The Department of Energy and the government have been
working together to find a cleaner natural energy source to displace the use of coal. In President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address he
acknowledged the amount of natural gas that the United States has access to and
how he will take every measure to safely develop this energy. Natural gas
is being considered as a “bridge” to cleaner energy but, just how clean and
safe is it? To obtain natural gas a process known as fracking (also known as hydraulic fracking)
is used. Fracking is the process of
extracting natural gas from shale rock layers deep within the earth. During this dangerous process more than 40,000 gallons of chemicals such as formaldehyde are used to complete the process. It takes almost 2 million gallons of water per frack. The chemicals are then stored within that water in underground water wells. The chemcials are also exposed into the air through the vapors coming off of the fracking process.
What has the government done to protect our health and to protect the environment? The answer is that the government has done very little to protect us due to lack of regulation. Until 2011, when
a study was given to the US Congress, all of the chemicals used during the fracking
process were kept from the public due to “commercial reasons”. The regulations
on fracking are different from state to state. Some states will disclose what
chemicals are being used but other states do not disclose the information. The
Washington Post published an article in 2012 called "How states are regulating fracking" and the
maps show how this “cleaner” alternative is not so clean due to the lack of
regulation. In 2012, 13 States were not required to disclose what chemicals were being used
for the fracking process. Some states that are required to disclose what chemicals
are being used are exempt due to “trade secrets”. The disclosure regulations are mostly the same as of today and have changed very little.
The US news published an article on October 30, 2014, "Toxic Chemicals, Carcinogens Skyrocket Near Fracking Sites" showing chemical research on fracking sites and it was published in the Journal of Environmental Health. The research shows
that eight poisonous chemicals were found near fracking sites in several states
that far surpassed the recommended federal limits.
What’s more disconcerting
is that due to the 2005 Energy Policy Act and the help of former Vice President
Cheney’s Energy Task Force, known as the Halliburton loophole, Congress amended the definition of underground
injection. This means that oil and
gas companies are allowed to inject anything other than diesel while fracking
without having to abide by rules put in place with the Safe Water Drinking Act
which is an act intended to keep our drinking water safe. Clearly this is a federal law and loop hole
under the Safe Water Drinking Act, where fracking is exempt from disclosure
rules to benefit the already powerful oil and gas companies.
The lack of proper federal regulation for fracking and the
loop holes involved are allowing the rich to become richer at the expense of
the public’s health and the expense of the environment. All of the information on fracking and its harmful chemicals used for each individual frack makes you want to look at our government and say " What the frack are you thinking ? "
Related Links:
1 comment:
Hey Cassandra,
Nice article, just had a few things to say about it.
http://datgovernmentdoe.blogspot.com/2014/11/commentary-on-what-frack-are-you.html
Post a Comment