In a hearing on Capitol Hill today, Republican members of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee struggled to make the case against an investigation by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency into the controversial gas drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) - a process in which oil and gas companies blast millions of gallons of chemically treated water into the earth to extract the gas from underground deposits.

Considering the agency is already midway into its multi-year study, the move comes across as more than a little desperate. What is industry so scared of the American public finding out? If fracking isn’t dangerous, what does industry have to hide? And if fracking poses no threat to drinking water, why does industry need an exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act?

All good questions. But those weren’t the questions committee Republicans were asking.

The symmetry is just eerie.

Exactly one year after the BP disaster in the Gulf, natural gas drilling company Chesapeake admitted that a well it was hydraulically fracturing (or “fracking”) for natural gas went out of control in LeRoy, Pennsylvania late Tuesday, spilling thousands and thousands of gallons of frack fluid over containment walls, through fields, farms – even where cattle continue to graze – and into a stream.

(For those new to the issue, hydraulic fracturing is a controversial gas extraction technique in which companies blast millions of gallons of chemically treated water into the earth to break up the rock and force out the gas. Lots more info on fracking is here.)

As of publication time, the well was still leaking.

Ready? Set? Drill! Photo from Flickr user purplemattfish

The Associated Press had a story today detailing how regulators in Pennsylvania spend as little as 35 minutes reviewing gas drilling permits, before giving companies approval to blast millions of gallons of chemically treated water into the earth to extract the gas – a controversial practice known as fracking.

Across the country, gas production using fracking has been linked to contaminated drinking water, exploding wells, mysterious animal deaths and other unsettling incidents.

The information came to light because of a lawsuit challenging a permit issued to drill in the Delaware River Basin – an area that supplies drinking water to more than 15 million people in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware.

Waste pond at fracking site. Photo courtesy citizenscampaign.org

In a hearing, today, lawmakers on Capitol Hill probed the health and environmental impacts of a gas drilling boom fueled by the controversial gas extraction technique known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Using this technique, companies blast millions of gallons of chemically treated water into the earth to force natural gas from underground deposits.

In recent years, oil and gas companies have begun clamoring for access to regions of the country that are unprepared for this scale of industrial gas drilling. Along with this fracking-fueled gas rush have come troubling reports of poisoned drinking water, polluted air, mysterious animal deaths, industrial disasters and explosions.
 
Hydraulic fracturing is currently exempted from the Safe Drinking Water Act, so oil and gas companies are only required to comply with a patchwork of state regulations. And thanks to a loophole in the Clean Air Act for oil and gas companies, drilling areas in Wyoming now have worse air quality than Los Angeles.

Fracking drill operation. Photo courtesy of ens-Newswire

Natural gas has been touted as a more responsible energy source than coal in the face of climate change, but a new study conducted by researchers at Cornell University argues otherwise.

The study, which is scheduled to be published in the journal Climatic Change Letters, argues the advantages that gas produced from fracking has over coal are offset by the fugitive emissions of methane gas.

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas with a impact far greater than carbon dioxide, especially in the first few decades following emission. The study found that the extraction of shale gas—the deposit that energy companies are targeting with their controversial technique known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”—has climate impacts comparable to coal over 100 years and could be twice as severe over a 20-year horizon.

The key concern here is the increased amount of fugitive methane gas that goes into the atmosphere from fracking sites as compared to conventional gas drilling.

Forgive me for stating the obvious, but secret gas drilling chemicals don’t belong in drinking water.

That’s exactly the kind of sentiment that makes it very inconvenient for Dick Cheney’s buddies at Halliburton who want to use secret chemicals to extract gas from the earth – a controversial method known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.”

You see, the pesky Safe Drinking Water Act kept getting in the way. So they asked for special treatment from Congress. And in 2005 they got it.

But today, members of Congress said, “Enough is enough,” introducing bills in both chambers of Congress that would close the Halliburton loophole in the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Meet Bradford Energy CEO C. Alan Walker. He calls the shots.

Fresh off his state’s radioactive river scandal, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has once again landed in hot water (no pun intended) over a line in his proposed budget which hands the energy executive he appointed to head the state's economic development agency "supreme" decision-making power to fast-track gas drilling permits in the state.

The man who would be king is Bradford Energy CEO C. Alan Walker (no word on whether he's related to a certain Wisconsin governor). He’s given $184,000 in campaign contributions to Corbett (naturally). Also worth noting is that Corbett took more gas industry contributions than all his competitors combined during his recent election.

Pinedale Anticline Natural Gas Field, Upper Green River Valley, Wyoming. Photo Courtesy of SkyTruth.

Which has a worse smog problem ? The car-choked sprawling megalopolis of Los Angeles? Or the wide open plains of Wyoming?

If you guessed LA, you’d be wrong. It’s actually Wyoming.

This depressing tidbit comes courtesy of the oil and gas industry, which is in the midst of a drilling boom that has left the air in Wyoming and other areas cloaked in smog and hazardous air pollutants.

Mark Ruffalo, flanked by Gasland Director Josh Fox and Gasland Producer Trish Adlesic at the film's DVD release party in December

As Oscar season enters full swing, two nominees are taking a break from the action in Hollywood to visit Washington, D.C. tomorrow (Thursday) and educate the public and members of Congress about the dangers of gas drilling. Director Josh Fox is up for a Best Documentary award for GASLAND, a searing indictment of the hazards associated with the controversial gas extraction technique known as hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) – in which drillers blast millions of gallons of chemically treated water into the earth to force gas from underground deposits.

Fox is joining Best Supporting Actor nominee Mark Ruffalo, whose home in New York's Catskill Mountains is in the path of an gas drilling rush in the Northeast, to make the case on Capitol Hill that Congress needs to step in and protect public health and the environment from risks associated with gas development.

Josh Fox's critically acclaimed documentary GASLAND was nominated this week for an Academy Award for Best Documentary.

I don’t want to jinx anything, but we’re positively thrilled to see GASLAND—the truth-telling/irreverent film about toxic gas drilling—get an Oscar nod for best documentary. If you haven’t seen it yet, what are you waiting for? It’s readily available on DVD. And there are more and more community screenings being organized every week.

Apparently industry’s none too happy about the Academy Award nomination. And, as you can tell from this indulging piece in the New York Times, they’re pretty unembarrassed about coming across as total spoilsports.

Well, if I was an oil and gas executive, I’d be peeved too. The ugly truth about this controversial form of gas drilling—known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”—has been getting lots of screen time, from Josh Fox’s critically acclaimed documentary to an episode on the popular CBS crime show CSI.