The FRAC Act/Marcellus Shale/Haliburton
Last night as I walked, an hour and a half late, into the New Year’s Eve soiree to which I had been invited, the topic of conversation was hydrofraking in the Marcellus Shale and the pending FRAC Act. My first thought was, I must be at the right party. My second thought was, Stlo7 had just written about the Marcellus Shale, how timely. I had not, until that moment, heard of the FRAC Act, so I google-webbed it and this is what I found (from June 9, 2009):
…Democratic members of Congress today introduced twin bills to amend the Safe Drinking Water Act and give the Environmental Protection Agency authority over the controversial drilling process called hydraulic fracturing.
The stand-alone bills in both the House and the Senate for the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act — dubbed the FRAC Act — would also require the energy industry to disclose the chemicals it mixes with the water and sand it pumps underground in the fracturing process, information that has largely been protected as trade secrets.
The House bill [5] was introduced by Diana DeGette [2], D-Colo., Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., and Jared Polis, D-Colo., and will now be debated inside the House Energy and Commerce Committee. According to DeGette, the bill may proceed alone, or she could attach it to a larger piece of legislation.
“Frankly we are leaving all the options on the table for moving this bill forward,” DeGette said after hearings on the issue last week.
A matching Senate version was offered by Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.
So, as of June 9th of last year, our Democratic representatives have been trying to protect us from the energy companies dangerous practices. This Act has drawn considerable ire from the companies who would be affected. A major player in this drama, on the dark side, as would be expected, is Halliburton:
The “multimillion-dollar lobbying and public-relations campaign to defend the practice” of fracking includes a website, Twitter feed, Facebook group, YouTube channel, an “aggressive ad campaign” on the Drudge Report.
Fracking, which was developed in the 1950s by Dick Cheney’s Halliburton, involves “injecting a million gallons or more of water and chemicals deep underground to pry out gas that’s locked away in tight spaces,” contaminating groundwater with toxic chemicals. A 2008 hydrogeologic study in Garfield County in Colorado, where fracking is extensively used, found evidence of methane and chlorine contamination of groundwater supplies. Under the Bush administration, fracking was exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act by the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
I have left the links from the quotes intact to give our readers an idea of what we’re up against. Reminds me of another recent cause where our pleas did not hold a candle to big money. Hope things will be different this time around.
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