Fracking poisons water table + caused Blackpool Earthquake

[TonyGosling]

Most Secret War
Chapter 48, Nuclear Energy; p. 601
British Scientific Intelligence 1939-1945 by R. V. Jones
Hamish Hamilton 1978
Coronet 1979
Made into a BBC Series The Secret War
ISBN 0 340 24169 1
DD 20126

In the third week of November 1944 reconnaissance showed that several sites of feverish activity had suddenly appeared near Hechingen. We could not at first make sense of them, but such activity in any event needed to be taken seriously, and the proximity to Hechingen made us wonder whether we had at last found evidence of a frantic effort by the Germans to make a last minute attempt at a nuclear bomb. I showed the photographs to F.A. Lindemann, Lord Cherwell, on 23rd November, who immediately warned Winston Churchill, and plans were made for further reconnaissance, and for bombing. I began to feel that nuclear intelligence had really 'taken off'.
Within a few days though, the scare was dispelled. Wing Commander Douglas Kendall had spotted that all the sites were in the same string of valleys, and were on much the same level. After a visit to the Geological Museum in South Kensington, he found that a German geologist had reported low-grade oil shales in the area, and it turned out that all the Germans were doing now that their oil installations were being heavily attacked, was to try to exploit this unpromising source of supply.

[Andrew.]

[outsider]

Here is full-llength (2 hours) 'Gasland Part 2' (can't find part one):
http://putlocker.bz/watch-gasland-part-ii-online-free-putlocker.html

[fish5133]

A few concerned anglers got onto the Angling Trust- a body that represents millions of anglers and they issued a public statement about there position on Fracking (Also quote RSPB and WWF sharing same concerns)
Whilst not outrightly condemning Fracking (because of the lack of studies for such a new technology) they do raise relevant concerns.

[outsider]

I've now found Gasland Part 1:
http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/gasland_2010/

Unfortunately, though the documentary is in English, there are annoying Spanish subtitles.

[outsider]

Canadian Police Use Military Tactics to Disperse Indigenous Anti-Fracking Blockade:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31 &Itemid=74&jumival=10891

OSCAR LEÓN, TRNN PRODUCER: Thursday, October 17, 2013, in New Brunswick, Canada, indigenous protesters refused to comply a judge injunction ordering them to surrender the siege of SWN equipment store.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police moved in, fully armed, 200 men strong, arresting many elders. Pictures of agents in camouflage with automatic assault weapons and dogs flowed trough Twitter and other social media websites.

SWN Resources Canada is a Houston-based energy company working on shale gas extraction using fracking, a system that injects water and chemicals to the ground to harvest gas.

Scientists and activists warn that such procedure can contaminate the ground and the water supply. The company had been conducting seismic testings with the trucks detained inside the compound by the activists.

Miles Howe, a reporter for the Media Co-op, was among those arrested. He published:

"We are currently surrounded by about 75 cops, all guns drawn. Several are in military fatigues. Rubber bullets have been fired in the woods. Molotovs were thrown earlier from warrior side. Currently still in standoff."

The Globe and Mail reported that after the protesters refused to disperse, the police used tear gas and rubber bullets. RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) reported 40 arrests. This is a statement in the RCMP website:

"The New Brunswick RCMP has arrested at least 40 people for various offences including firearms offences, uttering threats, intimidation, mischief, and for refusing to abide by a court injunction on Route 134. . . ."

[outsider]

New Anti-Fracking 1hr. video:
The Truth Behind The Dash For Gas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kruG8sTZy6g

'Published on 11 Oct 2013
Documentary lifting the lid on fracking spin, investigating environmental and health issues associated with fracking in Australia, the US, and Lancashire and UK Methane's plans to drill near drinking water sources in Somerset. For UK Methane to supply the amount of gas they have claimed to their shareholders, there would need to be over 2000 wells in Somerset alone.'

[outsider]

Latest email from Greenpeace re Fracking petition:

'Did you hear? Not only does David Cameron want to bribe our councils to permit fracking, but he’s also trying to change laws which are hundreds of years old in order to drill under our homes - without our permission.

After hitting our local councils with endless budget cuts, Cameron’s now tempting them into dirty fracking deals by offering financial incentives that could be worth millions. He’s also trying to undermine the tens of thousands who’ve said no to fracking under their homes by overhauling ancient trespass laws.

>>Tell Cameron the UK is not for fracking

Planning applications from fracking companies go to local councils for approval. In a move that reeks of desperation, Cameron’s announced they can keep 100% of business taxes from fracking operations rather than 50% as before. If fracking is as great as Cameron claims, why does he need to offer bribes?

Before you despair, there is some good news. There are calls for these dodgy deals to be investigated by the EU. Also, some councils have made public announcements saying they won’t be bribed, including Hampshire, Bath, Somerset, North East Somerset, Herefordshire, the London Borough of Waltham Forest, and Cheshire East in George Osborne’s constituency.

Other councils are likely to follow if we come together to make our voices heard. Nearly 75,000 of us have already signed the petition calling on Cameron to keep the UK frack-free. It’s the biggest anti-fracking petition in the UK, supported by a coalition of environmental groups. But with an election coming up we must make sure this grows even bigger so it becomes impossible to ignore how deeply unpopular this is.

>> Demand Cameron keeps the UK frack free

Work continues at a local level to block individual applications. If you include your postcode in the petition we can let you know about anything planned in your area. In the meantime, we must also pile pressure on at the top, so please sign and share the petition today.

Thanks,

Lawrence

PS France has banned fracking so Cameron has invited French owned energy company, Total, to frack over here. Tell him what’s not ok in France, is not ok here either.'

[outsider]

The anti-fracking activist barred from 312.5 sq miles of Pennsylvania

Court injunction brought in by oil and gas company makes even supermarkets off-limits for Vera Scroggins:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/jan/29/vera-scroggins-frac king-activist-pennsylvania

'Vera Scroggins, an outspoken opponent of fracking, is legally barred from the new county hospital. Also off-limits, unless Scroggins wants to risk fines and arrest, are the Chinese restaurant where she takes her grandchildren, the supermarkets and drug stores where she shops, the animal shelter where she adopted her Yorkshire terrier, bowling alley, recycling centre, golf club, and lake shore.

In total, 312.5 sq miles are no-go areas for Scroggins under a sweeping court order granted by a local judge that bars her from any properties owned or leased by one of the biggest drillers in the Pennsylvania natural gas rush, Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation....'

[scienceplease 2]

Calfornia drought... link to fracking

http://www.naturalgaseurope.com/california-drought-stop-fracking

[outsider]

[outsider]

News Dart Frack Attack: New Midlands Multi-Well Program:
http://frack-off.org.uk/latest/

'Dart Energy, one of the big 3 fracking companies in the UK along with Cuadrilla Resources and IGas Energy, has been bogged down fighting the community at Airth in Scotland, where it wants to start production, rather than just exploration, beginning with 22 Coal Bed Methane (CBM) wells plus associated infrastructure. However, with over 50 planning permissions for exploration wells across the country (most inherited from companies it has bought out – Composite Energy and Greenpark Energy), it was only a matter of time before Dart turned its attention to other regions.

The injection of £24 million from GDF Suez, a large french utility company, is the catalyst. . The Australian fracking company, which was driven out of Australia by community resistance to its plans, is now focusing its efforts on countries like Indonesia and the UK, where there is less regulation. The troubled fracking company saw a boardroom coup in November which ousted its previous management. Now with activity starting at two sites, in Cheshire and Nottinghamshire, it appears to be launching a major push to try to reverse its fortunes at the expense of more local communities.


Local People Outside The Dart Energy Fracking Site At Daneshill Near Retford, Nottinghamshire (Click To Enlarge)

In October, Dart applied to the Environment Agency for a permit for Mining Waste Operations (EPR/AB3805XS/A001) at their Kings Marsh site near Farndon, Cheshire. This was followed by two more applications for mining waste permits for Dart’s sites at Upton near Chester in Cheshire and Daneshill near Retford in Nottinghamshire. Since the extra scrutiny brought about by fracking, the Environment Agency has started enforcing the laws requiring oil and gas drilling operations to have these permits.

More recently Dart has applied for a permit for Mining Waste Operations (EPR/MB3993HU/A001 – consultation ends 6th March) at their Borras Road site near Holt, Wrexham. Dart seem somewhat over confident, since the planning application was only due to be considered by Wrexham County Council’s planning committee on Monday (3d March). In the event the meeting decided to postponed the decision and ask Dart to provide more information. If they can get the planning application passed the information provide by Dart suggests they intend to start drilling at Borras Road on or after the 1st July.


Pad Construction Has Started (Now Temporarily Halted) At Dart’s Fracking Site At Daneshill, Nottinghamshire (Click To Enlarge)

People living near the sites in Chester extemely worried. The Upton site in particular, which is on the north site of Chester close to Chester Zoo, has raised community concerns since there are 8 schools within a mile of the site. There has also been significant community opposition around the Borras Road site with a public meeting held and over a thousand local people have shown their opposition to the drilling. Groups resisting fracking in the Cheshire/Wrexham area include Frack Free Upton (Facebook) and Frack Free Farndon (Facebook)......'


'... focusing its efforts on countries like Indonesia and the UK, where there is less regulation...'
Can you believe we are alongside Indonesia for lack of regulation???
WTF are our MP's doing all day, and HTF are we going to get them to do something? I recently had a refusal by my MP, Jim Fitzpatrick (Labour) REFUSE to bring to the UK govt.'s attention the identical Ukraine/Egypt leaflets of instructions for fomenting strife on the streets, including large pockets for Molotov Cocktails, and previously, the evidence against Assad using CW, the French ex-Foreign Minister's testimony and 4* General (ret) Wesley Clark's testimony; I am seeking info re complaining, but frankly I don't expect much joy.

[outsider]

1 in 20 Americans now live within 1 mile of a fracking well!!

L.A. Moves Towards Ratifying Fracking Ban, But Is Federal Regulation Possible?:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31 &Itemid=74&jumival=11549

'...In the case of fracking, there are even more special exemptions that industry enjoys beyond those enjoyed by the industry as a whole. One of the more famous--or infamous, I suppose you would say--exemptions is frequently referred to as the Haliburton Loophole. And this is a provision from the 2005 Energy Policy Act that expressly excluded fracking from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act, which as its name suggests, is the law that's designed to protect public drinking water supplies.


But in addition to that exemption, which is the most direct one that says the federal government EPA cannot regulate fracking. The industry also enjoys exemptions from almost all of the other major federal/environmentla laws. It enjoys exemptions from the Clean Air Act, from the Clean Water Act, from the laws that govern waste disposal and generation. And so there's really no uniform set of minimum federal standards , and instead it's left to the states. And what we have is a real patchwork of legislation across the states. And that's why so many communities are concerned and wanting to take matters into their own hands....'

Wakey, wakey, folks!

[outsider]

OIl Fracking Earthquake swarm In Oklahoma Continues!:
http://investmentwatchblog.com/oil-fracking-earthquake-swarm-in-oklaho ma-continues/

[outsider]

Exxon, Chevron ‘Land Grab’ for Europe Shale Gas, JPMorgan Says:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aAK.6l3WmQyg

'Exxon has shale areas in Germany, Hungary and had applied for permits in Poland while ConocoPhillips and Chevron are in Poland and Royal Dutch Shell Plc in southern Sweden to exploit gas trapped in rock formations and impervious to conventional drilling techniques, JPMorgan said in a Feb. 9 report.

“A land-grab has occurred in Europe over the last two years with majors such as Exxon, Conoco, Chevron and Statoil ASA all participating, not willing to miss out as they did in the U.S.,” said Mark Greenwood, a Sydney-based analyst with JPMorgan. “While it’s still early days for European and Chinese shale gas plays, its potential is yet another threat for the LNG supply-demand balance...”

(I just noticed this is a 2010 report).

[outsider]

Updated: BREAKING: Jury awards $3 million in first fracking case:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/04/22/1293937/-BREAKING-Jury-awards -3-million-in-first-fracking-case#

'..Lisa’s suffered from
Breathing difficulties
Nausea
Rashes that left her scarred with pock-marks.
She had biopsies of the oozing welts on her scalp and the 4 ping-pong-ball-sized lumps on her neck.
Testing showed drilling chemicals in Lisa’s blood and lungs that match chemicals detected by the state in air testing outside her home.
She had a whole host of other ailments.

Bob and Emma also suffered various health impacts.

Tonight Lisa told me they won't have to end up in the Cycle of Fracking Denial so they can speak openly about what happened to them. She said, "This was never about the money. This was about our land..."


Fracking Wells Abandoned in Boom/Bust Cycle. Who Will Pay to Cap Them?:
http://climatecrocks.com/2014/01/04/fracking-wells-abandoned-in-boombu st-cycle-who-will-pay-to-cap-them/

Companies cream off the profits, then the long-suffering taxpayers shell out to clear up the mess.

[outsider]

Illinois Fractivists win battle:

Video of the Week: No Holiday for Democracy:
http://blog.gaslandthemovie.com/?p=639

'On Memorial Day, fractivists in Illinois headed to their state capital to fight for democracy.

A bit of background- on the Friday before Memorial Day Weekend, the Illinois House Executive Committee voted to pass a measure that would fast-track fracking in Illinois, allowing fracking in the state before the Illinois Department of Natural Resources finished the rule making process.

The measure would circumvent democracy, ignoring 36,000 public comments the IDNR received on the state’s proposed fracking rules and create a fracking sacrifice zone in Southern Illinois.

A hearing on the legislation was set for Monday, Memorial Day. Despite the clear attempt to cut the people of Illinois out of the process, citizens showed up, demanding that their voices be heard.

Community groups attending the hearing included Illinois People’s Action, SAFE, IIRON student network, The People’s Lobby and Sierra Club of Illinois.

The legislation died, failing to get enough support to pass. And as Illinois People’s Action say in the video

“Oil and Gas tried to fast track fracking, but the people fought back and won thus proving once again that organizing works!”

Keep organizing. It works.

- Lee Ziesche, Gasland Grassroots Coordinator

[TonyGosling]

hahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Putin has spy plot to halt fracking in UK, warns Nato chief: 'Agents are working with green campaigners to make sure Europe still has to rely on Russian energy'
Putin's government 'engaged actively' with green groups and protesters
Nato Secretary-General said plan was part of disinformation campaign
Move made to ensure Europe's reliance on Moscow energy exports, he said
By JOHN STEVENS
PUBLISHED: 23:14, 19 June 2014 | UPDATED: 09:31, 20 June 2014
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2663075/Putin-plotting-halt-UK -fracking-warns-Nato-chief-Secretary-General-claims-agents-working-cam paigners-make-sure-Europe-continues-reliance-Russian-energy-exports.ht ml
Russian agents are secretly working with environmental campaigners to halt fracking operations in the UK and the rest of Europe, the head of Nato warned yesterday.
Vladimir Putin’s government has ‘engaged actively’ with green groups and protesters in a sophisticated operation aimed at maintaining Europe’s reliance on energy exports from Moscow, said Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
He said the Russians had mounted a highly developed disinformation campaign to undermine attempts to exploit alternative energy sources such as shale gas.
Moves to start fracking in the UK have been disrupted following a sustained campaign by environmentalists that has created fears about its impact.
Speaking at the Chatham House foreign affairs think-tank in London, Mr Rasmussen said: ‘I have met allies who can report that Russia, as part of their sophisticated information and disinformation operations, engaged actively with so-called non-governmental organisations – environmental organisations working against shale gas – to maintain European dependence on imported Russian gas.’
He declined to give fuller details of the alleged plot, but said: ‘That is my interpretation.’
He would not say what form the Russians’ apparent engagement with the environmentalists took or whether groups concerned were aware that they were dealing with Moscow’s agents.
According to Mr Rasmussen, who supports the experimental fracking operations, improving energy security is of the ‘utmost importance’ and requires European nations to develop more diverse sources of supply.
‘It also, in my opinion, involves the better functioning of the European energy market so that one single supplier is not able to blackmail one single nation,’ he said.
Britain has vast reserves of shale gas trapped in rocks thousands of feet underground that may be extracted by firing water and chemicals to fracture the rock.
Scientists say we are sitting on deposits of enough shale gas to supply the whole country for at least 40 years, mirroring the North Sea oil boom of the 1970s.
But shale gas development has not yet taken off here, unlike in countries such as the US where it has proved highly popular.
Opponents in the UK have warned that the process risks causing earthquakes, polluting water, blighting the countryside and affecting house prices.
Plots: Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the Russians had mounted a highly developed disinformation campaign to undermine attempts to exploit alternative energy sources such as shale gas
There have been fierce protests against the technique, with exploratory drilling near the village of Balcombe, West Sussex, abandoned last year after the site was overrun by demonstrators.
Mr Putin has repeatedly voiced concerns about fracking, once telling a global economic conference that ‘black stuff comes out of the tap’.
And Russia’s state-owned gas giant Gazprom, the world’s biggest gas producer, says fracking has ‘significant environmental risks’ including water contamination.
David Cameron has told opponents to embrace fracking as part of efforts to reduce dependence on Russian energy supplies.
Mr Rasmussen’s comments drew an angry response from Greenpeace, which saw a group of activists threatened with up to 15 years in jail last year after they staged an anti-drilling protest on a Russian off-shore oil platform.
A Greenpeace spokesman said: ‘The idea we’re puppets of Putin is so preposterous that you have to wonder what they’re smoking over at Nato HQ.
‘Mr Rasmussen should spend less time dreaming up conspiracy theories and more time on the facts.
‘Fracked gas will probably cost more than Russian imports. There’s little chance fracking will generate more than a small fraction of Europe’s gas needs and it won’t even do that for at least ten years.’
Friends of the Earth’s head of campaigns, Andrew Pendleton, was equally dismissive. ‘Perhaps the Russians are worried about our huge wind and solar potential, and have infiltrated the UK Government,’ he said.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2663075/Putin-plotting-halt-UK -fracking-warns-Nato-chief-Secretary-General-claims-agents-working-cam paigners-make-sure-Europe-continues-reliance-Russian-energy-exports.ht ml

[outsider]

The Daily Mail has a lot to answer for. So it was their fault the pub in Balcombe wouldn't accept payment in Roubles!

[outsider]

Fracking Goes Global:
http://ecowatch.com/2014/06/27/earth-focus-fracking/?

'While families across the U.S. continue suffering from the effects of the country’s fracking boom, the practice is expanding to other nations.

Naturally, earthquakes, sickness and resistance will accompany that expansion. Take South Africa, for example, where the Karoo Basin is believed to be covering 400 trillion cubic feet of shale gas. A moratorium on natural gas exploration was lifted in 2012, prompting companies to line up for a piece of what should be a large pie.

Earth Focus takes a look at how fracking has gone global and what that as meant to Poland, the United Kingdom and South Africa.'

[outsider]

Stop fracking in Lancashire: Cuadrilla have a new village in their sights:
https://www.foe.co.uk/act/stop-fracking-lancashire-cuadrilla-have-new- village-their-sights?


Now two beautiful Lancashire villages are under threat from fracking.

Fracking company Cuadrilla has asked for permission to frack near the village of Roseacre.

If successful, this will mean increased traffic, 24-hour drilling, risk of water pollution, extra climate-changing emissions and risks to local wildlife.

But we can stop Cuadrilla in its tracks.

Thanks to Friends of the Earth supporters, Lancashire County Council has already been flooded with thousands of objections to fracking at the nearby village of Little Plumpton.

Let’s do the same for Roseacre.

Please email your objection to Lancashire County Council.

[outsider]

Enviros Blamed for Bursting Frack Bubble:
http://ecowatch.com/2014/08/11/enviros-blamed-for-bursting-frack-bubbl e/

'Here’s The Script, in four despicable acts:

Act 1. Fracking boom goes bust as production from shale gas and tight oil wells stalls out and lurches into decline.

Act 2. Oil and gas industry loudly blames anti-fracking environmentalists and restrictive regulations.

Act 3. Congress rolls back environmental laws.

Act 4. Loosened regulations do little to boost actual oil and gas production, which continues to tank, but the industry wins the right to exploit marginal resources a little more cheaply than would otherwise have been the case.

You can bet The Script is being written in operational detail right now at corporate headquarters in Oklahoma City and Houston, and in the offices of PR firms in New York and Boston. Each of its elements has the inevitability of events in a Shakespearean tragedy.

It’s fairly clear that the fracking bubble will burst soon—almost certainly within the decade. Our ongoing analysis at Post Carbon Institute documents the high per-well decline rates (a typical well’s production drops 70 percent during the first year), the high variability of production potential within geological formations being tapped and the dwindling number of remaining drilling sites in the few “sweet spots” that offer vaguely profitable drilling potential. Meanwhile, as the Energy Information Administration (EIA) has recently documented, the balance sheets of fracking companies are loaded with debt while surprisingly short on profits from sales of product—with real profits coming mostly from sales of assets (drilling leases)
The industry continues to claim that tight oil and shale gas are “game changers” and that these resources will last many decades if not centuries. Though the CEOs of companies engaged in shale gas and tight oil drilling are undoubtedly aware of what’s going on in their own balance sheets, hype is an essential part of their business model—which can be summarized as follows:

Step 1. Borrow money and use it to lease thousands of acres for drilling.

Step 2. Borrow more money and drill as many wells as you can, as quickly as you can.

Step 3. Tell everyone within shouting distance that this is just the beginning of a production boom that will continue for the remainder of our lives and the lives of our children and that everyone who invests will get rich.

Step 4. Sell drilling leases to other (gullible) companies at a profit, raise funds through Initial Public Offerings or bond sales, and use the proceeds to hide financial losses from your drilling and production operations.

[TonyGosling]

Geoffrey Lean
Geoffrey Lean is Britain's longest-serving environmental correspondent, having pioneered reporting on the subject almost 40 years ago.
Want to know how fracking will affect you? Sorry, that's a state secret!
By Geoffrey Lean Politics Last updated: August 11th, 2014
96 Comments Comment on this article
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/geoffreylean/100282976/want-to-know- how-fracking-will-affect-you-sorry-thats-a-state-secret/
Another week, another fracking fiasco. The Government has just published a report on the likely effects of the drilling on Britain's countryside communities – including its possible impact on house prices – that is so heavily redacted it might instead be devoted to a military assessment of options for intervention in Iraq.
Rightly or wrongly, it can only raise suspicions in Middle Britain that ministers and the industry have a lot to hide on how fracking will affect its vital interests. And this would make it even harder for them to get the “social licence” of public support that they acknowledge will be essential if the exploration and exploitation of shale oil and gas is to succeed.
The report – Shale Gas: Rural Economy Impacts, published (if that's the word) by the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs – accepts that “large numbers of rural communities may be affected by the expansion of shale gas activities in the North East, West and southern regions of England”. But it then effectively treats how they will be impacted as top secret.
The extent to which the report has been blacked out is almost paranoically Putinesque. Some 58 passages appear to have been redacted in just 13 pages, entirely emasculating some sections. Three paragraphs out of six seem to have been cut from the section on effects on house prices, two out of four from the one on those on local services.
The report's conclusions are reduced to eleven lines – overwhelmingly devoted to the financial inducements ministers and the industry are offering councils and communities that accept fracking – surrounded by 16 redacted passages. Most ludicrous of all, the report says it has examined a third “major social impact” besides the impacts on property prices and local services, but refuses to tell us what it is, let alone what was found: the section's title and all its 12 paragraphs have been entirely excised.
But it is the section on house prices that will doubtless cause the most alarm. This is the only place in what remains of the report that any estimates are given of ill-effects from fracking (by contrast optimistic figures of the numbers of jobs that might be created are common). It reports several studies that showed values decreasing in a range from 3 to 14 per cent near where wells are drilled (though one suggested that they increased in Pennsylvania when the property had mains water supply).

[outsider]

Here's the actual report:

'Shale Gas: Rural Economy Impacts':
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/f ile/337654/RFI6751_Draft_Shale_Gas_Rural_economy_impact_report.pdf

To get an idea, here is part of the 'Report':

REDACTED
Executive summary
REDACTED
Much of the international evidence is based on the experience in the USA which has seen a significant expansion of shale gas fracking over the past few years.
Whilst this evidence is useful it is important to note that the USA experience is not directly transferrable to the UK context for a number of reasons. For example, the USA have a different regulatory regime for the treatment of waste water which is not the same in the UK, where there are tighter environmental permit controls that will reduce the risks of ground and surface water pollution. In addition property rights for mineral extraction are owned by landowners in the USA creating a financial incentive for private owners to allow the disruptions associated with shale operations. REDACTED These regulatory control and incentive differences are likely to lead to different scenarios in the expansion and impact of shale gas operations in the UK. Despite these differences it is still useful to learn lessons from the USA experience and consider how applicable they are in the UK context.
In assessing the impact of Shale Gas exploration and drilling it is important to differentiate between short and long-term impacts on rural communities. In order to do this there is a need to understand what will drive the pace and scale of drilling and associated boom and bust cycle as operators enter and exit the market. This will have implications for the potential benefits, costs, job creation and longer term economic development prospects for rural communities where shale gas drilling is taking place. REDACTED
Unfortunately none of the international reports reviewed contained any robust quantitative assessment of the cost and benefits or impacts from shale gas on rural communities. However, they did include qualitative information that described (rather than measured) the effects with a general discussion. REDACTED
REDACTED
REDACTED
REDACTED
2
An assessment of the significant environmental and economic impacts for the UK has been undertaken by DECC along with another study by the Institute of Directors that estimated the job creation potential associated with shale gas operations. The Environment Agency have also recently commissioned Ricardo-AEA consultants to undertake an assessment on what the future industry in shale gas and coal bed methane may look like, if and when it moves to commercial production. It describes the processes involved and the infrastructure required, although it does not consider environmental impact. The results from these studies is contained in the summary findings from the literature review, however, these do not breakdown the impacts at a rural community level. REDACTED
Section 1: Findings from literature review
DECC Environmental Impact Assessment for Shale Gas Exploration and Drilling
DECC commissioned AMEC to undertake an EIA that examined the likely significant environmental effects of further onshore oil and gas licensing to comply with the requirements of the Strategic Environmental Assessment Directive (2001/42/EC). Consideration was given to all the stages in the oil and gas production and development lifecycle, under high and low activity scenarios for both conventional and unconventional oil and gas.
Likely significant effects of shale gas drilling for the UK
Employment
Could create 16,000 – 32,000 new full time equivalent positions (including direct, indirect and induced jobs). Increase of up to 7% in the level of employment supported by the UK oil and gas industry sector. The extent to which these jobs might directly benefit local communities would depend on the availability of skills and experience in the local labour market.
Hydrocarbon reserves
The high activity scenario could generate in total some 0.12 to 0.24 trillion cubic metres (4.32 to 8.64 trillion cubic feet) of gas, more than six times the 0.037 trillion cubic metres (1.31 trillion cubic feet) of gas produced in the UK in 2012 or more than twice the approximate 0.1 trillion cubic metres (3.52 trillion cubic feet) of gas consumed in the UK per annum.
REDACTED
REDACTED
Likely significant effects for Local Communities
Community economic contributions
Under the commitments of the United Kingdom Onshore Operators’ Group (2013) Community Engagement Charter, shale gas exploration could provide a community contribution of £100,000 per hydraulically fractured site as an initial benefit, equivalent to total UK payments of between £3 million and £12 million. A further £2.4 to £4.8 million per site (or nearly £0.6 billion in total) could be generated in a production phase, reflecting the 1% contribution from revenue over the lifetime of each well.
REDACTED....'

[outsider]

Bit of good news, for a change! It isn't up on their website yet, so I'll paste the email I received from Friends of the Earth:
(it is up on Facebook, which I don't subscribe to:
https://www.facebook.com/wwwfoecouk/photos/a.143256872364558.21445.110 861655604080/800193396670899/?type=1&theater )

'It just keeps getting better. A second drilling application in West Sussex has been refused.

At a planning meeting today the Park Authority unanimously rejected Celtique Energy's proposal to drill near the village of Fernhurst.

We can breathe a sigh of relief as the much loved South Downs National Park remains frack free.

Please join us in celebrating this fantastic win by sharing this image with your friends and family

This decision comes just weeks after West Sussex County Council rejected a similar application a few miles down the road in the beautiful village of Wisborough Green.

With each win, our movement grows ever stronger. So today let’s revel in our victory and spread the word that we won't allow fracking here or anywhere

With thanks and optimism,

Nikki and the fracking team '

#fracking

[outsider]

Empire Strikes Back:
UK fracking lobby gets OK to drill beneath your feet as public protests:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBuyEBDKnQM&feature=em-uploademail

Govt. of the Rich OK's Fracking under peoples' property.

Fracking trespass law changes move forward despite huge public opposition:
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/sep/26/fracking-trespass-l aw-changes-move-forward-despite-huge-public-opposition

'Fracking will take place below Britons’ homes without their permission after ministers rejected 40,000 objections to controversial changes to trespass laws.

The UK government argued that the current ability for people to block shale gas development under their property would lead to significant delays and that the legal process by which companies can force fracking plans through was costly, time-consuming and disproportionate.

There were a total of 40,647 responses to a consultation on the move to give oil and gas companies underground access without needing to seek landowners’ permission, with 99% opposing the legal changes. Setting aside the 28,821 responses submitted via two NGO campaigns, 92% of the remaining responses objected to the proposals.


The government response to the consultation, published online on the eve of the parliamentary vote on military strikes against Islamic militants in Iraq, concluded: “Having carefully considered the consultation responses, we believe that the proposed policy remains the right approach to underground access and that no issues have been identified that would mean that our overall policy approach is not the best available solution.”

New laws will now be passed giving automatic access for gas and oil development below 300m and a notification and compensation scheme will be run by the industry on a voluntary basis.'

What will it take to wake the Sheeple up to our 'Govt. of the Banksters and Corporations, and Govt. FOR the same?

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If you're against Fracking (and who in their right mind isn't) here's a little petition from Greenpeace you can sign:

We already knew that fracking was a bad idea, but this is astonishing.

Last night, David Cameron’s plan to allow fracking firms to drill under our homes was rubber-stamped by the House of Lords.

But here's where it gets even worse: At the very last moment, the draft of the law was updated to allow fracking firms to pump "any substance" under people's homes and property -- and leave it there! [1]

This makes a mockery of the prime minister’s claim that UK fracking regulations are some of the most stringent in the world. And it absolves fracking firms of any responsibility for clearing up the mess they create.

Our MPs are now the last defence before the laws are approved by Parliament. Can you sign the petition asking all MPs to strike down Cameron’s new fracking law?

https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/fracking-backlash

The fracking industry has already been mired in accidents and mistakes. In April 2009, cattle were discovered dead near a drill site in Louisiana. An investigation later found fracking fluid had leaked from the well pad and run into an adjacent pasture. And in July 2013, US fracking firm XTO Energy was forced to shell out $100,000 in compensation after a spill of contaminated wastewater in Pennsylvania. [2]

Despite claiming that the UK has tough regulations to prevent disasters like this, the government is now rushing to remove obstacles, muddling through laws that will put the interests of shale drillers before the safety of our environment and our climate.

We don’t have long before MPs will get their final say on Cameron’s plan to allow drilling under our homes. If we can show them how unpopular his idea is, they'll think twice before voting it through.

Please ask your MP to take a stand today:

https://secure.greenpeace.org.uk/fracking-backlash

Thank you

Richard
Greenpeace UK

1. http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2014/oct/14/uk-to-allow-frackin g-companies-to-use-any-substance-under-homes
2. http://issuu.com/greenpeace/docs/case_against_fracking-withadditions/2 1

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The Illegal Poisoning Of California’s Remaining Water Supply:
http://www.geoengineeringwatch.org/the-illegal-poisoning-of-california s-remaining-water-supply/?

'...Documents Reveal Billions of Gallons of Oil Industry Wastewater Illegally Injected
Into Central California Aquifers

Tests Find Elevated Arsenic, Thallium Levels in Nearby Water Wells

SAN FRANCISCO— Almost 3 billion gallons of oil industry wastewater have been illegally dumped into central California aquifers that supply drinking water and farming irrigation, according to state documents obtained by the Center for Biological Diversity. The wastewater entered the aquifers through at least nine injection disposal wells used by the oil industry to dispose of waste contaminated with fracking fluids and other pollutants.

The documents also reveal that Central Valley Water Board testing found high levels of arsenic, thallium and nitrates — contaminants sometimes found in oil industry wastewater — in water-supply wells near these waste-disposal operations.

“Clean water is one of California’s most crucial resources, and these documents make it clear that state regulators have utterly failed to protect our water from oil industry pollution,” said Hollin Kretzmann, a Center attorney. “Much more testing is needed to gauge the full extent of water pollution and the threat to public health. But Governor Brown should move quickly to halt fracking to ward off a surge in oil industry wastewater that California simply isn’t prepared to dispose of safely.”

The state’s Water Board confirmed beyond doubt that at least nine wastewater disposal wells have been injecting waste into aquifers that contain high-quality water that is supposed to be protected under federal and state law.

Thallium is an extremely toxic chemical commonly used in rat poison. Arsenic is a toxic chemical that can cause cancer. Some studies show that even low-level exposure to arsenic in drinking water can compromise the immune system’s ability to fight illness.

“Arsenic and thallium are extremely dangerous chemicals,” said Timothy Krantz, a professor of environmental studies at the University of Redlands. “The fact that high concentrations are showing up in multiple water wells close to wastewater injection sites raises major concerns about the health and safety of nearby residents.”

The Center obtained a letter from the State Water Resources Control Board to the Environmental Protection Agency. The letter says that the Central Valley Regional Water Board has confirmed that injection wells have been dumping oil industry waste into aquifers that are legally protected under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. The state Water Board also concedes that another 19 wells may also have contaminated protected aquifers, and dozens more have been injecting waste into aquifers of unknown quality.

The Central Valley Water Board tested eight water-supply wells out of more than 100 in the vicinity of these injection wells. Arsenic, nitrate and thallium exceeded the maximum contaminant level in half the water samples.

While the current extent of contamination is cause for grave concern, the long-term threat posed by the unlawful wastewater disposal may be even more devastating. Benzene, toluene and other harmful chemicals used in fracking fluid are routinely found in flowback water coming out of oil wells in California, often at levels hundreds of times higher than what is considered safe, and this flowback fluid is sent to wastewater disposal wells. Underground migration of chemicals like benzene can take years.

In July the state’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources shut down 11 Kern County oil field injection wells and began scrutinizing almost 100 others that were potentially contaminating protected groundwater. The Environmental Protection Agency, which has ultimate legal authority over underground injection, ordered state officials to provide an assessment of the water-contamination risk within 60 days, and the letter from the state Water Board confirms that illegal contamination has occurred at multiple sites.

California’s oil and gas fields produce billions of gallons of contaminated wastewater each year, and much of this contaminated fluid is injected underground. California has an estimated 2,583 wastewater injections wells, of which 1,552 are currently active. Wastewater injection wells are located throughout the state, from the Chico area in Northern California to Los Angeles in the south, and even include offshore wells near Santa Barbara.

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit conservation organization with more than 775,000 members and online activists dedicated to the protection of endangered species and wild places...'

[outsider]

[outsider]

Pinkwashing: Fracking Company Teams Up With Susan G. Komen to ‘End Breast Cancer Forever’:
http://ecowatch.com/2014/10/08/pinkwashing-susan-korman-baker-hughes/

'What do you get when you cross a breast cancer charity with a frack job?

The answer is the image below, which, as I am writing, is going epidemically viral. (open link above for picture).

It’s hard to stop staring in utter baffled amazement. Is it some kind of … phallic cyborg?

The opening scene of a yet another sequel to Tremors? (Kevin Bacon! Nevada! Subterranean, worm-like, cross-dressing graboid!)

A sex toy from hell?

In fact, it’s all these things and more. Susan G. Komen, the largest breast cancer organization in America with more than 100,000 volunteers and partnerships in more than 50 countries, has teamed up with Baker Hughes, one of the world’s largest oilfield service companies with employees in more than 80 countries. Susan G. Komen hands out pink ribbons for breast cancer awareness, and Baker Hughes fracks. So, there you have it: a pink, fracking, drill head.

That’s Susan G. Komen pink, by the way. It’s special. Like John Deere green. And that signature color has been painted by hand on a thousand drill bits, which will soon be shipped by Baker Hughes to well pads all over the world, thus facilitating a thousand fossil fuel extraction projects just in time for Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Which is this month. (But please don’t confuse Baker Hughes pink drill bits with Chesapeake Energy’s “even-rigs-can-rally-for-a-cure” pink drill rigs. That was so 2012).

I am not making this up. Read more about the Komen/Baker Hughes frack-for-the-cure effort here. Watch a little promotional video about it here. And then share the contents of your heart with Susan G. Komen headquarters: right over here....'