Fracking threatens health , environment

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The Occupy Wall Street movement has helped many in the United States to recognize the influence that cor­ porations have over political life. The predatory practices of the major fi­ nancial institutions, our society’s deepening inequality, and the irrec­ oncilable differences between the 99 percent and the 1 percent have all been brought to the fore. One of the areas in which capitalism’s contradic­ tions are most glaring is the relation­ ship between a system based on end­ less profiteering at any cost and the earth on which we all live and rely.

The movement for environmen­ tal justice is multifaceted. Struggles against mountain top removal in West Virginia, against the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, against the use of nuclear energy, and hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in the United States and abroad have made their way into major news sources. All of these must be considered in relation to the time-sensitive problem of cli­ mate change and the absolute need to transition to an economy based on renewable and safe energy. Under capitalism such a transition would be impossible due to the large amounts of money invested in the extraction and selling of finite energy sources.

Few methods of acquiring energy lay bare the capitalist system’s complete disregard for human health and safety more than fracking. This extremely destructive process involves pump­ ing millions of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals deep below the earth’s surface to fracture shale rock forma­ tions that contain deposits of gas for extraction. Communities, along with the people who work at fracking sites, are at risk as they are exposed to tox­ ic chemicals, extremely loud noises caused by heavy machinery, water, and air contamination, and possible explosions.

Even the mining of sand used in fracking has raised serious health concerns. An enormous increase in the price of sand in recent years has made this an extreme­ ly lucrative business. As a result, Southern Minnesota and Wisconsin are experiencing great environmental destruction as chunks of landscape are torn up, air is polluted with silica particles and diesel fume emis­ sions, and water is contaminated. But sand mining is only the initial stage of the process. The part that deals with the actual extraction of gas is just as invasive.

Pennsylvania rests above the Marcellus Shale for­ mation and has been extremely impacted by the pro­ cess. The enormous amount of water mixed with sand and chemicals and pumped beneath the earth’s sur­ face to fracture the shale comes back to the top as an even more toxic soup that poses serious challenges for storage and treatment.

There’s no such thing as a clean fracking fluid. Ac­ cording to two Stony Brook University scientists quot­ ed in protectingourwaters.wordpress.com: “‘Even a benign hydraulic fracturing fluid is contaminated once it comes into contact with the Marcellus Shale.’ Sodi­ um, chloride, bromide, arsenic, barium and naturally occurring radioactive materials are the kinds of con­ taminants that occur in fracking well wastewater.”

In states like Ohio this toxic mixture is used to deice roads or stored in injection wells deep under­ ground. Truth-out.org reports that Youngstown, Ohio, experienced 12 earthquakes last year due to the mi­ gration of subterranean wastewater into an unmapped fault. One of the quakes measured a 4.0 on the Richter scale.

Shale gas is often advertised as a “bridge fuel” to re­ newable energy. A problem with this portrayal is the fact that fracking produces copious amounts of meth­ ane, which traps considerably more heat in the atmo­ sphere than carbon dioxide. According to an article published by The Scientific American last winter, when the toxic soup from the gas well resurfaces it brings with it 40 to 60 percent more methane than is pro­ duced in a conventional gas well. This “fugitive meth­ ane” is released directly into the atmosphere.

According to data from two Cornell University pro­ fessors cited in the article, “within the next 20 years, methane will contribute 44 percent of the greenhouse gas load produced by the U.S. Of that portion, 17 per­ cent will come from natural gas operations.” They also point out that within this 20-year period hundreds of thousands of wells are scheduled to go into operation worldwide. At the moment fracking accounts for 90% of gas exploration in the United States.

Contaminated water and climate change are only portions of the problem. Heavy machinery and infra­ structure development with complete disregard for human safety is also part of the picture.

On March 29 the Lathrop Compressor station in Susquehanna County, Pa., caught fire. A typical com­ pressor used in the fracking process emits known car­ cinogens into the air and causes people living nearby to experience nausea, severe headaches, and dizziness in addition to other symptoms. Compressors are pro­ liferating throughout Pennsylvania, which makes air contamination and potential explosions a serious risk for residents.

In fact, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmen­ tal Protection is in the process of issuing approval to the company responsible for the exploding compres­ sor to construct the Central Compressor Station in Susquehanna County. The state has already said that they will not impose regulations on toxins released from the compressor into the air or hold the company responsible for malfunctions due to “poor mainte­ nance or careless operations.”

In New York State, where Gov. Cuomo is consider­ ing allowing fracking, a major construction project is in the works. According to The New York Times, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has given the go-ahead on a controversial natural-gas pipeline that would run beneath the Hudson River connecting New Jersey to the West Village in Manhattan. This new pipeline, which is supported by Mayor Bloomberg, has a $1.2 billion price tag and is anticipated to transport 800 million cubic feet of gas daily. Some 200 feet un­ derground, it would include about 15 miles of addi­ tional pipe through Bayonne and Jersey City and un­ der Staten Island before making its way to Manhattan.

In addition, gas equipment and facilities will be placed in sections of New Jersey, New York, and Con­ necticut. Clearly, Bloomberg, Cuomo, and the project proposer Spectra Energy care little about the enor­ mous risk associated with placing a potentially explo­ sive gas pipeline beneath areas as densely populated Jim Roske / AP (Left) Protesters at Albany, N.Y. statehouse on June 20 demand that Gov. Cuomo reject fracking efforts.

as North Jersey and New York.

Since the construction of the pipe­ line is designed to transport the gas derived from fracking, there has been a considerable attempt on the part of Bloomberg Philanthropies to green­ wash the process. The foundation re­ cently awarded a $6 million grant to the Environmental Defense Fund in hopes of securing stronger regulations on the inherently disastrous process. But the only real solution is an all-out ban on fracking.

It is also falsely claimed that fracking will reduce America’s energy depen­ dency. According to a recent article published by the Sierra Club, much of the methane gas that comes from frack­ ing in the U.S. is slated for highly profit­ able export. The plan is to convert the gas to liquified natural gas and ship it out to a global market.

With North American methane being the cheapest in the world, estimates show that as much as 40% of meth­ ane extracted in this country could be exported. This could cause the price of methane to drastically increase in­ dustry and utility bills in an already precarious economy. The whole pro­ cess would involve mile upon mile of dangerous high-pressure pipelines. In Oregon, state and national forests have been sacrificed in the construction of such facilities.

Indeed, fracking has the potential to become a widespread global catas­ trophe. It is believed that China has the largest shale gas reserves in the world; China’s National Petroleum Corp is in partnership with Shell and is aim­ ing to produce billions of cubic meters of gas by 2015. Poland, the largest re­ serve in Europe, has already started drilling, though France and Bulgaria have instated a ban on frack­ ing. In England, much like in Ohio, earthquakes have occurred near drill sites.

In all of this working people are the most drastically affected. In Ohio, the government has sold state land and lake water to the energy companies for use in fracking. Everywhere workers are suffering on the job. According to a chilling press release put out by the or­ ganization Protecting Our Waters, a 42-year-old work­ er from Colorado died of pancreatic and liver cancer after years of washing out fracking waste water tanks and being denied protective safety equipment by his employer.

Workers have described the world of gas drilling as a “culture of fear” as they are expected to haul silica sand, toxic waste water, and operate dangerous equip­ ment without proper training or safety equipment. In this endless race for profits, as is generally the norm in capitalist society, human health and wellbeing take the backseat.

The only real solution to the crisis of fracking and climate change is a transition to a society based on human needs, not profits. Nothing short of a socialist society, a society under the democratic control of the working class, will allow us to establish an economy based on free, clean, and reusable energy for all.

On Thursday, Sept. 20, there will be a protest outside the Philadelphia Convention Center as the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a group of regional representatives of the gas industry and their political allies, hold their an­ nual convention. For more information, visit shalegas­ outrage.org. n William Way LGBT Center, 1315 Spruce St., Philadelphia. Sponsored by Socialist Action.

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© Francisco Dominguez / Special to Socialist Action (Left) Police pepper-spray students protesting fee hikes at University of California, Davis on Nov. 16, 2011. available seats because the class was over-enrolled. Many days I would have to find a seat on the floor or a windowsill if I didn’t get to class early enough to grab a chair.”

He continued, “I often thought to myself, ‘Am I really paying 40 grand a year to sit on a windowsill during class?’”

While some are frustrated and de­ moralized from the economic pros­ pects and austerity measures, oth­ ers and fighting back in an attempt to gain fair wages, good education, and health care. These mobilizations, along with other efforts like unioniza­ tion drives amongst young people in the workplace, are crucial for youth to be able to have anything other than a future of subsistence living in the United States.

U.S. students and youth are not the only ones facing this trend of declin­ ing standards of living. The global economic crisis has pushed ruling classes everywhere to drive up the cost of education, while lowering its value and scaling back on jobs.

But these austerity measures have not been implemented without a re­ sponse from the youth. There have been important signs of resistance all

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Hear Marxist historian Clifford Conner speak on the subject of his new book — Tribune of the French Revolution. Sunday, Sept. 30, 1 p.m.