The Perils of Gas Fracking
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7 responses to “The Perils of Gas Fracking”
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Virginia needs to put reasonable measures in place to deal with the negative impact of fracking. Drillers (or the truckers they employ) should compensate for the extra damage they cause on state roads. Homeowners should be protected against the significant nuisance of noise and vibrations from construction activity. Water quality should be monitored to ensure that fracking isn’t harming water supplies.
But fracking should move forward. It will create jobs and economic opportunities for people in a rural part of the state with little else going for it.
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Just a quick comment – I do not think that this part of the state “has little else going for it.” My husband and I looked at buying land in this area, specifically because it was beautiful and quiet. We didn’t, but not because there was anything wrong with it that needed to be improved.
I’m not sure when farming and other rural pursuits became something to be dismissive about. Being beautiful and rural are things going for the area, not faults that need to be corrected.
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This topic has become so much about politics.I am still looking for some unbiased scientific research on the topic.
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Did a series of searches on the Legislative Information System for the Virginia General Assembly. Used “fracking”, “hydraulic fracturing” etc.
Only one bill came back in the searches – HB915. That bill would have mandated that hydraulic fracturing be allowed on any state owned land where an oil and gas exploration permit was issued.
In other words, it was “pro fracking”.
It died in committee.
No other mention of fracking of hydraulic fracturing in the regular 2014 session.
However, the Imperial Clown Show in Richmond found the time needed to commend 244 different people, places and things during the session.
If fracking is a big deal (and I suspect it is) – where is our legislature on the matter?
A broader bill would have prevented exploration for oil and gas in the Eastern Virginia Groundwater Management area. It passed in the Senate by 28 -12 but was tabled in the Committee for Commerce and Labor.
I believe that committee votes are not made public. Therefore, whoever decided to kill the bill in committee remains unknown to the voters.
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I wouldn’t be eager to live next to any form of drilling, short term or otherwise, but these permits are hardly by right. There are
EPA rules and state and local rules. Gas drilling is already going on in other places in Virginia and so far nobody has pointed to problems. I suspect a call to or some search time on the DMME website would be productive.Senator Stuart’s bill, which was seen as a total prohibition, did pass the Senate and I’m sure they vote to table it was recorded by a few dozen lobbyists on either side of the issue, if not by the clerk. In fact there is probably a paper vote sheet you could look up. But the failure of that bill does not mean no regulations exist. Hardly.
Frankly I’m curious about the use of nitrogen since it is highly abundant (78 percent of the atmosphere) and it’s the use of water in this process that worries me the most. The water table in that part of Virginia is not unlimited and that was one of Senator Stuart’s concerns, as I recall.
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Les,
What science are you talking about? The point of the post is that fracking wells are taking them to spots unused to them and there are plenty of dramatic local effects. Did you watch the video? There’s really not much science about it.
As for “unbiased” science, what are you referring to? Whether fracking hurts groundwater? Release methane in the air? Create flowback waste ponds? What?
Fracking has been around for years but it has been primarily used in remote areas of the U.S. Southwest that are dry and don’t affect local populations much. The current waves has taken it to the wetter, more populous East although West Virginia and Pennsylvania and Ohio have seen gas wells for years. The oil industry began in Pa. and in Baku.
But if you see a study you consider unbiased are you going to say, go ahead and frack and to hell with the neighbors? Virginia simply isn’t ready for this as DJR’s note says. -
Kinda stunned (maybe not) with Bacon’s remark that rural areas like the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula “have little else going for them.” This typically thoughtless comment makes on wonder how well Connecticut-born and DC-bred Mr. Bacon who is a self-described “Virginian through and through” really knows the state.
The Taylorsville Basin runs through valuable pine lands and rich fields of soybeans and corn and truck crops. It is a major component of the state’s seafood industry. It is where lot of people rich and poor find bucolic solace by residing there. It’s unemployment rates are slightly higher than or comparable to those in beloved Richmond. They are NOT on the levels of the Eastern Shore or Southside of the coalfields. Maybe that was where Mr. Bacon, writing as usual from his windowless, basement office imagines them. Jim, all rural areas are NOT the same!
There is something contrarian and scary about Jim’s analysis. he pretends to be a conservative this or a conservative that but his judgments might as well come out of Moscow’s Gosplan — “Let”s frack Eastern Siberia it has little else going for it.”
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