Fracking being a real danger to water table safety and purity is becoming well known, in part due to Josh Fox's movie Gasland. But, if that isn't threat enough, the process causing earthquakes sounds extremely dangerous to this non-scientist.
Via Salon
The Federal Government auctioned off 18,000 acres of leased land in Central California.
"Eight different groups — including oil companies — bid for the leases involving 15 parcels of land up for auction in rural stretches of Monterey, San Benito and Fresno counties, Bureau of Land Management spokesman David Christy said. The agency plans to announce the winners within 24 hours.Via Crooks & Liars
Numerous environmental groups who saw the auction as a sign that California is next in line for an oil and gas boom protested outside the auction in Sacramento, with some activists donning hazmat suits.
The auction attracted a normal turnout of bidders, and about half the parcels went for just $2.50 an acre, much less than the typical price in nearby Kern County, an oil-rich basin along a mountain range north of Los Angeles."
C&L's Karoli writes of the auction this week,
There were protests, of course, but that didn't really stop anything. Similarly, the regulations around fracking are so loose that having to get an additional permit is just part of the cost of getting richer to these oil barons. Worse, fracking regulations aren't even finalized yet, and were just pushed back yet again. Until demand lessens, they're going to be able to destroy the environment and hasten climate change. This needs to be as high of a priority as Medicare and union membership. The oligarchs will not be satisfied until they have exhausted or stolen every resource on the planet.Related Story in the Cultural Environment
Oil and Gas Industry Prepare Smear Campaign Against Matt Damon Flick "Promised Land"
This is a worthy read, both for the orchestrated huge money tactics that are being rolled out by fossil fuel industry and for the story being told by this Hollywood film. (It is still difficult to believe that prisons are not filled with these fossil fuel industry decision makers, bribery agents and hucksters.)Next month Focus Features releases Matt Damon’s new movie and the oil and gas industry is worried sick about it. The movie, Promised Land , is about a Pennsylvania farm town deciding whether to go forward with shale gas drilling after a team of landmen arrives in the area.
But my primary reason for adding this story about a fictional place is what has the oil and gas industry giants so spooked and what our community is actively pursuing - citizen participation in decision making. This film sounds like a source of inspiration even if there are no shale fields directly under our feet. Whatever the resource or threat to climate change we must be vigilant.
Despite the industry's faux-outrage and attempts to stir up hype, the Damon movie is not anti-fracking or a propaganda piece. The film offers up a clear-eyed look at economic hardships faced in many rural communities. It also makes a simple point: with so much at stake, shouldn't communities have a candid, informed discussion about the risks and benefits of oil and gas drilling?
