Fw: April 18th Energy and Commerce Committee Report
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Apr 20, 2011, 8:58:58 PM4/20/11
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From: Whitney Schmidt <whitneybe...@gmail.com>
Sent: Wed, April 20, 2011 8:23:18 PM
Subject: April 18th Energy and Commerce Committee Report
I'll quote the conclusion of this United States House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce report, released just a few days ago on April 18th, 2011, first. The report in its entirety is readable and can be found here:
http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/default/files/
"Hydraulic fracturing has opened access to vast domestic reserves of natural gas that could
provide an important stepping stone to a clean energy future. Yet questions about the safety of
hydraulic fracturing persist, which are compounded by the secrecy surrounding the chemicals
used in hydraulic fracturing fluids. This analysis is the most comprehensive national assessment
to date of the types and volumes of chemical used in the hydraulic fracturing process. It shows
that between 2005 and 2009, the 14 leading hydraulic fracturing companies in the United States
used over 2,500 hydraulic fracturing products containing 750 compounds. More than 650 of
these products contained chemicals that are known or possible human carcinogens, regulated
under the Safe Drinking Water Act, or listed as hazardous air pollutants."
My husband and I do business occasionally up in the Marcellus shale region in PA. We provide solar light towers to the drilling companies up there - which is kind of funny, huh? Why use a renewable resource for their light when they have all of that cheapo natural gas at their fingertips? Anyway, we're reconsidering that relationship.
What I can say is that the area of PA in which we work is ugly, depressing, and awash with bottled water. I'm not sure why they wouldn't just drink from the hose or the tap. Silly, considering that there were only 1435 environmental violations by the gas drilling companies in about the last 2.5 years (anyone remember in Erin Brokovich, "We had that water brought in special for ya...") That's them thumbing their noses at the environment 1.5 times per day, for those who are too dumbstruck by the number to grab your calculators. Almost 1.6 times a day if you did punch in the numbers. Oh and the numbers, the pictures, and the lists of chemicals used in the process aren't F.E.A.R. - they're on detailed, footnoted and corroborated reports and what I can get with my trusty digital camera. From the road. Without squinting.
Dwindling resources aren't, as I see it, a call to start figuring out what other portion of the planet we can rape behind a big banner that says Trust Us We Wouldn't Do Anything To Hurt You (What? I can make MONEY allowing that to happen? Awesome, I'll need a whole bunch of money to truck in water from the places that still might have it and for the food I'll have to buy from somewhere else because we can't grow anything here anymore.) Eventually, no matter how much we harvest of what natural resource, we'll run dry. And then we'll have to figure something else out. Why buy time? Why not fix it now, instead of waiting until not only are we out of natural resources, but we've also in less than two centuries destroyed an environment that's been around and functioning for a bazillion years? I guess that's probably evironmentalist nonsense and scare tactics. (Rats, I think I might be a tree hugger.)
Hey, I know how we can keep warm this winter. Let's all burn down our houses so we don't have to wear sweaters. It'll create a heck of alot of energy. Wonder what we'll do with the rubble when we need to get warm again.
I was disappointed to see what I thought was a rather tacky financial plea on behalf of gas drilling. I read all of the reports on the links from Tom Glendinning's post. It's like addressing the question "How does my haircut look" with the answer "Here's how the scissors work." This is common sense: Gross junk in, gross junk out. I trust that this wonderful, passionate county to which I brought my family a year ago from the northeast will jump up and down all over this idea until it's dead, mushed up, and gone.
Subject: April 18th Energy and Commerce Committee Report
I'll quote the conclusion of this United States House of Representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce report, released just a few days ago on April 18th, 2011, first. The report in its entirety is readable and can be found here:
http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/default/files/
documents/Hydraulic%20Fracturing%20Report%204.18.11.pdf
"Hydraulic fracturing has opened access to vast domestic reserves of natural gas that could
provide an important stepping stone to a clean energy future. Yet questions about the safety of
hydraulic fracturing persist, which are compounded by the secrecy surrounding the chemicals
used in hydraulic fracturing fluids. This analysis is the most comprehensive national assessment
to date of the types and volumes of chemical used in the hydraulic fracturing process. It shows
that between 2005 and 2009, the 14 leading hydraulic fracturing companies in the United States
used over 2,500 hydraulic fracturing products containing 750 compounds. More than 650 of
these products contained chemicals that are known or possible human carcinogens, regulated
under the Safe Drinking Water Act, or listed as hazardous air pollutants."
My husband and I do business occasionally up in the Marcellus shale region in PA. We provide solar light towers to the drilling companies up there - which is kind of funny, huh? Why use a renewable resource for their light when they have all of that cheapo natural gas at their fingertips? Anyway, we're reconsidering that relationship.
What I can say is that the area of PA in which we work is ugly, depressing, and awash with bottled water. I'm not sure why they wouldn't just drink from the hose or the tap. Silly, considering that there were only 1435 environmental violations by the gas drilling companies in about the last 2.5 years (anyone remember in Erin Brokovich, "We had that water brought in special for ya...") That's them thumbing their noses at the environment 1.5 times per day, for those who are too dumbstruck by the number to grab your calculators. Almost 1.6 times a day if you did punch in the numbers. Oh and the numbers, the pictures, and the lists of chemicals used in the process aren't F.E.A.R. - they're on detailed, footnoted and corroborated reports and what I can get with my trusty digital camera. From the road. Without squinting.
Dwindling resources aren't, as I see it, a call to start figuring out what other portion of the planet we can rape behind a big banner that says Trust Us We Wouldn't Do Anything To Hurt You (What? I can make MONEY allowing that to happen? Awesome, I'll need a whole bunch of money to truck in water from the places that still might have it and for the food I'll have to buy from somewhere else because we can't grow anything here anymore.) Eventually, no matter how much we harvest of what natural resource, we'll run dry. And then we'll have to figure something else out. Why buy time? Why not fix it now, instead of waiting until not only are we out of natural resources, but we've also in less than two centuries destroyed an environment that's been around and functioning for a bazillion years? I guess that's probably evironmentalist nonsense and scare tactics. (Rats, I think I might be a tree hugger.)
Hey, I know how we can keep warm this winter. Let's all burn down our houses so we don't have to wear sweaters. It'll create a heck of alot of energy. Wonder what we'll do with the rubble when we need to get warm again.
I was disappointed to see what I thought was a rather tacky financial plea on behalf of gas drilling. I read all of the reports on the links from Tom Glendinning's post. It's like addressing the question "How does my haircut look" with the answer "Here's how the scissors work." This is common sense: Gross junk in, gross junk out. I trust that this wonderful, passionate county to which I brought my family a year ago from the northeast will jump up and down all over this idea until it's dead, mushed up, and gone.
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