So-Called "Liberal" Media and President Obama Buy Into Fracking Gas Rush

I am calling B.S. on both sides with regard to fracking right now.

Posted by: Noël Jones

I just saw an MSNBC segment on fracking for natural gas in Pennsylvania. MSNBC, who conservatives love to scream about as a member of the "liberal" media, had a representative from Time Magazine--another so-called member of the "liberal" media--as its guest, and featured a clip of President Obama (who Republicans, Tea Partiers and libertarians love to condemn as the most liberal and "progressive" president of all time, leading us down the doomed path of Socialism and ever-increasing regulation) giving a speech yesterday touting the benefits of natural gas drilling in PA, as the bellwether of energy independence and job creation at last.

Let's get this straight--this is a gold rush--or should I say, gas rush--and like all rushes, evades a rational thought process. Polarized politicking too, evades the exercise of reason. This is a health issue, an environmental issue and a property values issue for all families in Pennsylvania, not just a bunch of hippy liberal obstructionists. Since when do only liberals need to have clean drinking water in their homes that doesn't contain carcinogens, radioactive material, neurotoxins and endocrine disruptors? Every NRA member that is a fan of hunting and fishing in Pennsylvania has reason to be seriously concerned about the destruction of their way of life. Will you be okay with running around thousands of gas wells up and down the Delaware Watershed, shooting at deer? Will you be okay with large fish kills as our streams and rivers get fracking
waste dumped in them? Even if you fish for sport and are not concerned with actually eating the fish, there's not much sport to snagging a dead fish. And whether or not you care about all that, do you care that your property value can be destroyed if your drinking water is permanently contaminated? I mean, seriously--who is going to buy your house if their family can't drink the water without getting cancer? And speaking of cancer--are you okay dying a long slow painful death of cancer while gas companies get rich? Would you rather just live in denial and tell yourself that no one would ever do that to you to get rich. Do you seriously think these corporations care about anything but making money?

All parties are guilty on this one, and the price of human health will be high if residents on all sides of the political fence do not learn and learn fast to see through all this, put their political differences aside and work together to stop it. Our Republican governor has now taken away the ability of inspectors to even cite these driller without prior permission from his administration. Our Democratic president is totally on board with the drillers and singing the praises of the natural gas industry as the savior of our economy. Meanwhile, the "liberal" media has jumped on the band wagon and only giving the briefest of nods on television to health risks. You see, everyone--on both sides--wants so badly to believe the fracking process is safe, and the answer to our economic woes in PA. So badly, that they will lie to themselves even when all evidence is to the contrary. In response to Contessa Brewer's quick question of her Time Magazine guest regarding water contamination concerns, he responded that "they (the drillers) are getting much better." This on the same day that Governor Corbett has issued an internal order that no more citations can be issued without prior consent--direct from his administration. This from a man who received $800,000 in campaign contributions from gas drillers during his election.

The EPA is conducting a study on health risks as we speak, due to be completed in 2012, and the industry--and the gas rush politicians on both sides of the aisle, including our president--are not waiting for the results. Not that it will matter anyway--President Obama is ultimately the head of the EPA, so if he is already giving speeches about how great it all is, what are the chances that the EPA will be releasing a report that cites the damning health risks endured by families all across Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Wyoming, Texas and Pennsylvania? Dimock, PA is just two hours north of us, and19 families have become seriously ill from leakage through faulty concrete well casings leeching into the water table. Cabot Oil & Gas still does not admit contaminating their water, but has paid them anyway (in exchange for confidentiality agreements), and is furnishing whole-house water mitigation systems. Last year alone, the DEP cited the industry 750 times, and now the governor says they can't even do that.

This is not a Liberal vs. Conservative issue. This is a Large Wealthy  Powerful Corporations vs. the Average American Joe issue. When will we stop infighting and get it? This is the oldest trick in the book--divide and conquer.  If you're not willing to fight this, get ready to buy bottled water for the rest of your life--and get ready for the price of bottled water to skyrocket, while your property values plummet. Pennsylvania has been called "the Saudi Arabia of natural gas," and at this rate, with tens of thousands of new gas wells planned in our watershed, Pennsylvania might soon look like Saudi Arabia.