ABOUT WHATTHEFRACK.ORG
Whatthefrack.org is a program of Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, an all-volunteer,
grassroots organization that has been working to prohibit dangerous hydraulic fracturing
(fracking) since 2008. Catskill Citizens provides one of the best websites in the country
on fracking including an extensive Newsroom and a comprehensive Learn More section.
Our Action Alerts make it easy for you to contact your elected officials in just a matter
of seconds.
Because we have an all-volunteer staff, all the money we raise goes directly into the fight
against fracking. Please donate generously.
We support the American Clean Energy Agenda. Find out how your organization can also lend its support info@whatthefrack.org.
UPCOMING EVENTS
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Stop the Frack Attack's People's Forum in DC!
Tuesday - Thursday, May 21st - 23rd
Washington, DC
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee is holding a series of forums on natural
gas in May, none of which can fully represent the many voices impacted by fracking. Come to
DC and tell your oil and gas impact story, lobby your representatives to close federal
loopholes in our major environmental laws, and make sure that politicians know that fossil
fuel extraction is part of the problem, not the solution.
For more information contact: info@stopthefrackattack.org or
http://www.stopthefrackattack.org/
2013 HYDRO-FRACKING DAY OF ACTION
Wednesday, May 22, 9:00AM - 3:30PM
Albany, NY
Join us for a fracking lobby day to tell our legislators that New Yorkers need a health impact assessment and a two-year
moratorium!
Free.
For more information contact: Katherine Nadeau, EANY - knadeau@eany.org or
CITIZENS CAMPAIGN for the ENVIRONMENT
Marcellus Shale - Looking Between the Layers
Saturday, May 25, 2:00 - 5:30PM
La MaMa Theatre
74 East 4th Street, New York City
Symposium on the social, economic and impacts of fracking with Dave Ramsaran, Ph.D., Professor
of Sociology at Susquehanna University; Dr. Seth Ronkoff, Executive Director of Physicians
Scientists & Engineers for Healthy Energy (PSE); Jake Hays, Program Director of the Public Health
nexus for PSE; Wes Gillingham, Program Director of Catskill Mountainkeeper and performances by
Mx. Justin Vivian Bond and Loudon Wainwright III.
Free
For more information contact: Sam Rudy 212-221-8466 - samrudy4@cs.com or
http://www.talkingband.org/marcellusshale/symposium.html
Gasland II
Saturday, June 8, 10:30 AM
Callicoon Theater
30 Upper Main Street, Callicoon, NY
Free (donations welcome at the door)
Documentary film screening followed by
Q & A with director Josh Fox.
Sponsoring organizations: Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, Catskill Mountainkeeper and Damascus Citizens for Sustainability
For more information click here.
Same River
Sunday, September 8:00AM - 4:00PM
NACL Theatre
110 Highland Lake Road
Highland Lake, NY 12743
$22.50 regular/ $12 student
NYC-based collective Strike Anywhere returns to NACL with SAME RIVER, an ever-growing, multi-media
improvisation on "fracking" and its impact on a community.
FEATURED VIDEO
AND DON'T FORGET TO CALL TOO!
What you can do to prevent fracking.
Economic Impact of
Shale Gas Drilling
Read
Selected Documents Authored by Jannette M. Barth,
Ph.D.
Can
New York Learn from Texas?. Economist Jannette Barth’s latest analysis
of the economic impact of shale gas plays.
Read more about LNG exports by entering the word “exports in the “Search” feature of our website.
LATEST NEWS
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Search All News Items
May 21, 2013
May 21, 2013
Testimony likely in House committee
The southern Illinoisan
BY L.E. HLAVACH, The Southern Springfield Bureau
SPRINGFIELD – After a two month delay, a proposal to permit and regulate hydraulic fracturing in Illinois is likely to be hotly debated in a House committee Tuesday.
When the proposal was introduced in February, bipartisan House sponsors, joined by leaders of business and three environmental grou... [Full Story]
May 21, 2013
Johnson County passes fracking moratorium
The Southern Illinoisan
Stephen Rickerl
The Johnson County Board of Commissioners on Monday passed a one-year moratorium on hy-draulic fracturing.
The board voted 2-1 in favor of putting the brakes on the controversial process that involves horizontal drilling combined with the injection of water, sand and chemicals at high pressure to... [Full Story]
May 21, 2013
BNSF Railway launches rail loop for frac sand
Fuel Fix
David Hendricks
Chalk up another sizable investment in Bexar County — this one nearly $50 million — to the Eagle Ford Shale play.
Fort Worth-based BNSF Railway Co. and Frederick, Md.-based U.S. Silica Holdings Inc. on Monday ceremoniously opened a Von Ormy facility that will store and distribute sand used in the... [Full Story]
May 21, 2013
U.S. LNG export potential gaining momentum
fuel fix
Bloomburg
Liquefied natural gas exports from the U.S. are looking more likely after the Freeport LNG terminal got conditional approval from the Department of Energy, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. (GS) said.
Freeport LNG Development LP’s project in Texas was the second facility to receive approval from the Energ... [Full Story]
May 21, 2013
Poland shale boom falters as state targets higher taxes
fuel Fix
Bloomberg
Poland’s shale gas boom is threatened even before it gets started after some wells failed and the government sought to increase taxes on profits.
Of 39 wells planned for 2013, just two were drilled by May, Environment Ministry data show. The government plans to require that explorers take a state... [Full Story]
May 21, 2013
Moody’s: Freeport LNG exports will boost gas producers and pipelines
fuel fix
Jeannie Kever
Moody’s has weighed in on last week’s approval of Freeport LNG’s request to export liquefied natural gas, saying it offers a clear benefit for natural gas-leveraged North American exploration and production and midstream companies.
That benefit won’t be immediate, the commentary from Moody’s Inve... [Full Story]
May 21, 2013
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Senate forum sheds light on natural gas exports
fuel fix
Jennifer A. Dlouhy
Energy analysts will be reading the tea leaves Tuesday as Obama administration officials field questions about their approach to exporting U.S natural gas during a Senate forum on the issue.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee’s roundtable comes just days after the Obama administrati... [Full Story]
May 21, 2013
May 21, 2013
Film director brings anti-fracking fight to Springfield
Chicago Tribune
Julie Wernau
Josh Fox, the Oscar-nominated director of two anti-fracking films, is bringing his fight to Springfield, where he has plans Tuesday morning to testify against legislation to regulate horizontal hydraulic fracturing.
At a screening Monday night of his follow-up film "Gasland Part II," the filmmak... [Full Story]
May 21, 2013
Polish Shale Gas Hopes Hit Major Roadblock
Energy Tribune
John Daly
Since the December 1991 fragmentation of the Soviet Union, no issue has divided the post-Soviet states and its former Eastern and Central European colonies than energy issues. As the post-Soviet space slowly lurches from a centrally planned economy to something somewhat resembling capitalism, energy... [Full Story]
May 21, 2013
More companies in Pa. trying fracking with gas
AP via Bloomberg
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Another natural gas exploration company says it's experimenting with the gas to power huge pump engines that drive the hydraulic fracturing process.
Cabot Oil and Gas Corp. said Monday that it successfully tested an engine last month in northern Pennsylvania's Susquehanna C... [Full Story]
May 21, 2013
May 21, 2013
May 21, 2013
Canandaigua Town Board extends fracking freeze
mpnnow.com
Scott Pukos
Canandaigua, N.Y. —
The Town of Canandaigua approved a local law to extend a moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing by nine months. The extra time will be used to work on a potential permanent ban of the controversial gas drilling method known as hydrofracking.
The moratorium is not just... [Full Story]
May 21, 2013
May 21, 2013
Boulder County's oil, gas moratorium to end June 10
Timescall.com
John Fryar
BOULDER -- Boulder County's moratorium on processing new applications for oil and gas drilling in unincorporated areas will end, as scheduled, on June 10, county commissioners decided Tuesday.
The Board of County Commissioners also decided, however, to try to limit the numbers and locations of ne... [Full Story]
May 21, 2013
May 21, 2013
Kalama natural gas power plant plans in jeopardy
tdn.com
Plans for a $400 million natural gas power plant in Kalama are in jeopardy as one of the main partners dropped out of the project, officials said Monday. The uncertainty also has halted plans for a controversial natural gas pipeline nearby. [Full Story]
May 21, 2013
COLUMN-U.S. aquifers fall as farmers take too much: Kemp
Reuters
John Kemp
May 21 (Reuters) - U.S. farmers are withdrawing unsustainable volumes of groundwater to irrigate their crops, resulting in an accelerating decline in aquifers across the central and western United States, according to a new report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).
Groundwater resources have s... [Full Story]
More News Items
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TELL NEW YORK’S SCANDAL PLAGUED SENATE TO ACT!
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This action can only
be completed using
a NYS zip code. |
New York State Senators have had no trouble speedily enacting bills written by gas industry lobbyists, but they’ve never taken even the smallest step to protect the public from fracking. Now we learn from Bloomberg News that Senator Tom Libous - the man who vowed to block Senate action on a moratorium bill – is in business with someone who stands to profit from fracking. Libous has produced documents that he says proves that he and his wife got rid of their stake in the company that owns the leased land back in 2008, but this is contradicted by a financial disclosure form he filed in in May 2012. The senator is still partners with the firm’s owner in several other business ventures, and is reportedly being investigated by the FBI for corruption.
S04236A/A05424A would impose a two-year moratorium on high volume fracking and require the state to conduct an independent health impact assessment. In early March it was voted out of the Assembly and delivered to the Senate, but because of Libous’ obstruction, and the failure of the Senate leadership, the bill is stalled.
HOME RULE PREVAILS!
In a decision that could have major implications for the fate of high-volume fracking in New York, the Appellate Division, Third Department, of the State Supreme Court upheld the right of towns to prohibit fracking. The unanimous opinion by the three-judge panel affirmed two lower courts’ decisions.
Fifty-five towns have enacted fracking prohibitions in the last two years, and that number is likely to grow rapidly now that the threat of being sued is practically non-existent. You can track the astounding success of New York’s home rule movement here.
NEW YORK STATE, A TOXIC WASTE DUMP FOR FRACKERS
Even though fracking itself remains on hold in the state, New Yorkers are still being exposed to danger. Gas corporations continue to use the state as a dumping ground for radioactive waste produced in Pennsylvania. According to a PA Department of Environmental Protection website, five landfills in New York accepted over one hundred million pounds of drill cuttings in the second half of 2012 alone, the last period for which data is available.
Just how radioactive are these drill cuttings? One Pennsylvania landfill recently rejected a truckload of cuttings from a Marcellus site after it set off a radiation alarm. It turned out the material was emitting Radium 226 at rate 84 times higher than the EPA’s air pollution standard, and ten times higher than what the landfill is permitted to accept. Drilling waste triggered radiation alarms more than a thousand times at Pennsylvania landfills between 2009 and 2012.
HEADS UP LONG ISLAND!
While upstate has to contend with radioactive waste, Long Island is now threatened by a proposed liquefied natural gas (LNG) port. For six months, Liberty LNG has been quietly advancing a plan to build a giant offshore facility not far from Jones Beach State Park, in the middle of important shipping lanes, commercial fisheries and the site of a proposed offshore wind project. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie vetoed a similar proposal in 2011 because it presented a major safety and security risks; relocating the port a few miles away in New York State waters has done nothing to make the project any safer.
Port Ambrose is described as a facility to import LNG from countries like Trinidad, but it’s hard to see how imported gas can compete with the abundant supplies of cheap domestic shale gas. The U.S. is now set to become a major gas exporter within just a few years, and there’s a real possibility that if Port Ambrose is approved, its sponsors will apply to have it relicensed as an export terminal that will ship fracked gas to foreign countries. In that event, the port would endanger New Yorkers living on the shale as well as the residents of Long Island and the metropolitan area.
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