Fracking+Legislation

Fracking Legislation

In the present, June 2011, there are no laws regulating the natural gas industry. There are many reasons for this, but the biggest one is a fat old man. Yes, our ex vice president who can get away with shooting someone is the reason for all the controversy today surrounding Hydraulic Fracturing, the process used in order to release natural gas from shale formations. Dick Cheney, during the Clinton era left politics to go to the private sector. He served as CEO of Halliburton, the biggest natural gas producer in the country. While at Halliburton the company prospered although involved in some shady accounting throughout his tenure. They even had a settlement agreement with the Nigerian government for 250 million dollars. Cheney served as a key contributor on the National Energy Policy Development Group, or Energy Task Force, which is a group of energy company executives and politicians. Doesn’t sound like a group focused on protecting the citizens of the United States. It certainly proved to be the opossite. In 2005 President Bush enacted legislation for the purpose of sparking use of more alternative forms of energy. Except, Bush and Cheney are both deeply involved with the oil and gas industry meaning many loopholes that benefit their companies. The Halliburton loophole is the root of all evil in the natural gas industry today. It states, as added into the legislation by Dick, “**SEC. 322. HYDRAULIC FRACTURING.** Paragraph (1) of section 1421(d) of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300h(d)) is amended to read as follows:  ‘‘(1) UNDERGROUND INJECTION.—The term ‘underground injection’—  ‘‘(A) means the subsurface emplacement of fluids by well injection; and  ‘‘(B) excludes— ‘‘(i) the underground injection of natural gas for purposes of storage; and ‘‘(ii) the underground injection of fluids or propping agents (other than diesel fuels) pursuant to hydraulic fracturing operations related to oil, gas, or geothermal production activities.’’.”. In plain American words this means, oil and gas companies are allowed to pump whatever they want into the ground excluding diesel fuel, totally unregulated. So thanks to Dick there is now a catastrophically immense argument going on between people, government, and the oil and gas industry. New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania are in the midst of the biggest quandary in the country? To frack or not to frack? That is their question. The Delaware River Basin supplies 17 million residents of these three states with clean drinking water. This includes everyone that lives along the river and every person in New York City. 17 million is similar to the population of all of Florida, which is about 10 times the size in area. Fracking would bring the area an astronomical boost in the economy, but the area cannot afford to have no drinking water. This, as human beings is our most valued necessity. The human body can live nearly a month with no food, but can only do a measley two days without water. Fortunately, these three states know this and are aware of the dangers associated with fracking. They all currently have bans on fracking in the basin while the EPA and state DEP’s conduct tests to see whether they feel fracking would be safe enough to perform in the basin or not. For all of us living in the river basin this is the biggest decision any government can make over our well-being. No water=No life, so let’s not just wait and see what they come up with. Everyone needs to step up and fight for clean drinking water.