BREAKING: Vermont becomes the first state to BAN FRACKING!

[garybeck]

[Pisces]

1. That is great news. Maybe more states will follow suit. Soon we will ruin all of our drinking water.

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. Going strong in TX. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

[valerief]

68. But rich people are getting richer and that's the most important thing in the world, after all. nt

[DisgustipatedinCA]

3. Great news! n/t

[steve2470]

4. great news ! nt

[FiveGoodMen]

5. Way to go, Vermont!

[hootinholler]

6. VPR is a little better than wikipedia

On controversial subjects. This is great news:

The final bill also includes language added by the Senate that bans drilling companies from disposing waste in Vermont from fracking operations out of state.

Governor Peter Shumlin has said he supports the measure, and has indicated he will sign it.

WOOT!

[L. Coyote]

66. Vermont first state in nation to ban fracking for oil and gas

Vermont first state in nation to ban fracking for oil and gas
by Carl Etnier | May 4, 2012
http://vtdigger.org/2012/05/04/vermont-first-state-in-nation-to-ban-fracking-for-oil-and-gas/


With a 103-36 vote in the House of Representatives, Vermont on Friday became the first state to ban hydraulic fracturing to extract oil or natural gas. The bill passed the Senate earlier this week.

The House debate was short. Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe, raised concerns that Vermont was banning the practice without knowing what natural gas resources it was giving up. “We have no idea if some farmers in Franklin County might be able to take advantage of an economic opportunity on their property,” she said in floor debate. Scheuermann urged the House to vote for a moratorium, which would sunset after a number of years.

David Deen, D-Westminster, argued that there was a small “semantic difference” between a ban and a moratorium, since no legislature can bind a future legislature. “If we put a ban in place at this time, by this time next year, that ban could either be a moratorium or lifted.”

Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, raised different questions. If Vermont is the first state to pass a fracking ban, she wanted to know about the possibility of the state being sued ..........

[Wind Dancer]

7. Wonderful news!

Sure wish I could relocate to Vt. permanently.

[MoreGOPoop]

8. Right on!

K & R

[Justice wanted]

9. Great job VT. However notice how it is breaking news here and on Wikipedia. No banner headlines

anywhere else.


Kind of a sad fact.

[Uncle Joe]

10. Kudos to the great state of Vermont.

Thanks for the thread, garybeck.

[malaise]

12. Yes they'll keep their state beautiful

and safe

[Uncle Joe]

18. malaise!

Put some Bob Marley on for me, peace to you and have a good weekend.

[malaise]

21. Will do

Enjoy your weekend - we have a good track and field meet tomorrow night.

[Uncle Joe]

22. Is that

school, university or something related to your Olympic team?

[malaise]

23. No international

Bolt, your Carmelita Jeter and a host of stars from everywhere.

The coverage will be streamed live on:

http://www.facebook.com/SportsMax;

http://www.facebook.com/CEENTV

http://www.livestream.com/tracksonsportsmax.

[cali]

11. well that's nice, but the right of child care workers to unionize? Blocked by the dem Senate prez

the GMO labeling legislation? Nope.

There's not enough natural gas in Vermont for anyone to bother with fracking anyway.

[crayfish]

13. Vermont has no gas or oil, they can take the "high road" without any consequences.

That won't ever happen in a state that actually produces energy people demand.

[cali]

15. exactly. And I'm a vermonster.

[Taverner]

16. I think California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington have to ban it

This is ripe soil.

If that happens, it will trigger a movement.

[crayfish]

20. California, maybe because they do crazy stuff there all the time (e.g. Prop 8)

There's very little hydrocarbon production in the other 3 you mention. I believe I know what would happen if they tried that in Illinois, Ohio, Texas, Lousiana and probably Wyoming and N. Dakota...anybody who wanted to crimp energy production would be run out of state on a burning rail. People are notorious for promoting stuff like banning fracking until they discover it will cost them a lot of money. Then there is the fact that nobody has yet proven it to have caused any serious harm.

[RC]

25. No serous harm? Really?

Between the contaminated water tables, burning water taps, earthquakes and few dead cattle, yeah, no harm.

[crayfish]

35. Give me some actual evidence for these and I'll be happy to look it. A few dead cattle is pretty

much what I have in my freezer...and if fracking ever actually did cause some small earthquakes (a claim lacking factual evidence) that would actually be a -good- thing because it would relieve fault stresses that could otherwise lead to catastrophic diastrophisms. They have been doing hydraulic and sand fracking in southern Illinois for over 55 years and there has been zero seismic activity there. You can check it out.

[happerbolic]

64. Over a real short moment in time...

...that industry capitalizes pay-dirt on what the earth has been trapping for thousands of years, leaving all the rest of us the delightful plight of suffering the consequences of a multi-thousand years worth of trapped toxins and heavy (non-industry viable) elements to endure all at once, all because of achieving the brief corporate hard-on.

are you for real crayfish?

[MADem]

70. You haven't seen GASLAND ... yet? Welcome to DU....

[crayfish]

71. Thank you, yes I have seen it, and it belongs down there alongside "Loose Change" and other

idiotic conspiracy-theories that fail miserably in the face of science. (I've read the "Left Behind" books too...with some hilarity and a lot of sorrow that people believe that shit)
\

[MADem]

72. Yeah, sure--there's nothing "idiot conspiracy theory" about lighting your drinking water on fire.

I think you didn't see the film, or if you did, you weren't paying attention.

[crayfish]

73. Water is not flammable. CH4 that frequently leaches into well water definitely is.

Every one of those 'burning water' reports had been traced to natural gas seeping into the water table, and not every investigator is a tool of the energy industry.

[MADem]

74. Of course water is not flammable. The rest of your comment isn't completely accurate.

How did that natural gas seep into the water table? All by itself?

Before fracking: cool, clear water. After fracking: flammable water.

You have one of those nice days.

[crayfish]

75. The gas is not in the "water table", it gets into water wells from different strata.

I assume you are not a geologist.

[MADem]

76. Who said it was? I assume you aren't, either. nt

[canuckledragger]

30. No Serious harm?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing#Environmental_concerns

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing#Air_emissions_and_pollution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing#Groundwater_contamination

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing#Radioactive_contamination_in_the_United_States

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing#Earthquakes

[crayfish]

34. All those links go to the very same Wiki article. And Wiki is hardly a reliable source for anything

anyway. And even at that, the "conclusions" they draw in that horribly researched piece (it's full of 3rd hand reports and urban myths that wouldn't pass muster in a municipal court) are carefully couched in terms like "uncertain", "undetermined" and "possible". I don't buy it, sorry.

[canuckledragger]

41. suit yourself. here's another

http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/whats-fracking

[groundloop]

52. Gee, I wonder why natural gas drillers needed to be exempt from Safe Drinking Water Act..

If fracking doesn't harm aquifers then the drilling companies wouldn't have had anything to worry about as far as the Safe Drinking Water Act. But they had to get their pals at the time (Bush Cheney) to exempt them from that. Hmmmm.

[donquijoterocket]

59. but, you see

That's logic and the wingers have no knowledge of,or use for, actual logic.Ever tried that as a question for a full bore fracker? I bet the hemming and hawing was near deafening,not to mention time consuming.

[Fuddnik]

55. Right. And nobody has actually "proven" that smoking cigarettes causes cancer.

[joshcryer]

38. Colorado won't ban it, but they did make it have strict ground water standards.

Which is an effective ban for all of the venture capitalists. Would have to be a very well established company that can afford to meet the standards as far as I understand.

[azurnoir]

32. Thanks I didn't want to sayit but

it's kind of like my state MN banning whale hunting nice gesture but.....

[crayfish]

36. Heh, that reminds me, I lived in MN (Stearns Co) for about a year. Some of the locals invited me

to go ice fishing...and it was the most backbreaking experience of my life. It took us half a day to make the hole big enough to put the boat in!

[Oldtimeralso]

46. Mn Ice

I did that the last time I went to MN in the winter (Sept-May) and I did good I caught a 125# block of ice!!!

[garybeck]

48. Nope. See post #39. n/t

[garybeck]

39. not exactly.

"a shale formation that’s been tapped for gas north of the border in Quebec extends south to beneath the northwestern corner of Vermont and Lake Champlain."

http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/05/04/verge-historic-fracking-ban/WrzON0vsFlmfKjS9j9DkJP/story.html

plus the law bans dumping of waste materials used in fracking in other states

[cali]

54. you forgot to post the rest of that

"It’s unclear if there is enough natural gas under Vermont to interest the industry in drilling for it. Geologists who attended a news conference with Shumlin last month said they didn’t believe that Vermont had the abundant natural gas that has been found in nearby New York state and Pennsylvania"

Let's face it our ledge failed on GMO labeling and failed horribly on the right of child care workers to unionize- both more important that the distant threat of fracking.

[Taverner]

14. Awesome.

Doesn't matter your position on Natural Gas, fracking is dangerous no matter which way you look at it.

[Zorra]

17. Yay Vermont!

I'd move there if it wasn't so darn cold in winter.

[Bjorn Against]

19. Vermont seems to be the leader in nearly everything good these days

Sometimes I wish I could live in Vermont where they actually have good government, we used to have good government here in Minnesota but that left several years ago. We now finally have a governor who actually cares about the state, but unfortunately the only thing he can do for us is keep us from becoming another Wisconsin by using his veto pen to strike down the extreme right wing ALEC bills the house and senate keep pushing on us.

Vermont makes me envious, it seems they lead on damn near everything.

[eggplant]

44. But what about their cheese?

Their artery clogging cheese?

(A reference to the movie Thank You For Smoking, for the humor impaired.)

[slackmaster]

45. Not everyone agrees (but I do FWIW)

http://www.bradycampaign.org/stategunlaws/scorecard/VT/

[Smilo]

24. I love Vermont........

and I hope to visit one day

Good for Vermont standing up against those frackers.

[glinda]

26. k&r

[burrowowl]

27. Go Vermont!

[kestrel91316]

28. I expect the feds to find a way to tell VT they can't ban it.

But then, maybe I'm still just in a snit about the medical MJ thing.

[groundloop]

43. Not the "feds", it'll be the Supreme Court

My crystal ball sees this scenario - A gas producer takes the state to court. The case winds it's way to the Supreme Court, where the repub court hands the gas producers a victory.

[happerbolic]

65. the multi-gnats wouldn't even bother...

...with the court system here. They will just go through the WTO courts to sue individual states and/or the federal gov't.

[a2liberal]

29. Vermont rocks!

Between this, single payer (how's that going btw?), Bernie, cheese, etc. I may have to move there some day. Any software industry there?

[cali]

31. you forgot maple syrup

the work on Green Mountain Care is ongoing with a lot of focus on containing costs. And yes, there's a software industry here.

[Auntie Bush]

69. We've got lots of rocks to sell! Cheaper than the Brooklyn Bridge.

But don't forget all the marble.

[derby378]

33. Suck it, Range Resources! Texas is gonna be next in line.

RIGHT, fellow Texans?

[handmade34]

37. yah!

[freshwest]

40. Congratulations VT!

[MrMickeysMom]

42. Salute!

Thanks, VT!



We're trying to preserve local control over zoning laws. This is gonna help...

[countryjake]

47. K&R!

[Harriety]

49. I heart Vermont!

[malthaussen]

50. Good news? Well, yeah, but...

"No legislature may bind a future legislature," Deen said. "And if we put a ban in place this time, by this time next year, that ban could either be a moratorium or lifted."

(Statement by Dem. Legislator)

-- Mal

[sellitman]

51. Very cool

I hope CT is next.

[davidpdx]

53. Great to hear

I hope some other states follow suit. Anyone who hasn't seen it needs to see Gasland.

[raouldukelives]

56. K&R for Vermont! nt

[Garion_55]

57. so you cant watch battlestar galactic

in the state of vermont?

course the series was only good for the first 1 1/2 seasons so no big loss.

[spanone]

58. intelligent life spotted in vermont.....

[SalviaBlue]

60. Good news!

[99Forever]

61. K&R

[NNN0LHI]

62. Not going to have any more babies in Vermont?

[Baitball Blogger]

63. Let's hope this is the beginning of a new trend.

[valerief]

67. Now I know where to move for retirement. nt