Hinchey on shale gas drilling – YNN, Your News Now
June 26, 2011
‘Fracking’ for Natural Gas Continues to Raise Health Concerns | PBS NewsHour | June 15, 2011 | PBS
June 16, 2011
‘Fracking’ for Natural Gas Continues to Raise Health Concerns | PBS NewsHour | June 15, 2011 | PBS.
Another “he said/she said” report. Check out the comments
Philip Ellender: The Kochs’ unlikely enforcer. Politico June 14, 2011
June 14, 2011
Philip Ellender: The Kochs’ unlikely enforcer.
Philip Ellender’s career got started working for Democrats and environmental groups in Louisiana. Now he’s co-president of Koch Companies Public Sector, set up in 2009 to handle government, public and legal affairs for the Kochs’ privately held oil, chemical and consumer products empire. Politico
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0611/56628.html
“Don’t Smoke in Your Shower,” Ridge Jokes on Colbert (With Video) | PoliticsPA
June 11, 2011
“Don’t Smoke in Your Shower,” Ridge Jokes on Colbert (With Video) | PoliticsPA.
With Video)
By Keegan Gibson, Managing Editor
Former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge got the Colbert treatment last night when he appeared on the Comedy Central news program to discuss Marcellus shale natural gas.
The interview focused largely on allegations that hydraulic fracturing, aka “fracking,” is responsible for methane contamination in well waters. Colbert showed the now famous footage of a man lighting his water faucet from the film ‘Gasland.’
“In September of 2010, the EPA warned residents of a Wyoming town where fracking was taking place to use fans while showering to avoid the risk of explosions,” Colbert noted. “So that proves there’s a work-around. Just install a fan in your showers and…”
“Don’t smoke,” Ridge interjected. “Don’t smoke in your shower.”
The former Governor went on to explain that while methane has turned up in well water, there has been no conclusive evidence to suggest that hydraulic fracturing is to blame.
“Yes it is happening to some water supplies, and it has absolutely nothing to do with hydraulic fracturing,” Ridge said. “Methane gas is naturally occurring. They’ve had methane gas, speaking as a Governor, in some of our water wells in Pennsylvania long before any frack wells were located next to them.”
The Governor also disputed that he was a lobbyist for the gas industry, clarifying that he was an consultant to the Marcellus Shale Coalition.
“Since it’s my first time on your show, I hate to correct your first question, but I’m not a lobbyist,” said Ridge. “Pennsylvania is sitting on top of something I think could lead a Renaissance in America with regard to energy, not only in terms of creating jobs, but making us more secure and less dependent on foreign sources.”
“I actually understand what you’re saying, and I now agree with everything you’re saying, and I would say you did a very good job of lobbying me just now,” Colbert replied.
3 Responses to ““Don’t Smoke in Your Shower,” Ridge Jokes on Colbert (With Video)”
Leave a Reply
EXXON CEO SAYS WORKING TO INFORM PUBLIC ON FRACKING » TILLERSON, EXXON, DRIVER, DALLAS, ANNA, REUTERS » TITANEWS.CO.CC
June 7, 2011
Exxon CEO says working to inform public on fracking
DALLAS |
DALLAS (Reuters) – Exxon Mobil Corp defended hydraulic fracturing at its annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, even as investors peppered CEO Rex Tillerson with concerns and questions about the technology.
A shareholder proposal requiring greater disclosure by Exxon on the risks and impact of its hydraulic fracturing practices was voted down by about 70 percent of the world’s largest publicly traded oil company’s shareholders.
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a process of injecting a mix of water, chemicals and sand into the earth to break up rock like shale, in order to release oil or natural gas. Environmentalists say the technique can contaminate groundwater with dangerous chemicals, but the industry has long insisted it is safe.
Criticism has heightened as shale drilling rapidly accelerates in basins around North America.
Tillerson acknowledged risks associated with fracking, but said Exxon is working to bring together regulators in states where shale drilling is occurring to examine current rules and take a look at those that are most effective.
“We know there are risks,” Tillerson told reporters after the meeting. “We’re not trying to characterize this as an activity that does not have risks.”
He said the debate should be “fact-based,” and said there were claims about the 50-year-old technology that had no basis in fact.
To help combat what it considers misinformation, Exxon meets with local officials and politicians and is running a national advertising campaign aimed at addressing concerns about fracking.
Regulators in states where shale drilling is growing at breakneck speed “are stretched,” but rules governing fracking should remain at the state level, not federal level, Tillerson said.
Exxon made a $ 35 billion bet on shale gas when it purchased XTO Energy in 201O. The company aims to double its U.S. natural gas production in a decade, Tillerson said.
EXECUTIVE PAY
Investors and influential proxy advisory firm ISS criticized Exxon’s compensation practices ahead of the meeting, arguing the oil company’s shareholder returns do not justify executives’ pay packages.
A jump in oil prices had much to do with the stock’s run-up, and the stock rise was not entirely reflective of the company’s performance, ISS said in a May report.
Tillerson’s total pay rose 6.6 percent in 2010 to $ 29 million.
Exxon defended its executives’ pay arguing, among other factors, that ISS’ recommendation is “fundamentally flawed” because it relies too heavily on the short term.
“Financial results and stock market returns are best viewed over some period of time,” Tillerson told the meeting.
A majority of shareholders voted for an annual review of executive compensation. Exxon had recommended that a vote take place every three years.
The company’s three-year total shareholder return was a negative 5.8 percent and lagged peers, the ISS report said, adding that a $ 100 investment in Exxon at the end of 2006 was worth only $ 104 at the end of 2010.
A proposal for an independent chairman at the company received 31 percent of votes cast, up slightly from 30 percent in 2009. Shareholder proposals require majority approval for passage.
“We can see there is inherently a problem of potential conflict of interest if Mr. Tillerson chairs the board,” Sister Patricia Daly, who spoke on behalf of the proposal for an independent director, said at the meeting.
Other shareholder proposals related to oil sands, greenhouse gas emissions and water management, also failed.
GDACC 
Slickwater horizontal hydrofracturing has only been used for the past couple of years is still considered an expermetnal technology. when he states that hydrofracking has been used for 50 years this also includes fracking of water wells and not gas. Also this is all vertical drilling and not what is being used in shale gas.
”there has never been a documented case of water being affected by fracking.”
and smoking does not have a direct link to cancer!
I guess these cases don’t count?
http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/amall/incidents_where_hydraulic_frac.html
Also one needs to understand the difference between biogenic and thermogenic methane. thermogenic is from shale and biogenic is naturally occurring. There have been numerous accounts showing the gas migration is from THERMOGENIC methane this is proved by isotope analysis and is undisputed fact!
Governor Ridge knowingly nominated and allowed a (non indicted)perjurer to serve in his cabinet.* No one can believe a word Mr. Ridge says. He is bought and paid for by the gas companies, at least Marcrellus Shale as he acknowledged.
The doctor was a “name” in Pa. and the nomination came 3 weeks after the forced settlement of a malpractice case against the nominee, for negligible amount, after 14 years in the court system.
Ridge then went with what was against public interest and has no trouble doing so now as well.
* “We have little difficulty in concluding that Dr. Jannetta’s testimony at deposition was different than, or inconsistent with, the testimony at trial.” Levy v Jannetta, CCP Allegheny County, GD 81-7689; appeal -J. A370017/92 Levy v Jannetta et al, No. 00150 Pittsburgh, 1992. settled, 1995
Peter J. Jannetta, secretary of health, Pa. 1995-1996
I have two words for our former governor: Dunkard Creek. Flowback water illegally injected into a borehole at Consol Energy’s abandoned Blacksville, West Virginia mine exterminated all aquatic life in Dunkard Creek, at least in the section upstream of Bobtown that Big Coal hadn’t already killed. Dunkard Creek is still dead. Whitely Creek and the Monongahela River (the drinking water supply for Southwestern Pennsylvania) are endangered by the same practice. Water haulers contracted to gas drillers have been known to pump tributary streams dry.