Louisiana // Current TV

USA must halt life without parole sentences for children

In 1994, at the age of 16, Christi Cheramie was sentenced to life imprisonment without... more

AmnestyInternational
added this
2 months ago
|
0 comments

BP Wins Approval for New Deep-Water Oil Drilling in Gulf of Mexico

Los Angeles Times... . BP wins approval for new deep-water drilling in Gulf of... more

EthicalVegan
added this
4 months ago
|
27 comments

OccupyNOLA: New Orleans Joins in Solidarity with Anti-Wall Street Movement (You Should Too)

When you finally, truly internalize the injustice of your country, you can’t go... more

StewSteve
added this
4 months ago
|
0 comments

http://newstalgia.crooksandliars.com/gordonskene/newstalgia-reference-room-inimitable-h

Where would we be without the haywire among us?

Gordonskene
added this
5 months ago
|
1 comment

Louisiana's Birds Need Rescue and Rehab | Wildlife Care & Rescue Center Helping

WLOX... . Injured pelicans, other birds, rescued in Waveland Posted: Sep... more

EthicalVegan
added this
5 months ago
|
0 comments

Marsh wildfire prompts State of Emergency for New Orleans

Thick smoke spreading from a marsh wildfire across the city of New Orleans has... more

stormchaser4850
added this
5 months ago
|
0 comments

The Sad Ghost of an Abandoned New Orleans Amusement Park

This is the Fourth of July Weekend, and while many people might be taking advantage of... more

disembedded
added this
7 months ago
|
0 comments

Nat'l Wildlife Federation - New Oil Slick Off Louisiana Points to Fresh Spill

The National Wildlife Federation has just received the results of tests on the... more

eternal_springs
added this
8 months ago
|
17 comments

Gulf Coast Lacks Physicians to Avert Looming Health Crisis

Gulf Coast Lacks Physicians to Avert Looming Health Crisis There are two distinct... more

EthicalVegan
added this
9 months ago
|
0 comments

Bayous Flood

Whitewater cascaded through the gate of the Morganza Floodway in Louisiana Sunday,... more

joeeddy
added this
9 months ago
|
0 comments

Floods like we have not seen in decades!!!!!!!!!

Why isn't Americans more concerned about what is going on here???? Tornados and... more

harleyblueswoman
added this
9 months ago
|
3 comments

Mississippi River spills into several Warren and Claiborne County neighborhoods

As the Mississippi River continues its historic rise, neighborhoods and roads in the... more

stormchaser4850
added this
9 months ago
|
0 comments

Mississippi River cresting; Louisiana prepares for rising waters

The Mississippi River crested this morning as authorities turn their attention... more

JanforGore
added this
9 months ago
|
23 comments

One Year Anniversary of The Gulf Oilspill . I will be posting regularly again.

We now approach the 1 year anniversary of death and misery for the entire Gulf Coast... more

viequesbound
added this
10 months ago
|
0 comments

Dustin Zito’s Past Revealed

The new styles of Dustin Zito for Real World Las Vegas may be looking like the dresses... more

shaadimeo
added this
11 months ago
|
0 comments

Fracking: The Great Shale Gas Rush

The Pennsylvania homes of Karl Wasner and Arline LaTourette both sit atop the Marcellus Shale, a geologic formation that stretches from Tennessee to New York and holds vast deposits of natural gas. They also sit on opposite sides of a national debate over hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. That's the process that makes it economical for energy companies to tunnel 5,000 feet below ground and remove the gas—but also poses environmental risks.

Wasner settled 14 years ago in Milanville, in the state's northeast corner, and will leave if drilling companies set up derricks nearby. He already moved away for six weeks last year while an exploratory well was drilled nearby. The noise, muddy water pouring from his taps, and chemicals that turned up in a neighbor's well drove him off, he says. "I moved to a beautiful rural residential area," says Wasner, "not an industrial park."

LaTourette, whose roots in the area go back five generations, is banking on the drilling. Her family has leased almost 700 acres of farmland to Hess (HES) and other companies to tap into the Marcellus Shale. She won't say what she's getting, but signing bonuses can range from $2,000 to $5,000 an acre, and royalty payments are about 20 percent of the value of the gas produced.

President Barack Obama enthusiastically backs gas drilling, and these days 90 percent of it is done by fracking, which involves forcing below ground chemically treated water under high pressure to smash through layers of rock, thus freeing the gas to flow upward. Along with wind, solar, and nuclear power, natural gas is crucial to Obama's goal of producing 80 percent of electricity from clean energy sources by 2035. But the drilling is taking place with minimal oversight from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. State and regional authorities are trying to write their own rules—and having trouble keeping up.

Now, reports of contaminated water and alleged disposal of carcinogens in rivers have caught state and federal regulators, and even environmental watchdogs, off guard. Sometimes the fracking mix includes diesel fuel. Between 2005 and 2009, drillers injected 32 million gallons of fluids containing diesel into wells in 19 states, an investigation by Representative Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) concludes. Just as it recovers its footing from the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill, the Administration faces a new threat, again involving a risky drilling technology and charges of lax regulation. Obama is "evaluating the need for new safeguards for drilling," says White House spokesman Clark W. Stevens. "It's likely that the science is going to say we need to regulate fracking," says Tyson Slocum, director of the energy program for Public Citizen, a liberal advocacy group. "But Obama's political team is going to say don't regulate, and I think the political team will win."

The Marcellus Shale may contain 490 trillion cubic feet of gas—enough to heat U.S. homes and power electric plants for two decades, says Terry Engelder, professor of geosciences at Pennsylvania State University. That makes it the world's second-largest gas field behind South Pars, shared by Iran and Qatar. The shale gas rush is creating thousands of jobs and reviving the economy in states such as Wyoming, Texas, and Louisiana. In Pennsylvania, where 2,516 wells have been drilled in the last three years, $389 million in tax revenue and 44,000 jobs came from gas drilling in 2009, according to a Penn State report. Perhaps best of all, natural gas emits half the carbon emissions of oil.

While there have been no documented cases of fracking fluids flowing underground into drinking water, there have been spills above ground. Fracking produces millions of gallons of wastewater; some of it containing benzene has spilled from holding tanks. The wastewater can overwhelm treatment plants not equipped to handle high levels of contaminants. A Feb. 26 New York Times article, using documents from the EPA and state regulators, described how radioactive wastewater is being discharged into river basins. Sierra Club Deputy Executive Director Bruce Hamilton says Obama "has been sold a bill of goods." But even the Sierra Club has struggled with fracking. Last year it overruled New York and Pennsylvania chapters calling for a national fracking ban; now it's reconsidering that decision, Hamilton says.

The Delaware River Basin Commission, which manages the watershed that supplies drinking water to 15 million people in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware, has put gas development on hold while it drafts rules. Wasner and LaTourette were among scores of people to comment at a Feb. 22 hearing in Honesdale, Pa., on a commission proposal to regulate the drilling. New York also has fracking on hold while it develops a drilling playbook. The Marcellus Shale runs beneath the watershed that supplies just over 1 billion gallons of water a day to New York City, the U.S.'s largest unfiltered water system.

The White House has sent mixed signals. "It's not necessarily federal regulation that will be needed," EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson told a Feb. 3 Senate hearing, noting that many communities and states already monitor parts of the process. Energy Secretary Steven Chu seems to differ. In a 2010 speech, he said fracking can be "polluting" and that rules were inevitable. "We continue to believe that state regulatory agencies have the appropriate expertise" to oversee gas production, says Dan Whitten, a spokesman for America's Natural Gas Alliance.

Even if the EPA stepped in, its authority would be limited. A clause in a 2005 energy law—dubbed the "Halliburton (HAL) loophole" for the company that helped pioneer fracking and is a supplier of fracking fluids—exempts fracking from parts of the Safe Drinking Water Act. Representative Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) says Dick Cheney, once head of Halliburton, pushed for the exemption when he was Vice-President. Hinchey's evidence is circumstantial: Fracking was endorsed in Cheney's 2001 energy task force report, which led to the 2005 law and, according to Waxman, did not reflect the EPA's initial concerns about water pollution. Cheney declined to comment. Halliburton referred a request for comment to its website, which doesn't discuss fracking's risks.

So far, the EPA has begun a study of fracking's effect on drinking water. In February the agency said final results will come in 2014, two years after its initial target—and the 2012 elections. Its emphasis is "politics first and regulation second," says Kevin Book, managing director at ClearView Energy Partners, a Washington policy group. "It's impossible to miss the jobs power of fracking in the Marcellus."

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_11/b4219025777026.htmThe Pennsylvania homes of Karl Wasner and Arline LaTourette both sit atop the... more

jasonshurb
added this
11 months ago
|
13 comments

March Schedule of Mardi Gras Parade 2011

The MARDI GRAS Parade Schedule 2011 of the month Mach is as following. The routes and... more

shaadimeo
added this
11 months ago
|
0 comments

Anti-gay Christian pastor arrested for ‘masturbating in park’

Christian fundamentalist Rev. Grant Storms, 53, protester of the largest gay event in... more

bundlebear
added this
12 months ago
|
1 comment

Over a dozen tornadoes confirmed from Thursday's severe weather across 6 states

The significant severe weather outbreak that hit parts of the South Thursday and... more

stormchaser4850
added this
12 months ago
|
0 comments

select your country

Community Spotlight

TAGS

tagged w/ Louisiana

top videos

find current on tv

find current online

recent comments

© 2012 Current TV, LLC All Rights Reserved

the basics

follow us online

tools

stay in touch

© 2012 Current TV, LLC
All Rights Reserved