What the Frack?

Another bout of insomnia has me watching the documentary film Gasland.  The first time that I heard about fracking, I’m sad to say, was only a few months ago when I was listening to a news podcast. It was specifically about the desire by energy companies tap into the large natural gas pocket under the Marcellus Shale deposit in Pennsylvania.  As I listened to what goes into hydraulic fracking and I got a sick feeling in my stomach. In order to get the natural gas out of shale deposits they drill and inject a chemical cocktail into the earth. Arguments were made that this is a safe process and a way for America to move forward with using it’s own energy resources. I remember thinking of that old adage: if it sounds too good to be true, then it most likely is. 

If the process of fracking wasn't bad enough, the film Gasland focuses on corporations doing things the fast and easy way by cutting corners instead of taking safety precautions. The film uses the history of the car as a great analogy.  When the car was first developed it did not have any safety features.  Decades later we have seat belts, safety glass, air bags, anti-lock breaks, OnStar, and a host of other safety measures.  Fracking is still in its infancy, in essence it just “came off the assembly line” without any safety features.  However this time humans, animals and the land who are effected by fracking regardless of an accident.

What is especially insidious these corporations refusal acknowledging or make changes to a process that clearly has some serious problems.  People in Colorado, Wyoming and Texas who allowed drilling on their properties have water that you can light on fire, animals dropping dead on the their land, and of course serious health concerns.  These corporations know all of this.  Hell representatives of these companies would not even drink the  offered “safe” water.

Now these companies are moving east to drill into Pennsylvania, New York and West Virginia.  Corporations can talk till their representatives are blue in the face that this energy is clean and safe, but the reality is that this is quite the opposite.  These chemicals are not biodegradable.  They are with us forever.

So, is utilizing this energy source really worth it?  In my opinion the answer is clearly no. If things don’t change, the long lasting effects will be the burden on our children and our grandchildren.  If there were ever an argument for solar power, this would be it.  Of course with humanity's track record we'd probably mange to blowup our own sun.

But my biggest question from watching the film is: How do these people who tow the corporate line sleep at night?

For more information check out the film’s website: http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/