#fracking

[whatevergreen]

They don't seem eager for a sip of contamination smoothie!

The UK government has just unbanned fracking while everyone's distracted by the royal circus

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this press release from the Center for Biological Diversity:

Two federal agencies have confirmed the cancellation of applications for permits proposed a decade ago to drill and frack eight new wells on federal public land in Los Padres National Forest. The announcement, made April 3, comes just weeks after California officials proposed a statewide ban on this extremely dangerous fossil fuel extraction technique.

Together, the two actions signal the end of the toxic era of fracking in the Sespe Oil Field. Fracking has occurred here for decades unbeknownst to the public, but when the polluting practice was uncovered through a series of Freedom of Information Act requests in 2012, a pause in fracking occurred amidst public opposition and an outpouring of scientific studies showing the dangers posed to human health and the environment.

The eight applications refocused the spotlight on the Sespe and the public health and environmental risks posed by fracking.

“This announcement closes the chapter on a toxic and dangerous legacy of fracking in the Sespe,” said Jeff Kuyper, executive director of Los Padres ForestWatch, one of the organizations that mobilized residents to oppose the fracking plan. “While fossil fuel extraction here continues to pose grave dangers to our public lands, communities and climate, today we celebrate this important step forward as we continue the transition to clean energy.”

“I’m relieved that these long-pending drilling and fracking applications have been cancelled, averting a major threat to condors and steelhead,” said Lisa Belenky, senior counsel at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Condors have suffered from oil wells and pipelines in this area in the past and steelhead critical habitat in Sespe Creek is downstream from the oil field, so this is a win for biodiversity. We can’t allow expansion of fracking and other oil and gas extraction on our public lands. Ending fossil fuel production is critical to reducing greenhouse gas pollution and supporting real climate solutions.”

Seneca Resources — a Texas-based oil company — filed the original drilling applications with the Bureau of Land Management in 2013, seeking permission to frack eight new wells in the Sespe Creek watershed along with the construction of nearly two miles of new pipelines, a 12,600-gallon tank, and other industrial facilities in this remote area upstream of the town of Fillmore. Carbon California, a Colorado-based company, eventually took over operation of the Sespe Oil Field.

[kp777]

[angryrdpanda]

March 11, 2024 — Appalachians Against Pipelines activists prevented drilling of Poor Mountain in Virginia for 8 hours as part of an effort to stop the Mountain Valley pipeline (MVP) project.

__

Mountain Valley Pipeline is a fracked gas pipeline that "stretches from the shale fields of so-called 'West Virginia' into central 'Virginia' with a possible extension into 'North Carolina.' The hazardous project will disrupt delicate ecosystems, harm communities, and increase international dependence on fossil fuels, pushing the planet further into climate chaos."

Activists face arrests and jail time trying prevent completion of MVP and the inevitable environmental disasters caused by pipelines like Keystone, which has had 23 spills since it began operating in 2010.

2013 Keystone pipeline spill in Arkansas

➡️ Support the Appalachian Legal Defense Fund

[alyanas-little-hideout]

do you ever think about how wild fracking is? like? really it's just pumping a shit ton of proprietary chemicals under bedrock and using them as a way to focus the force of several explosions so that you can shatter the bedrock and then pump out the weird mix of oil, gas, and water from the hole

and also break up the bedrock enough that the methane that was safely not in the water supply now leaks into it in such high concentrations you can light well-water on fire! and also there's almost certainly leakage of those proprietary chemicals but don't worry! we don't know what they are and can't test for them as a result

[plethoraworldatlas]

A new Bureau of Land Management plan to open 40,000 acres of the Wayne National Forest to fracking for oil and gas looks almost identical to one a federal judge rejected in 2020. The public can comment on the plan in writing or during online meetings Monday and Tuesday.

Fossil fuel companies have targeted Ohio’s only national forest for years and in 2016 the BLM first attempted to auction off oil and gas leases in the Wayne. The new proposal, released in late March, is nearly identical to the fracking plan blocked in 2020 after conservation groups challenged it in federal court.

“It’s hugely disappointing that federal officials are sticking with this climate-destroying plan to sell off Ohio’s precious public lands to the oil and gas industry, even as flooding, wildfires and heat waves intensify with climate change,” said Wendy Park, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Our government needs to prioritize people, wildlife and our climate over corporate profits and block fracking in the Wayne once and for all. Ohio residents have the chance to speak out over the next few weeks, and I hope land managers get an earful about this reckless fracking proposal.”

Fracking threatens the Wayne’s rivers, forests and endangered plants and animals ― the same things Congress intended to protect when it created the national forest in the 1930s.

“Fracking the Wayne National Forest would seriously jeopardize Ohio’s ability to fight climate change. This single oil and gas project threatens to generate enough greenhouse gas pollution to cancel out all of the Wayne’s carbon storage services for the next 30 years,” said Nathan Johnson, senior attorney with the Ohio Environmental Council. “Leasing the Wayne to the fossil fuel industry will scar this public forest and pollute our air with toxic chemicals. We should be doing everything we can to protect the public’s access to safe and beautiful public lands — especially in Ohio, where public land is in relatively short supply compared to so many other states.”

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A little-known climate-action group has demanded that Vancouver city council must prohibit fracked natural gas from being used to heat any residential buildings in the city by 2025.

A failure by city council to announce a "binding resolution" committing Vancouver to such a path by this Monday (August 8) will lead to a series of civil-disobedience actions, the group Stop Fracking Around (SFA) announced in an August 4 release.

"If the City does not commit to ensure that ‘no home will be heated by fracked gas by 2025’ by the 8th of August, then supporters of Stop Fracking Around will begin a campaign of serious disruption of critical infrastructure on the 9th of August and lasting until such a time as the City commits to all measures necessary to end use of fracked gas in Vancouver residences," the group said in its bulletin.

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[stimtickle]

Happy Earth Day! I wrote and illustrated an environmental protection book last year, which is both humorous and informative. If you like your eco-fiction with a healthy dose of political satire and tons of dogs & cats, this just might be up your alley.

Feel free to visit my website for more information, or visit my TikTok to see how I created the illustrations.

Treat Your Mother Right! 🌎💙

[purpleweredragon]

All countries must withdraw from the treaty to stop unfair protection for polluters’ profits.

Exit the Energy Charter Treaty today and stop its expansion to other countries. The treaty allows coal, oil and gas corporations to obstruct the transition to net zero. Urgent climate action cannot be made slower or more expensive by fossil fuel firms.  

Over a million people across Europe have asked their governments to withdraw from the treaty. Counties including Germany, France and Spain already have. Please sign this petition to demand the UK withdraws too.

[granulesofsand]

Gasland

🗝️🏷️ reference to child abuse in orange (starting after “hurt them” and ending at “It’s a good documentary”)

I was watching a documentary about hydraulic fracturing, and it made me nauseous. I’m not a child, I know that if the government explicitly says something is safe (and refuses to test or regulate it), it is either unsafe now or leaving room to be unsafe later.

But damn.

A gas company, not for the first time, was seeking to lease private land for fracking wells. One guy gets the notice and decides to look into it. People in small, poor areas agree, then get sick or loose access to drinking water. These are conservative white people, and the government and company people basically go “nuh-uh” every time someone mentions how these gas wells hurt them.

It felt like watching all these families go through the same process we did when we first got to college and tried to disclose our abuse.

It’s a good documentary, I’d recommend it. I think the guy who made it really is just some dude who got the request in the mail, so paying for it might be worth it if you can afford it. If you can’t, it’s not impossible to get free.

I haven’t seen the sequel. From what I’ve gathered by reading legislature, fracking is still allowed and will continue to be allowed (Fracking Ban Act stopped at Introduced), may soon be regulated as groundwater sources are supposed to be (Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act of 2023 Introduced, Last Action on July 20, 2023), and the Halliburton Loophole is somewhat filled if passed (Safe Drinking Water Act exists, loophole is in the 2005 section). Some states have moved to ban it themselves (New York Senate passed A8866 May 20, 2024), others have banned banning (Texas governor signed HB40 a while back).

This is not me saying that it should be priority over everything happening right now. Bad things can happen simultaneously, and so can the good. Decompress with cats (mildly mean funny pet videos).

[vampirechatroom]

hey! are you interested in learning where oil and gas infrastructure (like petroleum refineries, wells, pipelines, etc) is located in your community? check out this cool interactive map! and remember kids, the people making billions off of our planet's descent into climate chaos have names and addresses too.

[punksdocrimes]

Everyone who has served a major leadership role at and everyone who has served on the boards of fossil fuel companies should UNIRONICALLY be tried for crimes against humanity. I'm against the death penalty but they deserve worse than death. The technology used in the Black Mirror episode "White Christmas" is inhumane and that's exactly why they should be punished with it. My position on this non-negotiable I'm so mad they get to do whatever they want and bump lines of coke off the asses of unpaid interns while we all suffer and burn and drown because of their shit. The only kind of "climate terrorism" that exists is the shit they pulled on us. How have we not strung them up on meathooks and paraded their corpses through the streets yet 😐 they're literally ontologically evil

[ayeforscotland]

Oooft that’ll be Liz Truss reversing the ban on fracking in England tomorrow.