![]() ![]() 18 letter, Waxman commented on the Safe Drinking Water Act exemption: “Many dubbed this provision the ‘Halliburton loophole’ because of Halliburton’s ties to then-Vice President Cheney and its role as one of the largest providers of hydraulic fracturing services.” Before he was vice president, Dick Cheney was the CEO of Halliburton. California Congressman Henry Waxman, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has just announced an investigation into the composition of the proprietary chemicals used in fracking. Drillers do not have to reveal the chemical cocktail, thanks to a slew of exemptions given to the industry, most notably in the 2005 Energy Policy Act, which actually granted the fracking industry a specific exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act. Each well requires between 1 million and 7 million gallons of the fluid every time gas is extracted. The high-pressure liquids are a combination of water, sand and a secret mix of chemicals. To force open the fractures, millions of gallons of liquid are forced into the shaft at very high pressure. Explosive charges are then set off at various points in the drill shaft, causing what Fox calls “mini-earthquakes.” These fractures spread underground, allowing the gas to flow back into the shaft to be extracted. Companies like Halliburton drill down vertically, then send the shaft horizontally, crossing many small, trapped veins of gas and oil. The source of the flammable water, and the subject of “Gasland,” is the mining process called hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”įracking is used to access natural gas and oil reserves buried thousands of feet below the ground. After a few seconds, a ball of fire erupts out of the sink, almost enveloping Markham’s head. ![]() Director Josh Fox films Markham as he runs his kitchen faucet, holding a cigarette lighter up to the running water. Markham demonstrates this in a new documentary, “ Gasland,” which just won the Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Prize. Mike Markham of Colorado has an explosive problem: His tap water catches fire. Here is Amy Goodman’s column which I read in Saturday morning’s paper, “Cracking Down on Fracking”: But drillers have now learned how to tap into the shale deposits and extract the gas – but as you’ll see from the rest of the post, there is a considerable cost. Until recently, natural gas has not been economically viable, because it was locked in shale formations under ground. Natural gas emits half the carbon dioxide of coal, per unit of energy. ![]() My eyes were opened and I want to share!Īlmost everybody agrees that if we’re going to curb our greenhouse gas emissions we have to find alternatives for the coal that fuels almost half the nation’s electricity. So those who continue touting fracked gas as a bridge to a low-carbon future are not keeping up with the latest science.This week I’m digressing just a bit from textiles, because I just read Amy Goodman’s column about what the search for natural gas and oil is doing to us. In fact, “natural gas could warm the planet as much as coal in the short term,” one major 24-author study from June concluded. Yet countless studies show that because the fracking process leaks so much methane - a highly potent greenhouse gas - fracked gas isn’t a climate solution. The study also points out that the world has seen “r apidly diminishing global water resources due to population growth and climate change.” Therefore, even though other forms of energy have a higher intensity of water use, “the permanent loss of water use for hydraulic fracturing from the hydrosphere” may still be higher. E ither the water doesn’t escape the shale formation or, when it does come back to the surface, it “is highly saline, is difficult to treat, and is often disposed through deep injection wells.” One key point the study makes is that, unlike other energy sources, much of the water fracking uses is essentially lost to humanity. Some of the biggest fracking sites - like the Permian and Eagle Ford Basins - are in highly water stressed areas. ![]()
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