Oil Exploration: Oil companies fracking into drinking water sources, new research shows - by Neela Banerjee

Energy companies are fracking for oil and gas at far shallower depths than widely believed, sometimes through underground sources of drinking water, according to research released Tuesday by Stanford University scientists.

Though researchers cautioned their study of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, employed at two Wyoming geological formations showed no direct evidence of water-supply contamination, their work is certain to roil the public health debate over the risks of the controversial oil and gas production process.

Fracking involves high-pressure injection of millions of gallons of water mixed with sand and chemicals to crack geological formations and tap previously unreachable oil and gas reserves. Fracking fluids contain a host of chemicals, including known carcinogens and neurotoxins.

Oil companies fracking into drinking water sources, new research shows - LA Times

Fracking: Why the U.S. plastics industry loves the fracking boom - by Susan Freinkal

Twenty years ago, US domestic producers of natural gas couldn’t find enough reserves to justify the expenses associated with drilling. Today, thanks in large part to fracking, we’re experiencing a natural-gas bonanza.

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, new developments in drilling and extraction technology have opened the door for the capture of more than 2,000 trillion cubic feet of recoverable gas—enough to take us, at current rates of consumption, into the 22nd century.

In addition to potential health concerns, most of the talk about the shale gas boom so far has focused on what it will or won’t do for America’s energy needs. But an important side conversation is now taking place among companies that rely on this fossil fuel for other purposes.

Natural gas contains many of the vital raw materials that are used to manufacture plastics and chemicals.

The new tide of cheap natural gas has launched the petrochemical industry on the biggest building spree it has seen in many years, with many experts predicting enormous increases in production of those plastics most often used in consumer packaging and single-use products.

Read more: Why the U.S. plastics industry loves the fracking boom - Salon.com

Energy-Fracking: British Poll finds: Wind farms more popular than fracking sites - Fracking dangerous to your health

Fracking good for the corporate world - but not for your health

More people would prefer a wind farm in their local council area than a fracking site, according to research published recently by YouGov for the renewables company, Ecotricity.

When asked “Which of the following energy projects or plans would you prefer to have operating in your council area”, 62% said a wind farm, 19% said a fracking site and 19% said they didn’t know.

The research found that a wind farm was more popular than a fracking site, regardless of political opinion.

The preference for wind farms was lowest UKIP and Conservative supporters and highest among Lib Dem and Labour supporters

Conservatives: 50% chose wind, 33% chose fracking, 17% did not know
Labour: 76% chose wind, 9% chosefracking, 14% did not know
Lib Dem: 78% chose wind,14% chosefracking, 8% did not know
UKIP (Eurosceptics): 41% chose wind, 36%chose fracking, 24% did not know

Interesting note about these figures is that the Conservatives and the right-wing UKIP Eurosceptics had the least understanding of what fracking is all about.

Women were more likely to support wind farms than men. The research found that among women, 68% of women would prefer a wind farm, compared with 9% who would prefer a fracking site. The figures for men were: 56% would prefer a wind farm, compared with 29% a fracking site.

Fracking was more popular in older people. According to the research, of those that preferred fracking over wind, 29% were over 60.

To watch a video on what Fracking does to the environment and your health click here.

EU-Digest

Energy - Fracking Destroys the Environment and Poisons the Air We Breathe - by by Dylan Murphy and Jo Murphy

In 2006 Pam Judy and her family had a new home built on their farm. For three years Pam and her family enjoyed the peace and tranquility of the countryside. However, in 2009 that all changed when a gas compressor station was built 780 feet from her home. Within a short space of time Pam and her family were unable to spend time outside any more as they came down with all sorts of mysterious health problems.

 In November 2010 Pam’s son went outside and came home with blisters in his mouth and had extreme difficulty swallowing which led to a visit to the nearby hospital.

This led Pam to conduct research into emissions from compressor stations. She then contacted Calvin Tillman Mayor of Dish in Texas where many people had experienced similar health problems. Mayor Tillman provided Pam with a list of blood and urine tests to determine levels of chemical exposure. The results of the tests revealed measurable levels of benzene and phenol in her blood.

Pam was determined to force the authorities to take action that would protect her family. In June 2010 she persuaded the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection to carry out air quality tests over four days on her land. The results revealed the presence of 16 chemicals, including benzene, which are all known carcinogens.

In November 2010 Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection released a final report into air pollution in the area where Pam Judy and her family live. The report stated that the Department ”could find no emission levels that would constitute a concern to the health of residents living near Marcellus operations …”
Sadly, the experience of Pam’s family is becoming all too familiar to ordinary people all over America who are being poisoned by the toxic chemicals being released by the fracking industry.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a damning report in February 2013 which admitted that there is no systematic air quality monitoring of the emissions from the fracking industry which emits,”large amounts of harmful pollutants that impact air quality on local, regional, and global levels.”
The report further noted how the EPA underestimates chemical pollution from oil and gas wells and did not have a, ”comprehensive strategy for improving air emissions data for the oil and gas production sector …”

For more: Fracking Destroys the Environment and Poisons the Air We Breathe | Global Research

Britain - Energy: Fracking: landowners form legal block against drilling in South Downs National Park - by Emily Gosden

Fracking opponents have claimed an early victory in the battle over British shale gas exploration, forming a “legal blockade” to thwart the controversial process at a site in the South Downs National Park.

Five landowners including Viscount Cowdray have written to Ed Davey, the energy secretary, to say that they do not give permission for any drilling beneath their land, which surrounds a proposed exploration site near Fernhurst, West Sussex.

The opposition would effectively block company Celtique Energie from drilling a horizontal well of sufficient length to ‘frack’ it to extract any shale oil or gas it discovers.

Read more: Fracking: landowners form legal block against drilling in South Downs National Park - Telegraph

Netherlands: Fracking - Dutch Town Gives Up on Fossil Fuels

A town in the Netherlands is making history by becoming the first to in Europe to definitively cut ties with fossil fuels companies in a move the industry hopes isn’t going to turn into a Europe-wide trend.

A local court in the Dutch town of Boxtel has raised the stakes for fossil fuels in Europe, ruling against an earlier decision to allow test-drilling for shale, while officials say the town will divest shares in some 200 fossil fuels companies.

Boxtel is a small town in the south of the country and only one of three others where shale exploration was being considered. In August, local authorities asked the court to withdraw the shale gas exploration license of UK-based Cuadrilla, saying too little was known about the potential environmental and health effects of fracking.

The Dutch government was hoping to begin test-drilling in Boxtel and two other locations in the second half of 2014, and had issued a report in August suggesting that risks associated with fracking could be managed under existing laws.

But the local court agrees with the municipal authorities.

In September, Boxtel became one of the first of 100 municipalities to temporarily ban fracking pending further research into the potential impacts. The temporary ban—a minimum of 18 months--came after Dutch bank Rabobank announced it would not lend money to businesses involved in shale gas extraction due to the environmental risks involved. 

Read more: Dutch Town Gives Up on Fossil Fuels

Energy -Texas: Fracking-led energy boom is turning U.S. into ‘Saudi America’ - by Sean Cockerham McClatchy

All along the highway that leads into this city in West Texas, the rows of black pump jacks seem endless, bobbing up and down as they pull crude oil from beneath the parched scrub desert.

The pump jacks have long been here, in good times and bad, a symbol of this city’s long status as the heart of America’s petroleum industry. Even when U.S. oil production was dropping and many feared the Permian Basin, which feeds Midland’s oil economy, was all but exhausted, the pump jacks continued their work – even when the result seemed hardly worth the effort.

Now, their up and down motion seems all but unstoppable, a symbol of an energy revolution that seems likely to transform the globe.

“Everything has changed,” said Jim Henry, 78, who’s worked in Texas’ oilfields most of his life .

A surge in U.S. oil production has in just a few short years propelled the United States from a country largely dependent on oil imports to one that soon could become the world’s top oil producer. The goal of North American energy self-sufficiency, the holy grail of American politics since the Arab oil boycott of 1973, seems to be within grasp.

The revolution has taken place almost unnoticed – and in a way that few foresaw less than a decade ago, when the emphasis on breaking America’s foreign oil dependence was almost entirely on persuading Americans to drive less, turn the thermostat up in the summer and down in the winter, and open protected areas to oil exploration.

No one, it seemed, foresaw what actually happened – a production revolution that in the past five years has seen the amount of crude oil produced in the United States shoot up 40 percent, after declining every year for the previous 20. The International Energy Agency predicts the United States will overtake Saudi Arabia as the world’s top oil producer by the year 2015. America already has become the largest producer of natural gas.

In October the United States started producing more oil than it imports for the first time since 1995.

Read more: MIDLAND, Texas: Fracking-led energy boom is turning U.S. into ‘Saudi America’ - Nation - MiamiHerald.com

EU Votes to Tighten Rules on Drilling (fracking) Method - by James Kantner

European Union lawmakers voted narrowly on Wednesday to force energy companies to carry out in-depth environmental audits before they deploy a technique known as fracking to recover natural gas from shale rock.

The technique involves shooting a cocktail of water, sand and chemicals under pressure into shale to break it up and release the gas. France has already banned the technique, also known as hydraulic fracturing. And it has produced protests in Britain. 

The rules were narrowly approved by the European Parliament, which is meeting this week in Strasbourg, France, and still must undergo another round of voting in the Parliament once an agreement on final language is reached with European Union governments. Shale gas projects that do not use fracking would not be covered by the rules, which update environmental legislation in Europe. 

Even so, the result is a setback for the shale-gas industry in Europe, where it is far less developed than in the United States and where many citizens are more concerned about the environmental impact of recovering the gas than about finding new sources of hydrocarbons as a way of combating stubbornly high energy prices.

Note EU-Digest: Recently the Dutch Government postponed their plans to explore Gas reserves in the Province of Flevoland by means of fracking in order to carry out more in depth studies as to the safety of such exploration.

Read more: Europe Votes to Tighten Rules on Drilling Method - NYTimes.com

Netherlands - Flevoland Province: decision to delay shale drilling brings mixed reactions

UPI reported that a Dutch government move to delay a decision on allowing shale gas drilling was hailed by local communities but "regretted" by energy boosters.

Netherlands Economic Affairs Minister Henk Kamp announced last week the Cabinet would take 1 1/2 more years to study the potential effects of hydraulic fracturing on the environment before allowing Britain's Cuadrilla Resources to drill test wells in the province of Flevoland.

In a Wednesday letter to the House of Representatives in The Hague, Kamp said more time is needed to study the entire range of possible shale gas sites in the country before approving the licenses, the Dutch daily Volksrant reported.

"I have listened carefully to the reactions in both the country and in The Hague," he wrote. "Some possible locations for test drilling for shale gas have been identified by companies applying for a license. But I want to be able to evaluate all sites in the Netherlands where drilling is possible.

"Then attention can be focused on those locations known to be promising, and how their environmental risks can best be overcome."

Kamp indicated he wants to be able to include more input from local governments, such as those in Flevoland -- including the cities of Noordoostpolder, Boxtel and Luttelgeest, which have vociferously opposed "fracking" after being identified as promising shale gas areas.

Almere-Digest

Poland first to get gas from 'fracking' in Europe

Poland has begun a test extraction of shale gas in amounts not seen in Europe before. Eager to reduce energy dependency on Russia, Poland has succeeded after three international firms quit drilling in the country.

Lane Energy Poland, controlled by ConocoPhillips, is now extracting some 8,000 cubic metres of shale gas per day at a test well in the northern city of Lebork in Poland, Reuters quotes a polish newspaper. Although the productivity of the site is lower than at gas fields in the US or Canada, it is still a breakthrough and marks the first positive result for shale gas extraction in Europe, according to the Poland's Chief Geologist Piotr Wozniak.

Another Polish refiner PKN Orlen is also expected to announce the production results of tests at its well in Syczyn in eastern Poland, one of the most promising in the country.

Three international majors, Exxon Mobil, Marathon Oil, and Talisman Energy, dropped out of the programme after they failed to hit their targets. According to a June report by US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the estimates  for Poland's shale gas resources have fallen from 187 trillion to 148 trillion cubic metres.

Read more: Poland first to get gas from 'fracking' in Europe — RT Business