What is Fracking?
High-pressure horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” involves flushing natural gas out of the ground with millions of gallons of water and a toxic mix of chemicals, many of them known carcinogens. Pollution may occur underground, with fracking fluid chemicals or methane natural gas directly contaminating aquifers and drinking wells, or above ground, as streams or tributaries are polluted by spills or improper wastewater disposal.
Fracking was pioneered by Halliburton and championed by its former CEO Dick Cheney, who promoted it as a safe, cheap way to meet America’s energy needs. Due largely to the influence of Cheney and Halliburton, the process was exempted from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) review in 2005 and exempted from regulation by the Safe Drinking Water Act.
Fracking in the News
James Browning on WHYY:Deep Drilling, Deep Pockets
Alex Kaplan and I have co-written several reports about the political expenditures of the fracking industry for Common Cause, including “Deep Drilling, Deep Pockets In Congress,” which tracked $747 million in political spending by the industry as part of its campaign to persuade federal authorities to ignore the potential for fracking to damage the environment and human health. The study found that members of Congress who voted to create the “Halliburton loophole” exempting fracking from the Safe Drinking Water Act had received an average of $73,000 in campaign contributions from the industry, while members who voted against the loophole had received an average of $11,000.
The full library of Common Cause reports on the fracking industry’s expenditures in Congress and in Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, and Michigan can be found here. To track industry spending in other states, check out the National Institute on Money In State Politics.
FracTracker
A good resource for understanding the extent of fracking where you live is FracTracker, a site that shares maps, data, and analyses of fracking’s impact in North America.
Groundswell Rising
Groundswell Rising, a new film by Renard Cohen, tells the story of people who are living with fracking in their communities, and how they are fighting back against a fracking industry whose promises about the benefits and safety of fracking are backed by hundreds of millions in campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures. The film is dedicated to my former boss Bob Edgar, who passed away in 2013.