From earthjustice.org:
The Marcellus Shale that runs beneath most of Pennsylvania has been a key target for the oil and gas industry; it currently accounts for nearly 40 percent of U.S. shale gas production.
Between 2011 and 2015, the state approved more than 12,000 permits and almost 6,000 fracking wells, forever altering the landscape of northeastern and southwestern Pennsylvania.
In Pennsylvania, the gas industry has deep ties with the state’s legislators. Between 2007 and 2014, the industry reportedly gave $8 million to elected officials and spent $41 million lobbying the state legislature. A report by the Public Accountability Initiative in 2013 revealed that 45 current or former Pennsylvania state officials have ties to energy industry and fracking regulation, including 28 who ultimately traded their government positions for industry jobs.
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That page also has a well-done Interactive map that shows where and what ‘Fraccidents’ happened, across the once pristine Pennsylvania, when all Fracking-caution was summarily thrown into the wind.
Here’s are few local PA tales, that demonstrate what happens when Special Interest “Accidents” are allowed to happen to good people. I encourage you click this link, to read about more of them:
Centre County, PA
Donal Ludwig, who lives near an NCL gas well, found that his water had been contaminated with high levels of barium, manganese, iron, arsenic and lead. He showers at a nearby campground and hauls his own clean drinking water. When Ludwig tried to shower at his home, he experience headaches and extreme ringing in his ears. When he used the dishwasher, his eyes watered uncontrollably and swelled shut.
Muncy, PA
The subsidiary of energy giant ExxonMobil Corp. halted operations in the county and provide the water well owners with potable water when flammable gas was found in five water wells in Lycoming County and in the nearby Little Muncy Creek.
Although multiple past incidents have prompted the DEP to fine Chesapeake Energy and Cabot Oil & Gas, companies drilling in Pennsylvania counties, they have not assumed responsibility for the pollution. XTO may be another corporation to add to the list.
Branchburg, NJ
In May 2013, a flash fire at a natural gas pipeline compression facility, Transco Pipeline, sent two construction workers to local hospitals and caused minor injuries to 13 other workers. Three emergency fire crews were needed to extinguish the fire.
Susquehanna County, PA
In March 2012, an explosion at a natural gas compressor station in Susquehanna County blew a hole in the roof of the complex holding the engines, shaking homes as far as a half-mile away and drawing emergency responders from nearby counties. The Lathrop station pressurizes and dehydrates natural gas from Marcellus Shale; gas was leaked after the explosion before the valve was shut off.
Wyoming County, PA
In April 2013, 9,000 gallons of fracking fluid spilled from a well site owned by Carrizzo Oil and Gas. According to the Department of Environmental Protection, a faulty hose came loose at the site.
A Wyoming County oil well, operated by the Texas-based Carrizo Oil and Gas, spewed more than a quarter million gallons of highly pressurized fracking wastewater, causing evacuations of nearby homes and buildings in March 2013. Methane gas leaked out of the well, prompting EPA to test the water and air quality in the area.
What — Could possibly go Wrong? Now you know. And that’s not the half of it.
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And that wind-socking, caution-shedding did have its rather serious “political price tags” attached, unfortunately for PA residents. From wikipedia:
Lobbying and donations
A 2012 press release by MarcellusMoney.org stated that the "natural gas industry and related trade groups have now given nearly $8 million to Pennsylvania state candidates and political committees since 2000.... Top recipients of industry money given between 2000 and April 2012 were Governor Tom Corbett (R) with $1,813,205.59, Senate President Joseph Scarnati (R-25) with $359,145.72, Rep. Dave Reed (R-62) with $137,532.33, House Majority Leader Rep. Mike Turzai (R-28) with $98,600, and Sen. Don White (R-41) with $94,150.[19]
The 2011 Common Cause report, "Deep drilling, deep pockets, in Washington and Pennsylvania," found that "from 2001 through June 2011, the fracking industry gave $20.5 million to current members of Congress and spent $726 million on lobbying."
Two Pennsylvanians, Rep. Tim Murphy, and Sen. Pat Toomey, ranked among the leading recipients in Congress in gas industry donations (10th and 28th respectively). Murphy has received $275,499 and Toomey $160,750. Other PA recipients included Rep. Jason Altmire (D) with $65,365; Rep. Jim Gerlach (R) with $60,800; Rep. Bill Shuster (R) with $59,000; Rep. Charles Dent (R) with $56,500; and Rep. Glenn Thompson (R) with $52,000.
The natural gas industry contributed about $1.6 million to Gov. Corbett’s political campaigns from 2001 to 2011, about $1.1 million of that for his campaign for governor.[20]
Revolving door
The 2013 Public Accountability Initiative report "Fracking and the Revolving Door in Pennsylvania" identified 45 current or former Pennsylvania state officials who have links to the energy industry and gas drilling and fracking regulation, including 28 who have left to take industry jobs. [...]
MARC 1
In January 2012, Central New York Oil & Gas Co., LLC went to court to condemn nearly half the properties along its FERC approved 39-mile natural gas pipeline through northern Pennsylvania, despite the company's assurance to federal regulators that it would minimize using eminent domain. Eminent domain would give the company the right to excavate and lay the 30-inch diameter pipeline on private property. Landowners would not lose their properties and would be compensated. Landowners say the company steamrolled them by refusing to negotiate in good faith on either monetary compensation or the pipeline's route, which cuts through the state's pristine Endless Mountains.
The MARC 1 pipeline is seen as key infrastructure for tapping into the Marcellus Shale, as the high-pressure steel pipeline will connect to major interstate pipelines and the company's own natural gas storage facility in southern New York state. Central New York Oil & Gas hopes to start construction soon and finish by July 2012, but awaits permits from Pennsylvania environmental regulators and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The EPA has expressed concern that the pipeline will cross dozens of pristine waterways.[29]
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What do the Democratic Candidates say about Fracking? From motherjones:
Hillary Clinton, though, needed more time to outline three conditions in a more nuanced answer on fracking. She's against it "when any locality or any state is against it," "when the release of methane or contamination of water is present," and "unless we can require that anybody who fracks has to tell us exactly what chemicals they are using."
Until those conditions are met, "we've got to regulate everything that is currently underway, and we have to have a system in place that prevents further fracking."
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Bernie Sanders had a simple answer: "No, I do not support fracking."
Fracking is not only a concern to the residents of PA, other states’ citizens do not appreciate the Fracking Industry’s “steam-rolling” ways, either.
I encourage you click this link, to learn more about them — your fellow-residents who are in search of a seriously Greener America. Maybe one day the EPA will actually start protecting us, and not just the Toxics that Be.