.. But, but I thought that it was clean and efficient and that, according to the industry, shale fracturing/horizontal drilling is a safe and non-polluting energy source, and it's only the environutzis who make a song and dance about nothing!
Well, I say let the gas companies, and NOT the taxpayer, fund research into "pollution solutions" for the gas drillers and, until those solutions are found, HALT the permitting process in every state.. after all, we already have a massive glut of natural gas through over-production.. but hydro-fracking and horizontal drilling is a Ponzi scheme, as I have pointed out to you before. If new well drilling stops, then the whole house of cards comes tumbling down and the banksters, the bond and stock holders will lose their investments BIG time!
"Fracking fluids are believed to contain benzene, ethylbenzene, formaldehyde, methanol, naphthalene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, toluene, xylene, boric acid, hydrochloric acid, isopropanol, and diesel fuel. Drillers are usually not required to disclose the chemicals they use.
The brine that returns to the surface has been found to contain these chemicals and others, including up to 16,000 picoCuries per liter of radium-226 (pdf). The discharge limit in effluent for Radium 226 is 60 pCi/L, and the EPA’s drinking water standard is 5 pCi/L."
The Department of Energy issued a request for proposals this week offering $35 million for projects that will address environmental impacts of shale-gas development, including contamination of drinking water with fracking chemicals, development of more benign chemicals, and disposal of contaminated wastewater.
DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory also issued a second RFP offering $10 million to projects that will help small oil and gas producers extend the lifetime of existing fields—”a resource of relatively well-known quantity in a known location.”
The U.S. could transform itself from a fossil-fuel importer to a fossil-fuel exporter through the hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, of deep shale formations to release trapped natural gas, but these rapidly expanding operations have encountered swift opposition from neighbors and environmental groups concerned about the toxins released by such operations.
In hydraulic fracturing operations, drillers force water and a mixture of chemicals into wells to shatter the shale and free natural gas.
Fracking fluids are believed to contain benzene, ethylbenzene, formaldehyde, methanol, naphthalene, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, toluene, xylene, boric acid, hydrochloric acid, isopropanol, and diesel fuel. Drillers are usually not required to disclose the chemicals they use.
The brine that returns to the surface has been found to contain these chemicals and others, including up to 16,000 picoCuries per liter of radium-226 (pdf). The discharge limit in effluent for Radium 226 is 60 pCi/L, and the EPA’s drinking water standard is 5 pCi/L.
The RFPs are available through the Research Partnership to Secure Energy for America. The fracking proposals are due March 6 for implementation in October. The small producer proposals are due Feb. 17 for implementation in September.
LINK TO ARTICLE
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