Brownfields, Cleanups and Anti-Union Cranks

By Carl Davidson
Keep On Keepin’ On

My home town of Aliquippa once hosted one of the largest steel mills in the world. Now, after the shutdowns and job exporting of the 1980s, it has one of the largest ‘brownfields’ in the world. That’s seven miles of highly polluted empty land along the Ohio, It’s hard even for weeds to grow there.

So Aliquippa had the good luck Dec 24, Christmas Eve, to be on the receiving end of a $3 million grant from the state to help clean it up, in order to prepare for new industry. Most people praised our Mayor, Dwan Walker, for helping it along. But not some, such as one letter-writer in our local paper who asserted that retirees of the ‘greedy union’ should clean it up, since they made the mess and ‘profited’ from it.

The notion of ‘greedy unions’ tells us all we need to know about this guy.

The workers at this steel mill and others earned every cent they got, and then produced the profits for the bosses as well. Where do you think wealth comes from? And some paid a heavier price—I had a grandfather and a cousin killed there.

In the last days, the union, nearly to a fault, made every concession it could to keep the mill open. But the owners decided they wanted to gamble in oil futures instead. ‘I’m in business to make money, not steel’ was the famous boss quote of the day.

That tells you the nature of finance capital vs. productive capital. They ‘make money’ but they do not make wealth. Same as the folks who own casinos and race tracks. They make money, but no real wealth.

Cleaning up this ‘brownfield’ creates infrastructure that can attract some productive capital—and labor along with it—to make new wealth.

Whether workers are hired locally and get a decent wage and a union is a point of struggle. We’ve always had to organize and fight to get anything. Otherwise, we’d still be working for slave masters or bowing down on our knees to Kings, Queens and the Lords on the Manor.
The workers did indeed see the land being poisoned, and most supported the EPA rules against it. It was the owners who exported mills to Brazil and others places without EPAs.
Why do you think the frackers are afraid of union labor? Because union members have the backing and the backbone to report on toxic spills. Why are they afraid of local labor? Because the families of local workers live here too, and they also thus have good reason to oppose toxic dumping.

But perhaps our ‘greedy union’ critic is right in a backhanded way. It may very well be that we can’t have capitalism along with jobs for all, a living wage and a healthy environment—not because it can’t be done theoretically, but out of sheer greed and stupidity. If so, I thank him for making my case for moving to socialism of the 21st century.

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Lessons for 21st Century Socialism from Buddhism

Buddhism and ecology both refuse to separate the human and natural worlds – and demand that we act accordingly

Vultures at a Tibetan sky burial ritual in Dari county in northwest China's Qinghai province 27 November 2009. Photo by Alex Lee/epa/Corbis

By David P Barash
Aeon Magazine

Nov 5, 2012 - Once, while waiting for a wilderness permit at a ranger station in North Cascades National Park, Washington state, I overheard the following message, radioed into headquarters by a backcountry ranger: ‘Dead elk in upper Agnes Creek decomposing nicely. Over.’ This ranger was not only a practical and profound ecologist, she also possessed the wisdom of a Buddhist master. The ‘over’ in her communication seemed especially apt. For Buddhists, as for ecologists, all individual lives are eventually ‘over’, but their constituent parts continue ‘living’ pretty much for ever, in a kind of ongoing process of bio-geo-chemical reincarnation.

People who follow ecological thinking (including some of our hardest-headed scientists) might not realise that they are also embracing an ancient spiritual tradition. Many who espouse Buddhism — succumbing, perhaps, to its chic, Hollywood appeal — might not realise that they are also endorsing a world view with political implications that go beyond bumper stickers demanding a free Tibet.

Plenty of us recognise that Buddhist writings and teachings — especially in their Zen manifestation — celebrate the beauty and wisdom in the natural world. A monk asks a master: ‘How may I enter in the Way?’ The master points to a stream and responds: ‘Do you hear that torrent? There you may enter.’ Walking in the mountains, the master asks: ‘Do you smell the flowering laurel?’ The monk says he does. ‘Then,’ declares the master, ‘I have hidden nothing from you.’

Part of this sensitivity to nature is a Buddhist grasp of suffering, whose existence constitutes the first of Buddhism's Four Noble Truths. It is no coincidence that Henry David Thoreau, America's first great environmentalist, was also a student of Indian religion and the first translator of the ‘Lotus Sutra’ into English. In this classic teaching, Shakyamuni Buddha compares the ‘Dharma’ — the true nature of reality — to a soothing rain that nourishes all beings.

The pioneering ecologist Aldo Leopold wrote that to have an ecological conscience is to ‘live alone in a world of wounds’. The Buddha urged his followers to be sensitive to the suffering of all sentient beings. His First Precept is to commit oneself to ahimsa, or nonharming. The Mahayana Buddhist ideal is to go further, and to become a bodhisattva, an enlightened individual who vows to relieve the suffering of all beings. In the ‘Metta Sutta’, Theravada monks and lay adherents vow to practise loving kindness: ‘Even as a mother protects with her life her child, her only child, so with a boundless heart should one cherish all living beings.’ And here is the first verse of ‘The Bodhisattva Path’, by Shantideva, a revered eighth-century poet: ‘May I be the doctor and the medicine/And may I be the nurse/For all sick beings in the world/Until everyone is healed.’

For Buddhists and ecologists alike, we are all created from spare parts scavenged from the same cosmic junk-heap

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Beaver County and the ‘Cracker’ Debate

Potential site for major new ‘cracker’ plant near Monaca in Beaver County, PA

By Carl Davidson

Our county was was hit hard and early by globalization and the export of jobs. Our towns were largely formed around mills, and when the mills were closed in the 1980s, the towns were stressed to the extreme. Many workers moved away or retired, and those remaining in the towns themselves were largely poor and Black with few options.

Now with the new natural gas boom creating by dubious and dangerous deep underground ‘fracking’ explosions, Shell Oil wants to build a new 'ethylene cracker’ plant that turns natural gas into plastics. Fewer than 1000 people would work in the new $1.2 billion facility, but 10,000 people would be hired over five years to build it, and perhaps another 7000 more for new plastic manufacturing plants draw to be created alongside it.

For the county, it means two things. First, a complete turnaround for employment and new small business and new orders for the tube mill still running. Second, since hundreds of new ‘fracking’ gas wells would be needed to feed the ‘cracker,’ there is serious danger to the county’s water supply and many other health and environmental issues.

So we have a big ongoing debate. Are you for or against the ‘cracker.’ Are you opposed to fracking? Or do you just want to tax and regulate it? And what about clean and green energy?

Natural beauty of our townships soon to be ‘fracked.’

The issue keeps coming up in various forums, including our Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Committee page on Facebook. I had posted some pictures to it showing the natural beauty of our area, which led some to say it could all be ruined by the ‘cracker’. Here’s my brief reply:

'Beauty' looks one way out in the townships. But in the deindustrialized mill towns along the rivers, you see something else--the impact of joblessness is not so pretty. You have to view these things strategically, meaning the whole, not just the part, the future, not just the present, and who are the key engines of change as your allies, if not the unemployed and underemployed. In order to unite the many to defeat the few, you have to find ways to unite people who disagree on many things--no easy task, but it's demanded of us.

Query to me: Why haven't jobs come to Beaver County? The skilled left the area for better jobs and now the perfect storm. I do not know the percentages of skilled or college grads or even people who only have a high school diploma or just a GED in Beaver County.

CarlD: The lack of opportunity means we already have exported a good number of our youth, or at least those with options and prospects. We are demographically now one of the oldest counties, if not the oldest, even though we still have many distressed young people among us, under-employed and unemployed. We have the means to create skills--BCCC, Robert Morris, Geneva and Penn State Beaver--and we have done so.

But I know younger folks in my own family, educated, who have moved away for lack of new industry. For those remaining, the fracking jobs, the trucker jobs related to it and the construction jobs related to the 'cracker' are viewed by them as a Godsend, or potentially so.

Our task is first, to defend clean water, and second figure out a positive way to deal with this developing industry. I doubt that it's going to be stopped, but it can be modified and a share of the profits from it can be diverted toward green renewables in the longer run. The devil is in the details, of course, but I don't think we do well simply to avoid those details with an abolitionist stance not likely to get very far and likely to separate us from real friends. Even people working at building a 'cracker' have an interest in clean water…

Don’t look for this debate to be resolved easily. The opinion and suggestion box is now open! Feel free to comment.

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No Shame When It Comes To ‘Fracking’

The Low Road to Ecological Perdition:
Greed Tries Turning Natural Gas 'Green'

By Carl Davidson
Keep On Keepin' On

It's hard to decide who has less shame, the Pennsylvania legislature's GOP-led majority or the natural gas industry.

The question is raised by a Sept. 2, 2011 report in the Pittsburgh Business Times headlined, "Gas as alternative energy? New PA bill says yes."

So we're now faced with yet another sweetheart deal concocted jointly by our two local big-time political hustlers. They want to declare natural gas as a 'tier two alternative energy' to get their hands on tax credits earmarked for real green startups. To add insult to injury, both are also blocking any extraction tax on the gas released from the Marcellus shale by the environmentally dangerous 'fracking' underground explosions.

That's like someone picking your pocket with one hand while attaching your paycheck with the other.

Let's get this straight. Taking any form of carbon from under the ground, burning it, and putting the resulting carbon dioxide in the air is not an 'alternative energy.' Claiming so puts you in the running for the George Orwell 1984 'War is Peace' award.

There's only one rational, strategic way to burn carbon for energy: set aside part of the profits from this decidedly un-green process to create the investment fund for true alternative energy systems. Over time, this will help phase out the burning of carbon as a primary energy source altogether.

Here's something most kids learn in their high school Earth Science classes, even if our paid-off politicians and short-sighted and carbon-addicted business leaders are in denial:

Alternative energies, for the most part, derive from the interplay of the Earth, Sun and Moon. That's solar cells and solar collectors, wind turbines, hydro power and wave generators taking advantage of tides and other ongoing movement of water. The few exceptions are geothermal sources, tapping into the heat below the Earth's crust. All these are practically inexhaustible and leave a relatively low ecological footprint. That's why they're called 'renewable' and 'green'.

When brought to scale and with the proper technology--almost all of which is already invented and in use in many parts of the world--renewable energies can provide almost all our needs, from running heavy industry and powering land-based transportation to turning on your porch lights. We'll still need a small amount of hydrocarbons to power aircraft, but even that can be reduced with electromotive high-speed rail.

What's more, making the transition to clean and green energy requires a massive but productive increase in modern high-tech, high-value-added manufacturing and the jobs that go with them. That's why Leo Gerard of the United Steelworkers has been hammering away at their importance for years now.

That's also the high road to economic and energy development for creating new wealth here at home.  But our legislature or at least a majority of it, along with the speculators bound up with the Marcellus Shale, want to take us down the low road to less sustainable low-wage growth and disaster-threatening ecological perdition.

This bill is simply the latest case in point. It's time for the Blue-Green alliance and a job-building, progressive-minded majority to expose these shenanigans, get rid of the shale-related corruption and organize the independent political clout to put us on a proper clean and green course.

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Save Us from the ‘Business Guy’ Candidates

Mitt Romney at Screen Machine in Ohio

 

By Carl Davidson
Beaver County Blue

Some things just drive you nuts.

Take Mitt Romney. Yesterday the GOP's presidential wannabe toured Screen Machine, a factory in Pataskala, Ohio, just outside Columbus.  The plant make heavy construction equipment, rock crushers to be exact.

Romney and the owners, Doug and Steve Cohen, held a typical photo-op. Mitt took the occasion to blast both Obama and 'government' as 'bad for business.'

Really? What did Mitt have in mind? A wimpy stimulus package? A failure to build more infrastructure? In that case, he might have a point.

But no, the real problems are environmental regulation, labor safety codes and health care. In other words, with more pollution and more unsafe conditions at work, and less health care to deal with the consequences, business could surge ahead.

There's not any truth to that claim, but that's not the worst of it.

First, there's the irony that Obama's health care plan is basically a national version of Romney's Massachusetts Plan. If we could scrap both and replace them with 'Medicare for All,' yes, it would be better for both workers and business--save for the health insurance firms.

But the real clincher is the story of Screen Machines, where Mitt, the tough-minded, pragmatic business guy candidate, was delivering his words of economic wisdom. Here's the Washington Post on the topic:

"Yet it's been the government - and Obama's policies in particular - that has helped propel Screen Machine's growth at its sprawling new headquarters here, even during the recession. The company, which builds heavy-duty crushing and screening machines used in construction, mining and recycling, received four stimulus awards totaling $218,607. It is also benefiting from a 10-year deal with local and state governments to not pay taxes on its property, equipment or inventory, according to public records."

We need to make a minimum requirement of all elected officials that they at least have the ability to blush when feeding us a lot of nonsense. Of course, that might wipe out most of Congress, and a few in the White House, too. But then we'd have some open slots for politicians who count voters rather than dollars.

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The Marcellus Shale’s Bigger Picture

Clean Water, Green Energy and the Big Blue Marble

By Carl Davidson
Beaver County Blue

A Reuter's story this morning about the rising threat to the water supplies of 12 East Coast cities connected a few dots for me. The threat comes from burning carbon and climate change, which will raise sea levels and wreak havoc in numerous ways.

"Rising sea waters may threaten U.S. coastal cities later this century, while the Midwest and East Coast are at high risk for intense storms, and the West's water supplies could be compromised, "the story led off. "These are among the expected water-related effects of climate change on 12 cities across the nation over the remainder of the century, according to a study released on Tuesday by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a leading environmental group.

"A lot of people think of climate change in the global context, but they don't think about the local impact climate change might have, particularly on water-related issues," said Steve Fleischli, a senior attorney with NRDC's water program."

Perhaps it's because my daughters and grandkids live in New York City that the story caught my eye. 'We'll have to make room for them here in Beaver County,' up in the hills on the west slope of the Alleghenies, I first thought.

But what about the Marcellus shale fracking by the gas drillers? We might not have any decent water here, either.

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Is Wider Unity on the Shale Issue Possible?

A Stronger Steelworkers’ Voice Is Needed

in the Marcellus Anti-Fracking Movement

A Stronger Steelworkers’ Voice Is Needed
in the Marcellus Shale Anti-Fracking Movement

By Carl Davidson
Beaver County Blue

There’s a specter haunting Western PA. It’s the prospect of a working class divided by a fear of water pollution destroying the property values of small homeowners on one side, and on the other side, by the promise of new wealth from the exploitation of natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica shale deposits.

A similar fear divides West Virginians over ‘mountaintop removal’ mining. Little towns are split between those who want food on the table and those fearful of poisoning their children.

Steelworkers can certainly see the problem in our own terms. It takes a lot of steel pipe to drill down two to four miles, then drill out a horizontally for another mile in a dozen directions. The tube mills are getting the orders and steelworkers are back to work. On the other hand, steelworkers know the dangers of poisoning the ground and the rivers better than most. Read more!

PA Progressives Plan for New Battles

Pennsylvania Progressive Summit 2011:

Rebuilding Alliances, Shaping New Messages

Keynote speakers, Leo Gerard and Jess Jackson

By Carl Davidson

Beaver County Blue

Nearly 500 progressive and liberal organizers gathered at Pittsburgh’s Sheraton Station Square over the sunny but bitterly cold weekend of Jan. 22-23 to drawn out the lessons of their setbacks in the 2010 elections and shape a new course for the future.

Under the theme of ‘Taking Pennsylvania Forward,’ the two-day meeting was mainly pulled together by four ‘Organizing Sponsors’—Keystone Progress, a popular online communications hub for the state; SEIU, representing some 100,000 PA workers; the Alliance for American Manufacturing, a coalition between the United Steelworkers and advocates for new manufacturing enterprises; and Democracy for America, the outgrowth of the Howard Dean campaign in the Democratic Party.

A large number of unions other than the USW and SEIU also took part, as well as many local political, civil rights, women’s rights, youth and environmental groups from around the state. Beaver County was represented by a delegation from the 4^th CD Progressive Democrats of America.

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Pittsburgh Rally Defends Clean Water, Opposes Natural Gas ‘Fracking’

Photos by Bill Allen

Western PA Activists

Deliver ‘Street Heat’ vs.

Marcellus Shale ‘Frackers’

By Carl Davidson

Beaver County Blue

“No Fracking Way! No Fracking Way!” was the chant resounding off the steel, granite and glass walls in downtown Pittsburgh on the sunny afternoon on Nov. 3, as nearly 500 environmental activists headed for the David Lawrence Convention Center. Their target was a gathering of 2000 natural gas drillers being addressed by Karl Rove, advisor to former President George W Bush.

Inside, the industry executives were meeting to discuss the "future" of hydro-fracking gas drilling and planning to use heavy explosives to blast apart the 4000-foot-deep Marcellus Shale formation to get the natural gas beneath.

"Only a dying soul," said Stephen Cleghorn, "can contemplate the destruction of life that they're discussing in that building right now!" Cleghorn is Reynoldsville, PA farmer, and his views reflected those of many semi-rural residents of Pennsylvania and other nearby states, where water was polluted and cattle died.

“They promise people all sorts of money,” said Bob Schmetzer, “but what’s your home worth if you have bad water? Nothing!” Schmetzer, carrying a placard demanding ‘prosecute the polluters,’ is the council president of South Heights in Beaver County, and the vice president of the 4^th CD Progressive Democrats of America.

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Paris Interview: Obama, BP and Energy

Entretien avec Carl Davidson, économiste “vert“

 

Carl Davidson à Paris, le 16 juin 2010

“La marée noire peut aider à faire passer la loi sur les énergies renouvelables“

Quelles sont pour vous les mesures les plus urgentes à prendre après cette catastrophe ?
Le principal problème est d’arrêter la fuite d’hydrocarbure. C’est un problème technique qu’Obama ne sait pas régler plus que moi, il est donc en train de rassembler les meilleurs scientifiques et techniciens pour y réfléchir.
Dans un second temps, il faut s’assurer que BP paiera pour le nettoyage et je pense qu’il y arrivera sans trop de problème (BP a accepté de payer le 17 juin NDLR). ....

[Full English translation follows]

What do you see as the most urgent measures to be taken by President Obama after this ecological disaster in the Gulf of Mexico? Will the oil spill lead to better laws on renewable energy?

The main immediate problem is to stop the leakage of oil. It is a severe technical problem that Obama does not know any more than I do about how to stop it. So at this point it’s first a matter is putting together the best scientists and engineers engaged in this kind of production to think through a solution. Obama knows that will include BP employees, and others as well.

In a second step, Obama must ensure that BP will pay for the cleanup. I think he will get it verbally without too much problem (BP agreed to pay Ed June 17). Following through is another matter.

 

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Tough Battle Ahead on Green Jobs and Climate Crisis

Good Jobs, Green Jobs 2010:

Using Green Energy Manufacturing

To Solve the Jobs Crisis Is Shaping Up

To Be a Very Tough Battle

By Carl Davidson
SolidarityEconomy.Net

Washington DC's DuPont Circle area is best known for foreign embassies and sidewalk cafes and a lively night life. But for three mild and sunny spring days this May 4-6, nearly 3500 people stayed inside the Hilton Hotel for the 2010 'Good Jobs, Green Jobs' conference, trying to solve the country's economic problems and the world's climate change crisis.

This was the third and largest gathering to date on the green jobs theme organized by the Blue-Green Alliance, a coalition of several hundred environmental, community and trade union groups pulled together primarily by the United Steel Workers and the Sierra Club. Last year's gathering of 3000, fresh from Obama's victory and several new recession-fighting initiatives, was highly spirited and visionary.

Now a tough year had passed and the mood had shifted. There was still plenty of idealism and optimism, especially among the younger activists, but many were sobered by the fierce resistance of the GOP and finance capital to any timely or significantly large reforms. Climate change was being denied, clean energy legislation was stalled, stimulus spending for jobs was too small, health insurance reform was barely acceptable, and the wars were dragging on.

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'States Rights' Invoked vs. Pollution Danger

Photo: Gas Drilling Rig with Sludge Holding Bin

GOP Whitewashes

Marcellus Shale Dangers

In Western Pennsylvania

 

By Carl Davidson

Beaver County Blue

If you're looking for a full-throttled booster of the natural gas industry to be your representative in the Pennsylvania legislature, then Jim Christiana's clearly your man.

But if you're looking for a representative that puts the general public of Beaver County's largely working-class 15th District in first place, and then brings local business into line with their common interests, you'll be happy there's an election this year.

That's the main conclusion I drew from Christiana's 'Informational Event' on the Marcellus Shale and the natural gas industry held at the Shadow Lakes County Club in Aliquippa, PA, at 8am in the morning, Friday, March 5, 2010.

I was surprised at the rather large turnout, around 200, especially at a time of day when most working people couldn't make it. About half the room was filled with men and women in business attire; the other half more typical of the area, retired folks in casual dress, ball caps and leather jackets.

The Marcellus Shale is clearly a hot topic for those who know about it. For those who don't, it's a geological formation, a layer of porous rock, about two miles beneath the surface of most of Pennsylvania's rolling hills and hollows, and that stretches into several surrounding states as well. 

Heat and pressure over millions of years have turned the hydrocarbons within the shale into both oil and natural gas. It's one of the reasons Pennsylvania was the country's first major producer of petroleum, before the Texas oil fields were discovered. Every schoolchild learns about the first oil well in Titusville, PA. Most of the 'easy oil' has long since been pumped out, but thanks to new processes known as 'hydraulic fracturing' and horizontal drilling, there's still abundant quantities of natural gas to be had--and thus new fortunes to be made.

That last notion gets us back to the reason for Christiana's meeting. Along the long row of front tables for speakers were reps from the full range of industry-related groups-Chesapeake Energy, Range Resources, EQT Drilling Technologies, National Association of Royalty Owners and, last but not least, the Marcellus Shale Coalition that brings them all together. Notably absent up front, of course, were any local environmental groups, hunting and fishing clubs, trade unions or any others with critical questions or opposition. But then, this was Christiana's show.

"Natural gas," said Christiana, "is used not only for heating and cooking, but in the manufacturing of a wide range of products-plastics, petrochemicals, feeds and fertilizers. Greater quantities here mean prices that are more stable and less money going to empower our enemies overseas." He and others went on with visions of lower heating bills and a new surge in industry-related employment. Natural gas, it seemed, had more uses than aspirin-and all beneficial. 

So what's the problem with exploiting the Marcellus Shale? There are at least two of them, one immediate and another more strategic, although all were denied any significance by Christiana and his 'informational' panel.

The more immediate problem is producing natural gas at the threat of a danger to ground water. 'Hydraulic fracturing' is a process whereby large quantities of fresh water is mixed with sand and a cocktail of chemicals, including diesel fuel and other toxics, and then pumping it through miles of underground pipe in the shale. There it is blown into the shale using a powerful explosive charge, fracturing it and releasing the gas. About 25 percent of the liquid brine and toxics returns to the surface with the gas. But most of it remains underground, below the existing water tables.

Industry speakers on the panel claimed there was no threat to the underground water that fed creeks, streams and rivers. The recovered brine was safely stored and reused, thus even making it possible to use less fresh water to make brine in future wells.  Christiana then took the occasion to criticize PA's Democratic Senator Bob Casey for trying to change the clean water act to cover fracturing, since Christiana had introduced a resolution in Harrisburg urging Congress to stop Casey's proposal. 

When Christiania called for questions, Bob Schmetzer, a retired IBEW staffer and South Heights, PA councilman, told another story:

"Out in Colorado, He explained, "a drilling rig worker was taken to an emergency room in Denver from a spill of the fracturing brine. The nurse caring for him also fell ill from the chemicals and went into heart, liver, and lung failure and was taken to the critical care unit. The Hospital went into CODE Orange, closing down the hospital until the source was found. The driller refused to give the emergency room doctor the names of the chemicals that would have helped treatment. The privacy rules prevent the nurse from saying which chemicals made her or the worker sick. They also prevent the hospital from revealing the employer. This is why Senator Casey is right. Protecting our first responders and hospitals is the right thing to do."

Schmetzer went on to mention more instances elsewhere, calling on Christiana and others on the panel. The PA DEP, he explained, is only reactive to spills and other accidents, when more pro-active protections are called for.

Christiana was quick to reply but avoided the main points. "All this proves it that there's a problem in Colorado," he asserted, "and the people there can fix the Colorado Department of Environmental Protection. As for the Marcellus Shale, there's zero evidence of any problems, and we can handle everything in Harrisburg with our own DEP. Federal involvement is a waste of time and dollars."

Of course there's lots of evidence of Pennsylvania problems, Christiana notwithstanding. Multiple local newspapers have reported spills, dead fish, dead farm animals and other pollution consequences related to natural gas drilling. Even the PA DEP has noted some of them, and issued fines. The DEP, moreover, is undermanned and facing staff cutbacks. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer lest year, "Administration Secretary Naomi Wyatt said the Department of Environmental Protection will see the greatest reductions, losing 138 positions, or about 5 percent of its workforce."

Toward the end, I managed to get the floor: "With all due respect, Rep. Christiana, assertions are not arguments. You've made the case that this is a national industry, and shown us maps of how the Marcellus shale lies under several states. If I were the natural gas industry, I could understand why it would be nice not to have the feds looking over my shoulder, and deal with a dozen small factionalized state agencies instead. But I'm not an industry; I'm a citizen concerned about jobs and clean water and clean air. You've asserted the feds can't do anything right about anything, but that doesn't make it so. Casey's measures are protecting all of us, here and elsewhere, and you need to stop trying to block it."

Christina again was quick to reply. His claims: The PA DEP was all we needed. Harrisburg was doing fine, not like New York state were environmentalists were causing delays that meant delays in jobs. Federal government could do little right, and we had to assert our 'states rights' to protect us from Washington, DC not oil and gas industries, and so on-all the rhetoric straight from the GOP's Tea Party faction.  There was terrific applause for him, little for me.

One other questioner at the end raised the more strategic question, about the overall wisdom of taking carbon from under the ground and making energy by putting it into the air. Weren't there more sustainable options? Unfortunately, he was cut off, and the ovations clearly went for Christiana.

The one sided response had a lot to do with the self-selection of the audience. As mentioned, good number worked for the industry in one way or another. But also a good number of the local citizenry, apart from Christiana's GOP supporters, were owners of small pieces of rural or semi-rural land in the county where they still had mineral rights. The deeds of many local homeowners, however, say very clearly that they own nothing of the mineral right beneath their property. Those rights were snookered away long ago. Still, enough folks still had some rights, and they had turned out in good numbers, trying to find out how not to get cheated and still make some good money in hard times. No one could blame them.

My main conclusion of the day? Beaver County residents are still in need of deeper education around the Marcellus Shale issues. It should be a public hearing or conference were all sides are on the platform-the promoters, the alternative critics and those in between. Wider connections need to be made, such as how to shrink carbon-burning energy while growing green energy, and how to grow the jobs for green manufacturing as well. That kind of public democracy would serve all of us well.

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Western PA Needs Protection from 'Unnatural' Gas Drillers

One of 17 Dead Cattle near gas well spill in LA

 

Shale Gas Drillers

Open Political Offensive

in Beaver County

 

by Randy Shannon

Beaver County Blue

February 26, 2010

Wall Street bankers are investing big bucks in gas drillers as they spread across the state buying up mineral rights and drawing up leases to establish drilling operations. Stock prices of Atlas Energy, Range Resources, and Cabot Oil and Gas are soaring as they race to accumulate ownership of the enormous shale gas deposit in Western Pennsylvania.

There are two big issues arising from the exploitation of the state’s shale gas resource. One issue is fair taxation that remunerates the people of the state for the loss of a resource that cannot be replaced. This is the gas severance tax that drillers pay to all states with substantial gas drilling. The other is protection of our water supply without which our property is worthless and our lives are at risk.

Pennsylvania does not have a gas severance tax. The Republican Party in Pennsylvania used the 2009 budget crisis as leverage to stop the imposition of the severance tax. This cost the state up to $100 million in lost revenue this year, at an equal savings to the gas drillers who can raise their campaign contributions to the Republicans.

The public awareness of this rip-off has grown to such an extent that Governor Rendell has proposed a severance tax for the 2010 budget equal to West Virginia’s. The Democrats running for State Senate and State Legislature are supporting this position. Even Dan Onorato and Jack Wagner, who are taking $thousands from the drillers in campaign contributions, are saying they support a “reasonable” gas severance tax.

The gas drillers have taken a fall back position: if they are going to have to pay a tax, then they want more concessions from the state to give them a free hand in conducting their operations on the ground. In this Beaver County Times article from Feb. 12th (http://tinyurl.com/yap6azf ) the spokeswoman from the Marcellus Shale Coalition threatens to “move resources to shale formations in other states” if Pennsylvania does not make concessions.

This is a tired and overused empty threat. Pennsylvania has the greatest gas deposit in the United States that will last for decades. Drillers are rushing in, not hesitating in case they might have to pay a severance tax like in other states. Most importantly, gas prices are now relatively low, so that the longer it takes to drill, the more we delay, the more Pennsylvania will profit from higher future gas prices.

The shale fracturing or ‘fracking’ process as it is now practiced creates life-threatening environmental issues. To frack one well the driller takes around 6 million gallons of water from local creeks and rivers. They mix in a half dozen volatile hydrocarbons, such as benzene that cause respiratory failure and death in all mammals. They also mix in heavy metals, cyanide, and other chemicals that cause cancer. These chemicals are being released into the water table, on the surface, and in our waterways.

They are also buying up legislators in order to guarantee that their profits are maximized. State Legislator Jim Christiana, whose campaign was funded by the House Republican Campaign Committee, is working overtime for the drillers.

The drillers are unfolding a political offensive to ease their entry into Beaver County. Following their article of complaint in the Times, the drillers are holding a public meeting hosted by Representative Christiana. This “Marcellus Shale Informational Event” will be on Friday, March 5, from 8:00am to 10:00am at the Club at Shadow Lakes, 2000 Beaver Lakes Blvd., Aliquippa. Those planning to attend must call 724-728-7655 to RSVP. This will be a typical sales meeting with hand waving and big numbers thrown out to dazzle the audience into thinking that they, not the drillers, will be the beneficiaries of this wealth.

Based on experiences in central and southwestern Pennsylvania, folks have found that once the drillers gain access to their land, the owners have no say in what is done. People have experienced cancer, blown water wells, dead vegetation, poisoned animals, and polluted water.

The reason for this is that under the Bush administration, the EPA was called off the job of monitoring gas well fracking. The 2005 Energy Policy Act exempted the 247 chemicals and the practice of “fracking” from the Safe Drinking Water Act. Without this “Halliburton Loophole,” the process would be less profitable due to the extensive testing, protective measures, and clean-up that would be necessary to safely frack shale deposits.

Drilling shale gas deposits under the Halliburton Loophole in the western states resulted in tragedy for scattered farm families, but not enough to cause a political backlash. Now that the “wild west” drilling practices that have been so profitable are practiced in Pennsylvania and New York, the impact even from one year of drilling has been measurable.

Judging from the impact of 700 wells on the water supply and the lives and property of the victims, we can project that drilling another 10,000 wells using current “wild west” practices will devastate Pennsylvania communities and possibly destroy potable water for millions of residents. In reaction to this looming disaster, Sen. Robert Casey has introduced the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act (FRAC Act), S 1215, that closes the Halliburton Loophole.

In a brazen act of servility to the greed of the drillers, PA Republican Legislator Jim Christiana has introduced a House Resolution 609 in the Pennsylvania Legislature to express the sentiment that Pennsylvania does not want the Federal Government to enforce the Safe Drinking Water Act in regards to shale gas drilling in Pennsylvania! The resolution cites the expected monetary returns from drilling, the drillers claim that no pollution occurs, and phony issue of states rights not have safe drinking water.

The shale gas drilling is also a big issue in the campaign for Governor. Governor Rendell has given the drillers vast acres of state lands to drill in order to make up the budget shortfall negotiated last year. He has also announced plan to lease tens of thousands of additional acres this year. While Rendell supports the gas severance tax, he has made no effort to counter the assault on the environment.

In reaction to criticism and concern across the state, Rendell announced that he will double the staff of the Department of Environmental Protection to monitor the drilling. However this doubling still leaves the staffing levels below those of two years ago when they were slashed at the demand of the Republican State Senate. Even if the DEP staff were doubled again, the problem is that the DEP has not been charged with protecting our water supplies.

The PA DEP is only “monitoring” activity. It is not enforcing any regulations concerning chemical contamination by the drilling activity. Even worse, the DEP is allowing the drillers to dump drilling water laden with heavy metals and carcinogens into the Monongahela River. The water is highly toxic when recovered from the fracking process and it is placed in tanks and treated to remove the volatile hydrocarbons to meet DEP regulations of volatile hydrocarbons. However, it is then diluted with other wastewater and dumped into the river without DEP testing for heavy metals such as arsenic, selenium, mercury, lead, and other carcinogens. This recently resulted in an official warning to communities using Mon River water for drinking water.

The DEP claims that they cannot test for chemicals in the poisoned water if they don’t know what the chemicals are. And there is presently no requirement for the drillers to reveal the contents of the fracking fluids. Hearings will soon start in Representative Waxman’s committee of the US Congress to look into the fracking chemicals. However, the DEP can act if the people of Pennsylvania demand it. Dumping of unknown chemicals in the river can be halted until their effect is determined. Democratic legislators in Pennsylvania have called for a suspension of drilling until this issue is resolved.

Democratic Party Gubernatorial Candidates Dan Onorato and Jack Wagner have accepted donations from the drilling companies. While they have position papers talking about severance taxes and safe drilling, both candidates have avoided addressing the urgent problem of contamination of our water supply and destruction of farmland and animals. Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Joe Hoeffel has accepted no money from the drillers and is calling for “strong swift action to ensure drilling is conducted safely and responsibly.”

Robert Schmetzer, vice-president of PA 4th CD Chapter of Progressive Democrats of America, and Democratic Party Chairman of South Heights Borough released the following statement:

“I have been told that Onorato, Wagner, and Corbett took money from the drillers. Please send Jacks position on drilling. The Repubs took a stand on drill baby drill !….. Dems want the gas without destroying Pennsylvania’s land, water, or air as guaranteed in our constitution.

Protection of our people ,their families, and health is the #1 issue….. Bush/Cheney stripped the federal Acts clean of protection. Bob Casey is trying to correct this. 2005 moratorium stripped the Clean water act; safe drinking water act; clean air act; superfund act; and NEPA – national environment policy act. Cheney wanted to pave the highway
for Halliburton energy.

There have been 247 chemicals from MSDS sheets recorded. They have caused air, water and land contamination in Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and Wyoming by using toxic, carcinogenic and endocrine disrupting chemicals. The companies don’t have to tell what they are pumping underground. The DEP and EPA don’t have any cases of well pollution as told by the drillers.

That is because they don’t have to report to any agency. Presently there is no Federal agency monitoring the frac chemicals because companies don’t have to tell. They also don’t have to tell of any accidents. This issue is explosive and will be a huge issue in this election. Shellshocked…!”

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