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1. Global warming claims all hot air, says speaker at OU2. Police chief: City can’t stop parties before they start3. Parties spun by OU alums have bootie-shakers raving4. High St. student renters take on big local landlord5. Is another oil and gas land-rush starting in Athens?6. OU student charged with raping 17-year-old7. For most, the journey to Nine Fest seemed worth it8. Tanning parlor fights to get back into uptown Athens storefront9. Oak and Mill fests mellow down easy10. Landowners’ group renews leasing pitch11. City Council acts to ban ‘fracking’ in water supply area12. Wal-Mart asks judge to grant store win in shoplifter’s lawsuit13. OU and city officials urge better fest behavior14. Pills defeated relative when no other drugs could do it15. Electric blue skies, May warmth frame music fest16. David Alan Jones17. Local developers hoping to revive struggling hotel18. Festering fests; down, down deep; and the Golden Rule19. Hall of Fame baseball coach calls it a day at OU20. Graphic design students show off their chops
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Monday, July 4,2011
What a lot of citizens have not heard is that due to legislation passed in 2005, fracking is exempt from federal environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. All citizens should be concerned about this because there is the potential for devastating environmental damage to result from the fracking process.
Fracking has no legal barriers
To the Editor:
A lot of southeast Ohio citizens have heard that hydraulic fracturing (fracking) is coming to Ohio. Fracking involves injecting huge volumes of chemical-laden water into very deep wells, some of them horizontal, in order to extract natural gas from shale beds.
What a lot of citizens have not heard is that due to legislation passed in 2005, fracking is exempt from federal environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. All citizens should be concerned about this because there is the potential for devastating environmental damage to result from the fracking process.
For instance, in Wyoming where fracking has occurred, there is a new hole in the ozone. The dangers of loss of ozone are well known. In many places where fracking has taken place, the water supply has been rendered unusable. This is a very basic concern for everyone. If water in the area where you live becomes contaminated and toxic, what will you do? To find out more about the dangers of fracking and how to protect yourself, contact seoregionalstrategymeeting@gmail.com or Rachel Hyden, Clean Water Fellow, Ohio Sierra Club. rh148407@ohio.edu.
Elise McMath
New England Road
Amesville
Also in Letters:
Forest Service apparently on verge of allowing oil-gas leasesWhat good does Ohio University provide to Athens community?City just encourages drunk-fests by closing traffic, recognizing eventsLet’s hope that climate change denial evaporates into stupidityFor decency’s sake, Time Warner, bring back Columbus CBS!Mitt Romney and Palmer Fest celebrants have much in commonWhy is city discriminating against people who want to rent out homes?Health commissioner is ignoring a lot of hard data that questions fluorideIf you’re disgusted by banking folly, you can express yourself locallyCity Council right to challenge state law on fracking regulation
It never ceases to amaze me how many people write letters about fracking when they are entirely clueless. As I have written to other uneducated individuals writing on this subject, watchingt "Gasland" gives you no knowledge since almost all information they used is false. The 2005 bill, which Obama himself voted for does not exempt oil and gas companies from any laws or acts of congress. That was an entirely false statement from a movie chock full of false statements.
Misstating the Law
(6:05) “What I didn’t know was that the 2005 energy bill pushed through Congress by Dick Cheney exempts the oil and natural gas industries from Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Superfund law, and about a dozen other environmental and Democratic regulations.”
You also assert (from the movie again) that water has become unusable. Well, fracking was first done in 1949 and in the years since there has not been one case of fracking affecting water supplies. Super environmentalist and administrator of Obama's EPA testified before congress that their 2 studies at a cost of 34 million did not find one single instance where fracking polluted any water source. The DEP in Pa did a similar study and was disappointed when they too did not find such evidence.
So in summary, your letter is a bunch of garbage rolled into a movie. You also revealed your lack of knowledge when you claimed that drilling is sometimes diagonal. In fracking it's always diagonal. Josh Fox who produced the movie made the same mistake by mixing up oil drilling and fracking. It's easy to be a liberal because you don't have to think for yourself. You can just watch a distorted movie and declare yourself an expert.
It never ceases to amaze me how ridiculously hard-headed your comments regarding this issue are. YOU reveal your lack of knowledge on this subject when your "facts" are simply propaganda put out by the oil and gas industry. Energy in Depth is a campaign put out by America's oil and gas producers in an attempt to hide the truth about hydraulic fracturing. I shutter at the thought of how much money the industry has wasted telling people how clean natural gas is and how safe horizontal drilling is. It's shameful, really, how effortlessly you can lie through your teeth.
The truth is this method of drilling does have an effect on our clean water supply- these companies will tell you there hasn't been one documented case of contamination, but that doesn't mean that it isn't happening. A study done by Duke University documents methane contamination of drinking water associated with shale-gas extraction. Of course I'm sure you'll write this off as a study not worthy of your time. But folks, it is. http://bit.ly/lpv4Ml
Please don't be fooled by the gas industries propaganda. Educate yourself on this issue, because at the end of the day this is your water, your air, your land and your life. Don't let them take that away from you.