Antis Ramp Up to Discredit EPA Study that Found Fracking is Safe
It was certainly a major blow to radical environmentalists when, after studying fracking for more than four years (reviewing some 950 studies, including conducting several original studies of its own), the federal Environmental Protection Agency announced what everyone already knew: fracking is safe (see EPA Draft Report Says Fracking Doesn’t Pollute Groundwater Supplies). Science is science and facts are facts. The announcement took the wind out of the sails for anti-fossil fuel nutters who thought they could convince everyone to return to the stone ages and eliminate the use of fossil fuels. However, science has been corrupted and politicized–just witness the global warming debate. Radical environmentalists knowing they can never convince the hoi polloi, the great unwashed, the people they consider idiots, to go along with their holier-than-thou energy plans to eliminate fossil fuels, if fracking is perceived as anything but evil–are fighting back. Here’s the plan. Get the EPA to discredit its own study. That process is now underway. In October the usual radical suspects showed up at EPA HQ to demand they turn their backs on their own study (see Anti Groups Try to Convince EPA They Got it Wrong with Water Study). Apparently they got through to at least a few sympathetic “scientists” who are members of the EPA’s own Scientific Advisory Board…
Read More “Antis Ramp Up to Discredit EPA Study that Found Fracking is Safe”
A story in Philadelphia Magazine perfectly illustrates the Nazi-like control freaks that inhabit anti-fossil fuel organizations like Food and Water Watch and the fringe group Action United. Philadelphia City Councilman Curtis Jones Jr. is a bone fide, card-carrying liberal Democrat. In 2011 Jones called for a fracking moratorium in the Delaware River Basin. Since that time Jones has actively advocated for no fracking/drilling in the Philadelphia region. Four years ago the Marcellus Shale Coalition invited Jones (and others) to tour a drilling rig, to see how it’s done. At the time, he declined. It’s always so much easier when you stick your head in…the sand. But Jones is a member of the Philadelphia Gas Commission, the group that oversees the city-owned Philadelphia Gas Works (PGW). A recent audit recommends PGW buy more Marcellus Shale gas (see 
It’s always fascinating for us to see which universities tout the research papers published by their professors and students, and which don’t. And which papers they decide to promote, and which they don’t. Publish a study that knocks fracking as somehow damaging the environment? That’s worth a full-blown press release and calls to the New York Times to see if you can get some juicy PR. Publish a paper that concludes, oh, the economic benefits of fracking actually extend out for hundreds of miles? Not a peep. In fact such a study was released by Dartmouth researchers called “Geographic Dispersion of Economic Shocks: Evidence from the Fracking Revolution” (full copy below). The report concludes: “Every million dollars of oil and gas extracted produces $66,000 in wage income, $61,000 in royalty payments, and 0.78 jobs within the county. Outside the immediate county but within the region, the economic impacts are over three times larger. Within 100 miles of the new production, one million dollars generates $243,000 in wages, $117,000 in royalties, and 2.49 jobs.” You might think such good news would be emblazoned on major newspapers across the country. Nope. Nothing. Nada. Zippo. That kind of objective research, that finds fracking benefits society, doesn’t fit the liberal bias of mainstream media. So they ignore it. If they don’t cover it, it essentially doesn’t exist. What a shame…
In a big metaphorical slap across the face, the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection’s Oil and Gas Technical Advisory Board (TAB) has voted to not endorse re-worked drilling regulations proposed by the PennFuture Sec. of the DEP, John Quigley. We told you two days ago the DEP was meeting with TAB to get the group’s rubber stamp of approval (see 
Hoping to get one more squeeze and a few more drops of juice out of news that’s now years old, the odious Earthworks and equally odious Food & Water Watch organized a protest rally in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday and trotted out the same old tired, lying anti-drillers from Dimock, PA, Pavillion, WY and Parker County, TX to “demand” that the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) simply dump the findings of their four-year study that concluded fracking doesn’t pollute water supplies (see 
Shortly after assuming the office of Secretary of the Pennsylvania Dept. of Environmental Protection, John Quigley (who formerly worked for the anti-drilling Big Green group PennFuture) mass-fired a very important group at the DEP called the Oil & Gas Technical Advisory Board, or TAB (see 
We’ve heard just about everything blamed on fracking. Global warming? Yep–blame fracking because fracking produces natural gas and natural gas, when burned, turns into carbon dioxide and and abundance of CO2 in the atmosphere supposedly heats the planet (although the average temp hasn’t gone up in nearly 19 years now). What about STDs–sexually transmitted diseases? Yep–blame fracking because nefarious roustabouts from “foreign” locations like Texas and Oklahoma show up to work on rigs, and the only off-hours things they do is screw the local women-folk and spread STDs all over the place (do you honestly think they have an ounce of energy left after working a 12-15 hour day lifting heavy stuff at a rig site?). Here’s a new one we’ve just heard for the first time: you can blame fracking in places like Pennsylvania for the high cost of firewood this winter. Say what???…
The Centre for Policy Studies, a British think tank similar to our own Heritage Foundation (conservative), has just published a new study that says so-called fugitive methane coming from shale gas production is “seriously over-estimated.” You may recall the falling-down-laughing claim by Cornell professors Robert Howarth and Tony Ingraffea who claimed burning coal is better for the environment than burning natural gas, largely because of the fugitive methane issue (see 
Once more the Obama Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) violates the U.S. Constitution by creating an unlegislated law and declaring it in effect for the oil and gas industry–thereby regulating oil and gas, even though according to the U.S. Constitution the individual states are the ones with power to regulate the oil and gas industry. And barely a peep. Everyone just lays down and takes it. No push-back. What a shame. Last week the EPA published a final rule in the Federal Register amending reporting on mythical greenhouse gases that will now be required by oil and gas drillers–particularly those who use horizontal hydraulic fracturing (i.e. fracking). Not to be left out–if you build and maintain pipelines to gather natural gas and oil, you’re affected by the new rules too. Another massive federal power grab which goes into effect on January 1st. One more freedom dies under Barack Hussein Obama…
A study titled “Endocrine-Disrupting Activity of Hydraulic Fracturing Chemicals and Adverse Health Outcomes After Prenatal Exposure in Male Mice” was published last week in the journal Endocrinology (abstract below). This one is fall-right-out-of-your-chair-laughing funny! The study attempts to make a link between fracking and low sperm counts in men by exposing mice (yes, mice were harmed in the making of this study!) with chemicals used in fracking. Thing is, they overdosed the mice–using far more chemicals at higher doses than are ever used in fracking fluids. That’s just one of the many problems with this new “study.” There are plenty of other problems too, including the raging conflicts of interest for the anti-driller who was the supervising “researcher” for the study…