people in Wyoming, Colorado, and every other place that Fracking is done, are going through (and dying of). Fracking should be stopped immediately and those resposible for allowing it to be done on BLM land and anywhere in any country should be jailed. What has happened to our country where money for a few is given priority over life. We are killing people, animals and our water sources are being poisoned. Where do I sign petitions? What can I do to help stop this? We have to help stop this!!!!
just saw GASLAND the former vice president should be prosecuted for treason and endangering the health and welfare of this country. the haliburton loophole is criminal in many ways