Opinions
Frequently updated (daily) Pennsylvania blog by Michelle.
See: Wednesday, May 12, 2010. "New blog telling our stories"
Elizabeth Berkowitz, blogger for "How Should We Do The Mountain?" (and whom Protect the Endless Mtns recently joined forces with us on our Facebook page), has a fantastic new blog entitled "Faces of Frackland." Her new blog tells the stories of 20+ people and growing--stories documenting how the natural gas industry which has invaded our state is affecting actual local residents. For her efforts, Elizabeth was recently interviewed on WENY.
The Rainforest Action Network and its blog, The Understory, have focused on issues that will intersect the concerns people have about gas drilling.
Their campaign to end mountaintop removal in West Virginia and their demands to protect Appalachia's drinking water in the face of the pressure of the mega-business in coal production, signals that the post-Bush era EPA may still be in the pockets of the Oil and Gas Industry. RAN activists Sit Down so EPA Will Stand up to King Coal.
With the nation’s eyes on the BP disaster, the EPA, without publicly announcing the action, recently gave the green light for a major new mountaintop removal coal mining permit in Logan County, West Virginia. The permit would allow the destruction of nearly three miles of currently clean streams and 760 acres of forest, in a county where at least 13 percent of the land has already been permitted for surface coal mining. This was despite EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson’s promise last April to enforce new rules to end the reckless practice of mountaintop removal mining.
Elizabeth Burns, 2008-2010. Texas blog updated frequently.
Covers a broad range of environmental topics related to mining and minerals. Her observations about her legal battles with Exxon Mobil are a must to read.
"This blog is a satire about life on a 38,000 acre ranch in the South Texas oilfield. ExxonMobil's eco-friendly tv commercials during the 2008 olympic games provoked me into action."
See personal video: Depraved Indifference. Jan. 3, 2010.
Chevron, Texaco and Exxon Mobil have left pits of burned chemical sludge across South Texas.
We are Republicans. We share a deep concern for the environment.
We know that a healthy environment and a sound economy are both essential to our nation’s prosperity.
We believe that by working together, we can preserve both our environment and our economy
for current and future generations of Americans.
We Want:
Clean air and water
Food free from harmful chemicals
Clean, efficient businesses & industries
A high quality of life in our cities & rural communities
Strong, results-oriented enforcement of environmental laws
Economic development for communities without the ravages of sprawl
High priority for funding of natural resource stewardship & environmental protection
Protection for posterity of our national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, wild lands & waters
Effective legal protection for threatened & endangered plants & animals in their native habitats
We support and vote for Republican elected officials and candidates who share these values and concerns.
Riverkeeper is an independent, member-supported environmental organization founded on the premise that citizens themselves must roll up their sleeves to defend our waterways.
Riverkeeper’s mission is to protect the ecological integrity of the Hudson River and its tributaries, and to safeguard the drinking water supply of New York City and the lower Hudson Valley.
See: Gas Driling - Fracking photos on their Flickr site.
On July 8, 2010, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. gave a lunchtime speech at Energy Epicenter, the annual conference of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association. That speech provides a number of insights that are useful to those who are concerned about energy issues, concerned about the environment, and interested in the activities of power brokers who stand to make a great deal of money if important energy decisions favor their particular industry.
I wonder what he tells his ardent supporters in the environmental community who have been taught to believe that wind and solar energy are actually replacing fossil fuels? Does he tell them that utility scale wind and solar installations are simply a means to shift some of the market demand and profits away from the coal industry and to natural gas suppliers? Does he mention just how much natural gas is produced by the same large multinational companies that import most of our foreign oil and who pay little in the way of US taxes?
Red tire marks line the roads leading up to the extinct Somlo volcano, home to Hungary’s smallest wine region and only a few miles from the worst environmental disaster in the country’s history.
It has been almost two weeks since a concrete dam holding back millions of gallons of toxic sludge burst, sweeping two villages along with it and killing nine people. The fields are still red, eerily outlined in chalky white — the gypsum that emergency crews used to try to neutralize the caustic grime...
...What exactly is this sludge stored in reservoirs across this part of Hungary by the hundreds of millions of cubic feet?
...The sinister sound of the sludge sloshing around the edge of the shovel blade lingers in the ear, and makes the initial lack of reliable information more painful.
Soon after the spill, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences declared that the red sludge was nontoxic. The chief executive of MAL went on camera to say it was a completely harmless substance, that it could simply be washed away with water.
They were quickly proved wrong. The first responders suffered severe burns; apparently no one warned them that the sludge had a pH of 13, as caustic as lye.
The gap between the official statements and the reality of people dying seemed to widen the crack in the wall. For many, it brought to mind the time, thought long past, when so much of life in Hungary was defined by rumors and lies, when everything was a game of pretend and make-believe.
Shaleshock Action Alliance is a movement that works toward protecting our communities and environment from exploitative gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region.
Shaleshock is an alliance of Working Groups which include people who have signed leases, not signed leases, who have been compulsorily integrated, and people who don't own land.
See: A collection of websites and listservs edited by Shaleshock.
See: Updated Calendar of Events For New York and Pennsylvania.
See: Driling 101 - background information on hydraulic fracturing.
Sierra Club Finger Lakes Group Gas Information Page.
Website includes Editorial by Gene Stolfi, Winter 2009. "Marcellus Shale —To Drill or Not To Drill?" Finger Lakes Group ExCom, Steuben Environmental Management Council
This web page includes links to scientific background information, Documents of Interest: "MSDS Data Sheets from NYS DEC for 48 Fracking Chemicals used in NY".
Pennsylvania based blog covering many of the economic and ethical impacts of gas drilling for the people who are living with it.
We are among a group of property owners who have had the dual experience of receiving royalties from gas wells, then having our property rights seized for an underground natural gas storage field in the depleted gas wells.
This became a transformative two-year fight for our rights against eminent domain actions launched by Texas-based Spectra Energy Corporation, a natural gas storage company, and backed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
It is not a level playing field legally, economically or ethically for private property owners. Our fight led to the development of this website which focuses specifically on property rights that come under pressure from energy and utility companies.
See: Landman Report Card
