College students are so idealistic…
Ahh, you know, the carefree days of college. When you can come out in favor of important social causes like gender equality, stopping The War, Saving Souls (or not saving them) and… NATURAL GAS?
"Natural Gas: smarter power in our hands"
I wondered if the heart of youth was merely moved by methane, but it turns out that ANGA (America’s Natural Gas Alliance) has created a contest for college campuses to promote Natural Gas. Conspicuously absent is any mention of hydrofracking, or why the practice is specifically exempt from provisions of the Clean Water Act, or the fantastic amount of water needed for each fractured gas well, or why they won’t say what’s in the chemicals they’re pumping into the ground. If the practice of breaking up rocks underground and pumping in chemicals under extreme pressure is safe, why all the lobbying to shelter it from liability, control and transparency?
- Class creates campaign for America’s Natural Gas Alliance (h/t @rdpetti for the links).
- Our town gets its water from deep wells; ground water quality matters a lot to us. If it gets contaminated, it isn’t like we can send a gas company executive down there with a mop to clean it up. As entertaining as it might be to see them try.
- New York Times: Lax rules for the natural gas industry
- EarthWorksAction.org: Hydraulic Fracturing 101
- Natural Resources Defense Council: Risky gas drilling threatens health, water supplies
- Truth-out.org: Fracking’s health and environmental impacts greater than claimed
- It is no doubt true that the natural gas industry creates jobs; that’s why they call it “industry”. The question is, what externalities surround those jobs?
- Doctors in Pennsylvania can, under a new law, find out what’s in the hydrofracking chemicals… but they can’t tell their patients.
- DeSmogBlog.com: Exposing the gas industry’s myth of recycled water.