Only You Can Prevent Fracking by Peter Rugh + Frack Fact by Walter Brasch

Dandelion Salad

Image by e izzo via Flickr

by Peter Rugh
SocialistWorker.org
First published at Waging Nonviolence, May 7, 2013
May 9, 2013

SMOKEY THE Bear thought he smelled a fire in the woods. But as he approached the clearing and saw a giant derrick jutting out into the sky, he realized that what his nose had picked up was the scent of hydrocarbons. It was another piece of evidence that the increasingly widespread method of oil and gas extraction known as fracking was poisoning the environment that he and his human friends depend on. He decided something must be done.

Pennsylvania: You Are Fracked by Walter Brasch

Image by Marcellus Protest via Flickr

by Walter Brasch
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
April 22, 2013

The history of energy exploration, mining, and delivery is best understood in a range from benevolent exploitation to worker and public oppression. A company comes into an area, leases or buys land in rural and agricultural areas for mineral rights, increases employment, usually during a depressed economy, strips the land of its resources, creates health problems for its workers and those in the immediate area, and then leaves.

Sandra Steingraber: The Toxic Assault on Our Children

Image by N-ree-K via Flickr

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http://billmoyers.com
BillMoyers.com
http://vimeo.com/64370007
April 19, 2013

Biologist, mother and activist Sandra Steingraber joins Bill to explain why she was willing to go to jail — and did — for blocking access to the construction of a storage and transportation facility involved in the controversial process of fracking. Steingraber has become internationally known for building awareness about toxins she says are threatening our children’s health by contaminating our air, water and food, and talks to Bill about how we must take action stop these “toxic trespassers.”

Fracking records unsealed in Pennsylvania by Betsey Piette

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Image by N-ree-K via Flickr

by Betsey Piette
www.workers.org
March 26, 2013

Philadelphia  — Since 2005, a provision of the federal Energy Policy Act popularly labeled the “Halliburton Loophole,” allowed the giant corporations profiting from drilling in major shale formations across the U.S. to withhold information on the hundreds of potentially toxic and carcinogenic chemicals that make up fracking compounds. The law provided them protection for “trade secrets.”

Barack Obama’s Executive Order: Amendments to Executive Order 12777 + Blueprint for a Clean and Secure Energy Future

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Propaganda Alert!

The White House

Image by SS&SS via Flickr

Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
March 15, 2013

FACT SHEET: President Obama’s Blueprint for a Clean and Secure Energy Future

The United States is on the path to a cleaner and more secure energy future. Since President Obama took office, responsible oil and gas production has increased each year, while oil imports have fallen to a 20 year low; renewable electricity generation from wind, solar, and geothermal sources has doubled;

You Can’t Wash Away Fracking’s Effects by Walter Brasch + Fracking Hell?

by Walter Brasch
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
February 23, 2013

Image by Marcellus Protest via Flickr

José Lara just wanted a job.

A company working in the natural gas fields needed a man to power wash wastewater tanks. Clean off the debris. Make them shining again.

And so José Lara became a power washer for the Rain for Rent Co.

“The chemicals, the smell was so bad. Once I got out, I couldn’t stop throwing up. I couldn’t even talk,” Lara said in his deposition, translated from Spanish.

The company that had hired him didn’t provide him a respirator or protective clothing. That’s not unusual in the natural gas fields.

Capitalism Stands As A Death Sentinel Over Planetary Life by Chris Williams

Image by jeancliclac via Flickr

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by Chris Williams
SocialistWorker.org
February 8, 2013

Chris Williams, author of Ecology and Socialism: Solutions to Capitalist Ecological Crisis, looks at the battles ahead for those who will protest for the planet next week.

CAPITALISM STANDS as a death sentinel over planetary life.

Recent reports from institutions such as the World Bank detail how, as a result of human activity, we are on track for a four-degree Celsius increase in average global temperatures.

The Global Water Grab by Shiney Varghese

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by Shiney Varghese
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
January 18, 2013

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

Writing in National Geographic in December 2012 about “small-scale irrigation techniques with simple buckets, affordable pumps, drip lines, and other equipment” that “are enabling farm families to weather dry seasons, raise yields, diversify their crops, and lift themselves out of poverty” water expert Sandra Postel of the Global Water Policy Project cautioned against reckless land and water-related investments in Africa.

Fracking’s Lure, Trap and Endless Damage by Ralph Nader

Image by Adam Welz @ CREDO: Cuomo Policy Summit 8/22/2012 via Flickr

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by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
Dec. 13, 2012

Say what you will about Yoko Ono’s art, there is no denying that she is unique. Who else will put several $100,000 full-page notices in The New York Times displaying only the word “Peace” or “Imagine Peace” in small type with the rest of the page blank? No elaboration, no examples of the ravages of war or mention of people “waging peace” around the country and world. Inscrutable, yes. Effective, who knows, except maybe Yoko Ono?

Will New York be Just Another Sacrifice Zone so the Fossil Fuel Industry can Pollute Our Water, Contaminate Our Land and Frack Billions in Profits? by Jill Dalton

by Jill Dalton
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
recoveringarmybrat
October 8, 2012

Image by PilotGirl via Flickr

The woman standing at the podium may seem small and unassuming but don’t be fooled she’s a powerhouse and has a warning to share with the world. Vera Scroggins is a mother, a grandmother, resident of Susquehanna County, PA and a member of Citizens for Clean Water, a citizen-watch group of volunteers who keep an eye on the gas-drilling process by videotaping and keeping tabs on any problems or concerns. But today Vera’s in New York City at Saint John the Divine for the Global Frackdown and her message is loud and clear. “Don’t let them in.”

Fracked: New Yorkers Visit the Marcellus Shale + Disembowelling the Planet + Let Them Drink Methane. And Arsenic

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Image by PilotGirl via Flickr

Aug 29, 2012 by nothingofficial

Montrose, Susquehanna Co., Pa, August 26– Senator Adriano Espaillat sponsors a tour for New Yorkers of several Pennsylvania hydrofracking sites owned by different companies which are exploiting the Marcellus Shale for its natural gas reserves with disastrous consequences, not least poisoning the water supply. Vera Scroggins of Citizens for Clean Air explains the frustrations of fighting the gas companies. Part One.

Marcellus Earth First! Anti-fracking Activists Take On the Police and Shutdown Drilling

Image by Nicholas_T via Flickr

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http://earthfirstnews.wordpress.com
July 8, 2012

Aug 5, 2012 by alexhiggins732

Full Story: http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/2012/08/06/momentum-builds-fracking-truth-da…

As anti-fracking momentum grows nationwide with word being spread the practice permanently destroys water sheds, PA activists shutdown a planned operation.

Fighting the frack attack by Peter Rugh

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Peter Rugh, a facilitator for Occupy Wall Street Environmental Solidarity, reports on a recent conference of anti-fracking activists that gathered in Washington, D.C.
SocialistWorker.org
August 2, 2012

Image by N-ree-K via Flickr

THE WAR came home at the end of July when thousands of people whose land has been under siege by the U.S. government and corporate interests gathered in Washington, D.C. No, they weren’t victims of drone attacks or 10-plus years of fighting in Afghanistan. They were ordinary Americans, whose neighborhoods, townships and states have been struggling to put an end to fracking, a destructive form of natural gas drilling.

Barack Obama’s Executive Order: Supporting Safe and Responsible Development of Unconventional Domestic Natural Gas Resources

Image by SS&SS via Flickr

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Propaganda Alert!

The White House
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release
April 13, 2012

EXECUTIVE ORDER

SUPPORTING SAFE AND RESPONSIBLE DEVELOPMENT OF UNCONVENTIONAL DOMESTIC NATURAL GAS RESOURCES

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to coordinate the efforts of Federal agencies responsible for overseeing the safe and responsible development of unconventional domestic natural gas resources and associated infrastructure and to help reduce our dependence on oil, it is hereby ordered as follows:

New Report Finds Oversight of Natural Gas Fracking Are Inadequate Protection for Water Supplies

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OMB Watch

Image by arimoore via Flickr

PRESS RELEASE
-For Immediate Release-
July 9, 2012

Contact: Brian Gumm, (202) 683-4812, bgumm@ombwatch.org

State Disclosure Policies, Oversight of Natural Gas Fracking Are Inadequate Protection for Water Supplies, Public Safety, New Report Finds

WASHINGTON, July 9, 2012—In a new report issued today, OMB Watch finds that state oversight laws requiring disclosure of the chemicals used in natural gas fracking are in need of an overhaul. Disclosure of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is spotty and incomplete, and essential safeguards are missing.