EPA Hydro-Fracking Hearing Begins In Binghamton

[deminks]

http://www.wbng.com/news/local/EPA-Hydro-Fracking-Hearing-Begins-In-Binghamton-102758934.html

The EPA's hearing in Binghamton on hydraulic fracturing begins Monday afternoon.

There'll be 2 identical sessions Monday and 2 on Wednesday. They're being held at the Forum Theater on Washington Street.

Sessions are from 12:00pm-4:00pm and 6:00pm-10:00pm both days.

(snip)

You can also submit written comments to the EPA directly without attending the hearing. You can email your comments to [e-mail] through September 28. Put "Hydraulic Fracturing Study -- Comments" in the subject line.

(end snip)

Glad to see the meeting will take place. It's been postponed twice.

[ProgressiveEconomist]

1. I'd like to see Rachel Maddow discuss the documentary 'Gasland" with T Boone Pickens

How has this issue remained so obscure for so long?

As I understand it, the problem derives from Dubya's 2005 exemption for natural gas drillers from the Clean Water Act. Is that your understanding too?

[Altoid_Cyclist]

2. The Halliburton Loophole.

'Tricky Dicky' the 2nd?
Halliburton tractor trailer parked along a country road near Buffalo, Pa. Frac fluids were exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act in 2005 while former Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney was Vice President of the US.


From NY Times:

Excerpt:
Among the many dubious provisions in the 2005 energy bill was one dubbed the Halliburton loophole, which was inserted at the behest of — you guessed it — then-Vice President Dick Cheney, a former chief executive of Halliburton.


It stripped the Environmental Protection Agency of its authority to regulate a drilling process called hydraulic fracturing. Invented by Halliburton in the 1940s, it involves injecting a mixture of water, sand and chemicals, some of them toxic, into underground rock formations to blast them open and release natural gas.

Hydraulic fracturing has been implicated in a growing number of water pollution cases across the country. It has become especially controversial in New York, where regulators are eager to clear the way for drilling in the New York City watershed, potentially imperiling the city’s water supply. Thankfully, the main company involved has now decided not to go ahead.

The safety of the nation’s water supply should not have to rely on luck or the public relations talents of the oil and gas industry. Thanks in part to two New Yorkers — Representative Maurice Hinchey and Senator Charles Schumer — Congress last week approved a bill that asks the E.P.A. to conduct a new study on the risks of hydraulic fracturing. An agency study in 2004 whitewashed the industry and was dismissed by experts as superficial and politically motivated. This time Congress is demanding “a transparent, peer-reviewed process.”

More Here: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/03/opinion/03tue3.html

Check out the link in my signature line for in depth information and links.

[Panaconda]

3. K&R