Green Guerrillas are looking forward to a “day off” tomorrow!  While we GIVE THANKS each and every day here in our homelands, we are especially cognizant of the BLESSINGS of our natural world at times like these… especially when we think of our neighbors to the south in Dimock, Pennsylvania.

According to Brad Gill, Executive Director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York… “[n]atural gas is a clean, abundant and affordable fuel.  Increasing production here in New York will help improve our economy, increase tax revenues and jobs, and bring our nation closer to energy independence.”¹

He recently said in an interview “when you think about 1.3 million wells across the nation [that] have been fracked, [with] about 900,000 producing today, you can name several incidents that aren’t true contamination but [simply] methane-charged water.”²

But what do the people who are drinking methane-charged water have to say?

Gas Drilling and Drinking Water

Since 2008, over 4,000 gas wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania. Farmers in southwestern section of the state blame cattle deaths and mutations on local hydraulic fracturing.  Other community complaints include tainted water, children getting sick, skin rashes, and neurological disorders.

Natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale in Dimock has released methane into the water supply, drinking water wells have exploded, and others were found to contain so much gas that one homeowner was told to open a window if he planned to take a bath.

In three (yes… 1, 2, THREE) separate spills at the Heitsman well in a rural area just south of Montrose, about 8,000 gallons of a carcinogenic chemical — used to ease resistance in gas well production — polluted a wetland and caused a fish kill in Stevens Creek.  The chemical, LGC-35 CBM, is manufactured by Halliburton.  It dissolves in water (making cleanup extremely difficult), has led to skin cancer in animals and “may cause headache, dizziness and other central nervous system effects” to anyone who breathes or swallows it according to the Material Safety Data Sheets for LGC-35 CBM.

It was announced last Friday that the residents of Dimock are taking action… and we stand in solidarity with their efforts.

residents sue over polluted drinking water

They blame “fracking” in Susquehanna County. The company says there may be a natural cause.

By Michael Rubinkam

Associated Press

DIMOCK, Pa. – Pat Farnelli says there’s something in the water at her house. The last time she drank it, she says, she vomited four times. It has made her children sick, too.

Like her neighbors in this rural community in Susquehanna County, 15 miles south of the New York border, Farnelli signed a lease with a major natural-gas driller to explore a potentially lucrative formation beneath her land. Now, Farnelli and other plaintiffs in a lawsuit allege Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. of Houston polluted their wells with methane gas and other contaminants, destroying the value of their homes and threatening their health.

A Cabot spokesman said the lawsuit, filed late Thursday in federal court in Scranton, had no merit.

At a news conference Friday to announce the suit, residents described an ordeal that began shortly after Cabot started drilling near their homes. The water that came out of their faucets suddenly became cloudy and discolored, and it smelled and tasted foul.

Then, on New Year’s Day, a resident’s water well exploded, prompting a state investigation that found Cabot had allowed combustible gas to escape into the region’s groundwater.

Residents “were never told that this was even a possibility,” said Alan Fuchsberg, an attorney for the plaintiffs.

Here in New York, the last of the DEC-sponsored hearings for public comment took place last week:

Green Guerrillas are just wondering what more needs to be said?

If anyone thinks this process is “safe” and that “methane-charged” water is tasty… just head down to Dimock (where 90% of the land is leased for natural gas exploration and exploitation) and take a sip from one of their wells.

We’d like to see Brad Gill go to Dimock and fill up his water bottle!

WE CAN IMPROVE OUR ECONOMY, INCREASE TAX REVENUES, AND CREATE JOBS WITH ABUNDANT, AFFORDABLE, CLEAN RENEWABLE ENERGY!

Hey Brad Gill… that’s TRUE ENERGY INDEPENDENCE!

Ya dig?

¹ Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York State

² Environmental Battle Brews in New York Over Natural Gas Drilling, Democracy Now!, 10-06-09

can't stop... won't stop?

Green Guerrillas checking in on our TENTH DAY of NONstop action… but still feeling ENERGIZED!

Good thing most of us are under 20… ha!

So, where to begin?  Let’s just take it in chronological order…

First… since our last post we have gathered more information on recent developments regarding natural gas exploration and exploitation…

DEC Could Lack Resources to Enforce Drilling Regulations

… and Toxics Targeting president Walter Hang was interviewed about his demand that New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation’s Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS) be withdrawn by Governor David Paterson… who was, then, himself, interviewed about the state of New York’s economy and the concerns of its residents regarding natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.  Listen in and let us know what you think:

Hang: Gas Drilling & DEC – Nov 16, 2009
Toxics Targeting president Walter Hang says he wants the DEC to rescind its environmental impact statement.

Governor David Paterson – Nov 16, 2009
Gov. Paterson discusses the budget crisis, mid-year school state aid cuts, drilling regulations for the Marcellus Shale, and a gay marriage vote.

We also joined in on the celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the founding of the Africana Studies and Research Center at Cornell University…

Africana Studies and Research Center Celebrates 40 Years

and learned more about what really happened at the first Thanksgiving from Onondaga storyteller Perry Ground…

Onondaga Storyteller Perry Ground

On Tuesday, we finished drafting our comments and practiced our public speaking skills… and then road-tripped down to Corning, New York (about an hour south of Ithaca) Wednesday evening in our veggie diesel bus for the last of the DEC-sponsored public hearings on the dSGEIS.

But since school/work prevented us from getting there before 5:30 PM when the doors opened, we were speaker #99 (each speaker got 5 minutes, so starting at 7 PM meant we would not get to rock the mic until 3:30 AM)… yikes!

DEC-Sponsored Hearing on dSGEIS in Corning

Even though we did not get to have our say… we at least demonstrated how we felt about fracking…

nat gas drilling + profits = bad company

if our water is poisoned, what will we drink?

… and yes, MUCH MORE time is needed Governor Paterson!

That’s why nearly 1,000 people filled the State Theater on Martin Luther King, Jr. Street in downtown Ithaca on Thursday night… and this time we were FIRST in line at 4:15 PM… and finally got the opportunity to publicly share 5 minutes worth of what we have learned over the last several months…

GGs say... NO FRACKING WAY!

GGs say... NO FRACKING WAY!

And… in the midst of going to school and work, engaging in other S.T.A.M.P. activities, spending some time away from each other (inconceivable), and handling all the necessities of life… VOTING OPENED FOR A CONTEST WE ENTERED to get technical assistance from Free Range Studios (makers of The Meatrix and The Story of Stuff) to create an online movie exposing natural gas as a false solution to climate change and the environmental impacts of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

CAST YOUR VOTE FOR GREEN GUERRILLAS NOW!

We also somehow managed to find the time to interview two new potential GGs, and host our monthly independent film series: ITVS Community Cinema.

Good grief!

tired?

If you had a week-plus like ours… we stand in solidarity with you and your work!  Congrats on making change… FUN, isn’t it?

But seriously… we ain’t tired! In fact, WE ARE FIRED UP! We are just getting started… energetically riding high on all the support we have received from across the country (and around the world) for our proposed project with Free Range Studios:

“The Green Guerrillas give me hope for the future! They’re a dynamic group of youth rising up and armed with the truth. They’ve got the insight, energy, creativity, analytical skills and dedication to reveal the real story behind what’s going on and compel people to ACT! They’re transforming our community and their project, “Natural gas…clean enough to drink?” will undoubtedly engage communities nationwide. We’ve all got something to learn from the GGs!”

“I support sustainable solutions!!!
Working together, we can make this work for everyone including our plants and our water and our soil and our air. Thank you Green Guerrillas for supporting all of us to live healthy and beautiful lives. Living sustainable lives really is for everyone. We really are all here together. I love you all, you are my family.”

“This group of kids is absolutely amazing. You would not believe their dedication to sustainability and AWESOME media-making! It is an inspiration to follow their story and watch their videos. Plus, they KNOW what the deal is about natural gas drilling and more importantly, can explain the dangers in terms everyone can understand and agree with!”

“Green Guerrillas, you’ve only just begun! you make an ole man reaffirm his faith in youngfolks as change-agents. Right On!”

GREEN GUERRILLAS GIVE THANKS for the examples of our ancestors, our elders, and our comrades… we are ona move in Haudenosaunee Territory sending a LOUD AND CLEAR MESSAGE…

DON’T FRACK WITH NEW YORK!

Join us… a coalition of THIRTY ONE STATES will preserve our planet’s life-affirming natural resources for seven generations to come!

Green Guerrillas checking in with the latest in the court of public opinion on natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale… lots happening, but here’s a quick report back…

First, in the spirit of keeping it local, Ithaca’s own Toxics Targeting was interviewed on Democracy Now! on the morning of the second DEC Hearing for public comments on their 803-page Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS):

NYS Regs “Woefully Insufficient for Decades”

The New York-based Toxics Targeting went through the Department of Environmental Conservation’s own database of hazardous substances spills over the past thirty years. They found 270 cases documenting fires, explosions, wastewater spills, well contamination and ecological damage related to gas drilling. Many of the cases remain unresolved. The findings are contrary to repeated government assurances that existing natural gas well regulations are sufficient to safeguard the environment and public health. The state is considering allowing for gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale watershed, the source of drinking water for 15 million people, including nine million New Yorkers.

Here’s a lil of what happened in New York City on Tuesday evening:

Kill the Drill’ and Protect the Water

A hostile crowd of about 800 people, including city officials, filled the Stuyvesant High School auditorium on Tuesday night at a hearing on New York State’s plan to permit gas drilling in the state’s Southern Tier, including the six counties of the New York City watershed.

The crowd demanded that the state prohibit natural gas drilling in the watershed, which provides 90 percent of the city’s drinking water. Many demanded a complete ban on natural gas drilling in all 27 counties of the state’s southern tier where the gas-bearing Marcellus Shale formation lies 3,000 to 6,000 feet under the surface.

The Nov. 10 official Department of Environmental Conservation hearing, the only one scheduled in New York City, had 160 speakers signed up and not all of them had time to speak before the five-hour session closed at 11 p.m.

One man leaped on stage at the beginning of the hearing to interrupt the testimony of Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler and shouted, “We want a statewide ban on gas drilling. We don’t need any more public hearings.” Sympathizers in the audience stood, waved “State Wide Ban” signs and cheered, but a State Trooper escorted the man out.

Speaking for the Bloomberg administration, Skyler said the proposal to allow horizontal hydraulic fracture drilling for natural gas in the city watershed posed a public health risk. “We have asked the state Department of Health to comment on the health implications of the proposal,” Skyler said, adding that in view of the potential cost of repairing damage to the city’s water supply by drilling accidents it would be prudent to ban drilling in the watershed.

The state’s environmental department has submitted the application and says the drilling will be safe to the water supply.

An hour before the hearing, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer led a rally of environmentalists and elected officials.

“A great environmental crisis is facing all of us,” Stringer said. “The safety of the watershed must never be taken for granted. The state says ‘Don’t worry we have protection in place.’ We say, ‘kill the drill,’” said Stringer, leading the rally in a “kill the drill” chant.

New Yorkers: ‘No Fracking Way’

This was the second public hearing on the DEC’s environmental review of natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, a process heralded as environmentally sound by the energy industry and as environmentally treacherous by its opponents, including a slew of politicians, environmentalists and concerned residents.

The group that gathered Tuesday night had no intention of reconciling those points of view.

The first speakers were public officials (or their stand-ins), who read prepared statements echoing each other’s calls for a ban of drilling in New York City’s upstate watershed, which supplies drinking water for 9 million city residents. Chesapeake Energy Corp., which says it is the only company that owns leases in the watershed, has pledged not to drill there. But the officials who spoke — including Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, who has led the cause locally — were pushing for the state to take that pledge further by banning drilling in the watershed.

“A press release is not a contract,” Stringer said, referring to Chesapeake’s announcement of Oct. 28. “A company’s pledge is not legally binding.”

In his testimony at the hearing, Scott Rotruck, Chesapeake’s vice president of corporate development, was applauded when he repeated his company’s promise. Later in his statement, however, many of his points — including the claim that the “winners environmentally and financially will include the residents of New York City” — were met with boos.

Other industry representatives, including Brad Gill of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York state, had planned to make comments but left without doing so.

The DEC recently extended the public comment period on the 800-plus-page report from 60 days to 90, and will hold two more public hearings before the period ends Dec. 31. Comments can also be submitted by mail or online.

On Wednesday, a resolution calling for Cornell University to be transparent in its decision to potentially lease 11,000 acres in the Finger Lakes Region to natural gas drilling multi-national corporations was tabled:

ITHACA — Some faculty members at a Southern Tier university are calling on their administrators to take a stand on natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

Cornell professors presented this resolution to the university’s Faculty Senate Wednesday night.  It requests Cornell president David Skorton to involve the university community in the decision to lease school land to gas drilling companies.  Molecular medicine professor Robert Oswald helped write the resolution.  He’s concerned about the environmental effects of hydraulic fracturing in the Marcellus Shale.

He says Cornell has a lot to lose because it owns so much land – 11,000 acres to be exact.

“One of the reasons students and faculty are attracted to this region is the beauty and quality of life here.  If this turns into an industrial site, I think we’ll have a damaged reputation at the university,” said Oswald.

No action was taken on this resolution.  Oswald and the other co-authors will revise the language and present it at next month’s faculty senate meeting.

Then there was another DEC Hearing last night in Chenango Bridge outside of Binghamton, New York:

The last DEC Public Hearing is next Wednesday, November 18th in Corning, New York.

There will also be a public meeting in Ithaca at the State Theater on Martin Luther King, Jr. Street downtown.

LISTEN to the Voices of Dimock, Pennsylvania… and get inspired to get involved!

What do we say?  Gas Our Ass… Mother Frackers!

Welcome to Natural Gas Drilling Awareness Month! Yes… our announcement is a few days late, but things are happening at a record pace and it is getting just a tad bit overwhelming trying to keep up!  Do you think they do this to us on purpose?

Anyways… we may actually have to extend this celebration in to December now that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has given us all a whopping 30 more days to read their 803-page Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS).. yes, a mouthful, but the bigger question is this: Are you finished with it yet?

What?  You’re still reading?

Inconceivable! (shout out to all you Princess Bride fans)

For those of you just joining this conversation, here is a quick recap:

Some of the used-to-be-youth in our Collective have been exposed to the issue of natural gas drilling for several years, as “landsmen” have been coming around our area since the early 2000s getting landowners to sign leases so that oil and gas companies can access the natural gas under their property.

Basically, we are talking about going from this….

our homelands

to this…

photo credit: www.donnan.com

to this…

photo credit: wvsoro.org

Yikes!

In 2008, things started heating up in New York when Governor Patterson signed a bill making it easier for big corpa like Chesapeake Energy and Halliburton to drill in the Marcellus Shale–a 350-million-year-old rock formation that lies thousands of feet beneath parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, and West Virginia.  Around the time of the bill’s signing, DEC officials were saying that drilling could happen in as little as 12 weeks.

But thanks to public pressure¹ and lots of community organizing, with the signing of that bill Governor Patterson also ordered an update for the Generic Environmental Impact Statement that has regulated oil and gas development in New York since 1992.  According to the DEC at that time, “not one instance of drinking water contamination” had been connected to natural gas drilling… despite reports from communities in western states² and those living in Pennsylvania–where the hydraulic fracturing process used to extract natural gas was already underway–that questioned the changes in air and water quality in the vicinity of drilling activities.

Fast forwarding over the continuance of the DEC’s regulatory mumbo jumbo throughout 2008 and 2009… while report after report of threats to the health, safety, and welfare of animal, human, and plant life in communities thrust in to the natural gas development boom were coming to light… no one (except maybe the DEC) was the least bit surprised when the Environmental Protection Agency reported in early August 2009 that they had discovered drinking water contamination in private wells in Wyoming.

Then… at the end of September 2009, the DEC announced that they have come up with a way to make drilling safe.

So now we find ourselves in a peculiar situation, and WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Although the period for public comment for the dSGEIS has been extended for 30 more days (until 12-31-09), there only remains three public hearings left to let the DEC and big corpa know that we intend to kill the drill…

We need THOUSANDS MILLIONS of New Yorkers and other concerned people to speak up and speak out!

For those of you who prefer to work within the political process… there is something you can do too!  Rally support for the FRAC ACT… which just made more headway towards success³…

We told ya’ll when we started this it was going to be a rumble in the jungle… please help spread the word!

¹ New York’s Gas Rush Poses Environmental Threat, ProPublica, July 22, 2008

² Our Drinking Water At Risk: What the EPA and the Oil and Gas Industry Don’t Want Us to Know about Hydraulic Fracturing, Oil and Gas Accountability Project, April 2005

³ Congress Gives Final Approval to Hinchey Provision Urging EPA to Conduct New Study on Risks Hydraulic Fracturing Poses to Drinking Water Supplies, October 29, 2009

Happy Halloween!

We were just wrapping up our work for today when someone came up with g h o u l i s h  g a s… and we could not pass that one up!

In the spirit of FUN… we’ll keep this one short AND sweet… some of us do have some street walking to do, after all!

For those wondering why we have not yet disclosed exactly what is in the toxic recipe otherwise known as fracking fluid used by natural gas development companies, there is a simple answer.  Big corpa like Chesapeake Energy and Halliburton claim that to provide this information would be to put them at a disadvantage in the oil and gas industry because it is this recipe that makes them and their processes so special.  In other words, the chemical contents of hydraulic fracturing fluid are considered trade secrets… basically another form of don’t ask, don’t tell.  Right?

The Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (dSGEIS) released by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation on September 30th does offer some insights regarding the identity of the chemicals, but still withholds the full picture.

According to a recent article by ProPublica:

New York’s recently released review of the environmental risks posed by natural gas production in the Marcellus Shale offers the clearest picture yet of the chemicals used in the drilling process called hydraulic fracturing.

The document makes public the names of 260 chemicals, more than eight times as many as Pennsylvania state regulators have compiled. The list is the most complete released by any state or federal agency and could help answer concerns about hydraulic fracturing in Congress and in states where gas drilling has increased in recent years.

The review also takes another dramatic step by proposing that in certain situations companies that drill in New York be required to report the concentrations of the chemicals they use to state regulators, thereby creating a suite of information that environmental scientists say is essential to investigating water pollution from drilling. New York would be the first state to make such a demand.

The industry has been reluctant to release information about the chemicals it uses, because it considers them a proprietary trade secret. While New York has made the names of the chemicals public, it seems likely that the data about their concentration will be shared only with state officials.

For a lil more detail check out What’s in that Fracking Fluid and The Endocrine Disruption Exchange.

So we’ll sign off here for now… but before we go, one last question.

The Oil and Gas Industry would have us all believe that natural gas is the clean and green bridge to renewable energy.  Based on what you have learned thus far, do you consider the push for natural gas development a trick or a treat?

S.T.A.M.P. is (officially) FOUR YEARS OLD today… and we thought we’d celebrate by going over a lil Natural Gas Exploration and Exploitation 101 for all those who are interested in learning more about the environmental catastrophe heading our way here in Haudenosuanee Territory (CNY).  Sound like fun?

Well, grab your cake and ice cream (especially if its made from hemp milk…. yuuummm)… this is going to be a long party!

While there is MUCH ”science” involved in the issue of natural gas development, there is plenty of plain ol’ common sense that can help bring everyone up to speed on what’s really going on with what some are describing as the biggest environmental threat to this side of Turtle Island in recent history.

Let’s start with the basics… two key issues to get you informed and involved!

First, for those of you on the East Coast who have been watching the mainstream media’s limited coverage of this issue… and who are wondering what the heck is a Marcellus Shale… let’s talk about rock bottom:

Source: Appalachian Fracture Systems, Modified from U.S. Geological Survey

The Marcellus Shale is a Devonian-era “sedimentary rock formation” that was deposited in an area now known as the Appalachian Mountains over 350 million years ago.  In terms of its exact location, the Marcellus Shale lies anywhere from 6,000 to 9,000 feet underground… under the entire southern half of New York, and extends into Pennsylvania, western Maryland, eastern Ohio, and West Virginia… stretching out approximately 600 miles.

How did it get there?

” . . . . a lot of algae and other organisms died and fell to the bottom of a sea that covered what is now the eastern half of the U.S.  These organisms provided carbon, which has since been converted into hydrocarbons, such as methane gas and crude oil.” ¹

How much gas does it hold?

According to the Energy Information Administration, in 2006, the United States consumed approximately 21 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of natural gas.  Two geoscientists have estimated that the Marcellus Shale contains approximately 168 to 516 TCF of gas²… but only about 10% of that is recoverable.

Yikes!

So what does that mean?

Based on the 2006 consumption rates… natural gas from the Marcellus Shale will support energy needs in this country for LESS THAN 2.5 years at best.

That’s it.

Others say these estimates are low… we can actually get more.  But are a few years of natural gas worth a few generations of toxicity and irreversible environmental damage?

Not sure?

Then let’s move on to the second issue for this section of Natural Gas Exploration and Exploitation 101… our water!

Here in the Finger Lakes, many of us–including many members of Guerrilla Griots–enjoy unfiltered, tasty well water. Do you know who else has the good fortune to access unfiltered drinking water?  Millions of New Yorkers…. particularly the 9 million or so residents of New York City who rely upon “the largest unfiltered surface water system in the world.”³

What does this have to do with natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale–the largest natural gas reserve in the United States?

Let’s back up a minute and talk about one more reason why natural gas as a “transition fuel” is a false solution to mitigate climate change… hydraulic fracturing.

So we know that some energy analysts claim that natural gas is “smarter energy” compared to other fossil fuels because it (1) emits less CO and CO₂, (2) is available “in abundance” from domestic sources, (3) will make the market for renewable energy technologies more viable (yeah, right), and (4) offers a “long-term solution” to residential and commercial energy needs.  And while a few multinational corporations call it “eureka”… residents who live near gas drilling operations who can no longer drink their well water are probably thinking a lil differently…

Wouldn’t you?

So what role does water play in all this?

Recent advances in technology… accelerated by rising gas prices, energy costs, and our collective over-consumption of fossil fuels in recent years (can you say Escalade?)… have made natural gas exploration more accessible by updating a process first developed by Halliburton in the 1940s.  That process is called hydraulic fracturing… also hydro-fracking or fracking or fracing.  And while it is true that hydraulic fracturing has been used in New York for many decades, its use has been in conjunction with vertical wells where the gas is available in other rock layers which are pressurized… meaning that once the rock is drilled in to the gas merely escapes to the surface.  With the advent of slick water hydraulic fracturing (also known as high-volume hydraulic fracturing), developed in the 1990s, much more water, sand, toxic chemicals, and lots of pressure are needed to extract the gas trapped in tiny pores and cracks dispersed throughout the millions-of-years-old rock formations which lie thousands of feet below the Earth’s surface.

Marcellus Shale Gas Well

What does slick water, high-volume hydrofracking entail exactly? In technical terms, fracking involves drilling “a conventional cement-cased vertical well bore into the earth down to the level of the shale.  The bore then turns 45-degrees to run horizontally through the center of the shale slab. . . .   Fresh water, and lots of it, is mixed with chemicals and forced through the well bore and into the shale.  The water causes the rock to fracture, allowing the gas to flow back into the bore for capture at the wellhead.”⁴ In other words, a mix of water, sand, and chemicals is used, at very high pressure, to fracture the rock formations.  These fractures are then “propped open” by the sand, through which the gas flows toward the heads of the wells.

So… how much fresh water are we really talking about?  It is estimated that with each fracking, 2 to 9 million gallons of water are used. About half of the frac fluid (the “brine” that is created when the water and chemicals mix) remains in the ground… the other 1,000,000 to 4,000,000 gallons (yes, count the zeros!) comes back up out of the well with all those life-threatening chemicals and is lovingly referred to as “produced water.”

The United States Department of Energy considers the waste water from hydraulic fracturing to be one of the most toxic industrial byproducts of the gas and oil industry. Some say that a well can be fracked at least TEN TIMES during its productive life.

The two biggest UNANSWERED questions facing New York State in light of recent government studies which suggest that natural gas development can be done safely–meaning NO harm to our water, the land, the air, and animal/human/plant life–is where will all this FRESH water come from, and where will all the waste water go?

Hydrofracking in the NYC Watershed is being considered, along with a large part of Central and Western New York.

Simply put… our water is under attack.

We will offer a bit more information on the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing and what has been happening to the water, health, and wellth of other communities when natural gas drilling came to town in our next post.  We’ll make it MUCH shorter next time though… promise!

In the meantime, check out this excerpt from a new film in progress exposing the man behind the curtain in America’s so-called new, domestic, clean energy campaign:

Thanks for reading!

¹ Shale Gas: Focus on the Marcellus Shale, OGAP/EARTHWORKS, June 2008

² Unconventional Natural Gas Reservoir in Pennsylvania Poised to Dramatically Increase US Production, Science Daily, January 2008

³ Uncalculated Risk: How Plans to Drill for gas in Upstate New York Could Threaten New York City’s Water System, by Scott M. Stringer, February 2009

⁴ Mixing Gas and Water: Drilling in the City’s Watershed, Gotham Gazette, January 2009

In the spirit of Blog Action Day 2009… in support of dismantling global warming and working toward another world FREE of pollution, criminalization, exploitation, and incarceration… Green Guerrillas checking in with our four cents…

With New York State on the fast track to following Pennsylvania’s lead in joining the national boom in favor of natural gas drilling (31 states strong), Green Guerrillas is working with other activists locally, regionally, and nationally to raise public awareness and get as many folks involved in this issue as possible.

The issue of natural gas development is too large and complex for a single post… so we will offer as much background as we can put together over the new few weeks to try to bring everyone up to speed… or at least incite ya’ll to look out for yourselves, and the futures of your children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

So what’s the big deal about natural gas drilling, you ask?  Isn’t it a “transition fuel” that will lead the country out of its economic crisis by reducing our dependence on foreign oil and help green America?

natural gas efficiency

*Original Graphic credit: Elk River Public Utility District; updated by American Public Gas Association based on 2008 EIA data

According to a fairly recent series on NPR…

“If we were to convert half of our existing vehicle fleet [to natural gas], we would eliminate a little over half our oil imports,” Hefner contends. He and other natural gas advocates have been supported in recent months by environmental organizations.

“There’s a huge capacity of natural gas that is lying idle,” says Timothy Wirth, a former Democratic senator from Colorado who now heads the United Nations Foundation. “That makes absolutely no sense at all when what we’re trying to do is clean up the atmosphere.”

Natural gas is still a fossil fuel, and when burned it does produce greenhouse gases. Environmentalists working for the use of renewable energy sources nonetheless see natural gas as a transition fuel. One idea is to build mini-power generating stations, each connected to the natural gas pipeline infrastructure. A station attached to a hospital or a shopping mall could produce heat as well as electrical power, cutting energy costs dramatically.

Sounds good, right?

Well, the other side of the story… tells the unraveling tale of contamination (benzene, a carcinogen) in groundwater and nearby streams in Colorado,¹ rural water wells in Wyoming reeking of fuel vapors,² and nearby drinking water advisories in the Monongahela watershed in Pennsylvania.³ If all continues as planned by multinational corporations like Halliburton, the drinking water supplied to millions in NYC (presently unfiltered), other parts of New York, Philadelphia, and a large part of Pennsylvania will be forever tainted with the tasty toxicity of natural gas development in the Marcellus Shale.

There is so much more to share… but just realize this: natural gas drilling is a direct result of our collective over-consumption of fossil fuels.  Resource extraction is not a new phenomenon, of course.  It is just hitting a few of us closer to home and Green Guerrillas are working to “clean up” our own backyards!  We are familiar with the destruction caused by coal-fired power plants on Black Mesa, in Arizona… we made a short video about it two years ago:

But now we are faced with the same cancer-causing catastrophe coming our way… so that we can all continue to consume nonrenewable energy resources at our current levels.

What exactly?

So we will pause it here with one last question… is natural gas clean enough to drink?

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) – Pennsylvania’s top environmental official said on Friday that a natural gas drilling boom would inevitably result in some environmental damage including possible contamination of water supplies.

Responding to concerns that drilling in some areas has caused toxic chemicals to pollute drinking water, John Hanger said the value of the gas underlying Pennsylvania and parts of surrounding states outweighed damage drilling may cause.

“You can’t do a large amount of drilling and have zero impact,” Hanger, acting secretary of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection, told Reuters. “There’s going to be a lot of good that comes from drilling in Pennsylvania, but there are also going to be some problems.”

Hanger said he could not confirm or deny reports that water in the northeast Pennsylvania township of Dimock — where many producing wells are located — is being contaminated by chemicals from a process called hydrofracturing, or “fracking,” in which chemicals are forced deep into the rock mixed with water and sand.

He acknowledged that some of the chemicals could be dangerous to human health but said that risk has to be weighed against the benefits that will come from the exploitation of what he called the “enormous” gas reserves contained in the Marcellus Shale.

“Some of these chemicals are things you couldn’t drink. There’s no doubt about that,” he said. “We have processes that go on in our lives all the time that involve these chemicals, and we run a certain amount of risk because of the benefits.”

He pledged that officials would respond diligently to any complaints about polluted water resulting from the drilling. “We are absolutely focused on protecting our water,” he said.

Energy companies such as Cabot Oil and Gas, which operates in the Dimock area, say the chemicals used in fracking fluid are heavily diluted and pose no threat to health. They also say the fluid is injected a mile or more underground, thousands of feet below the level of drinking water aquifers.

Residents in Dimock say their water has caused sickness and at times has become discolored and foul-smelling since drilling started.

Responding to concerns about gas drilling, DEP officials on Friday published a list of fracking chemicals on the agency’s website for the first time, under the heading “Summary of Hydraulic Fracture Solutions.” (here)

Hanger said the Marcellus reserve contains at least 350 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, or enough to supply the entire U.S. demand for 10 to 15 years without relying on the output of any other state, Canada or Mexico.

He predicted development of the field, which is in a very early stage, would bring billions of dollars to the state and create tens of thousands of jobs. Natural gas would also benefit the environment, he because is cleaner burning than oil or coal.

¹ Does Natural Gas Drilling Endanger Water Supplies? Business Week, 11.11.08

² EPA: Chemicals Found in Wyoming Drinking Water Might be From Fracking, Pro Publica, 08.25.09

³ Delaware River Drinking Water Threatened, Weekly Press, 09.23.09

With all the talk of peace prizes in the media and the reality of endless wars, we are reminded of the legacy of columbus… domination of other peoples, domination of the environment, and domination of other belief systems through domination by patriarchy…

As Guerrilla Griots, we make our own media by analyzing important social, political, economic, and environmental issues which affect our lives.  Our work involves connecting the dots between 500-year-old issues of prejudice, inequality, oppression, and discrimination with the increased use of policing, exploitation, resource extraction, and incarceration nationwide and abroad.  We recognize the life-threatening role of columbus’ legacy in our lives, and its potential to further endanger ALL life on the planet for at least Seven Generations to come unless challenged and abolished.

So we start with ourselves and our families and our actions.  It is days and times like these that we are reminded that the “New World Order” is really just the same old %#@!  We pay homage to our ancestors who came before us, and before columbus… by using our resources to learn, to grow, to challenge, and to change…

check us out on changents.com

Because we know that we can change the world for ourselves and future generations… transforming the legacy of columbus all the while… we are getting involved in local/regional issues around natural gas drilling, and helping to organize the United States Social Forum II scheduled for late June 2010 in Detroit.

we will keep you posted…

BLESSINGS!

Green Guerrillas spent the weekend learning about cool and catastrophe.

Let’s start with the good news first… the cool! 

We always look forward to gleaning inspiration in the beauty, bounty, and sustainability of our local area… our homelands.  This past weekend we joined in with thousands of others all across Turtle Island to participate in the 14th Annual Solar Tour sponsored by American Solar Energy Society.

From ASES:

In addition to highlighting solar options available, an increasing focus of the tour is on energy-saving techniques and sustainability through building design, energy efficient appliances, and use of green materials during remodeling. Tours also provide helpful, real-world examples of costs and how to save money with federal, state, and local incentives.

Ultimately the tour inspires people across the nation to make sustainable energy choices that help lower costs, support energy independence, protect against power outages, and reduce carbon emissions. Be part of the renewable energy revolution.

The Solar Tour happens the first Saturday in October every year in conjunction with National Energy Awareness Month, and is coordinated by various agencies, businesses, activists, and organizations.  For those of you interested in staying in the solar loop and finding out about activities in our area, check out the Northeast Sustainable Energy Association.  Guerrilla Griots has been checking out the Solar Tour since 2002, and Green Guerrillas featured green cribs in Tompkins County (New York State) in our second film, Food Clothes Shelter Community.

Now… on the un-cool part of so-called clean energy.

Guerrilla Griots are preparing for a “rumble in the jungle” as we join with others regionally to keep our families/friends, our animals, our air/water/soil quality, and all other life in our homelands safe from the environmental destruction that is headed our way as a result of natural gas exploration and extraction. Green Guerrillas took a break from the solar tour on Saturday to check out the film Split Estate in Elmira Heights to find out what happened in communities out west when gas drilling came to town:

Guerrilla Griots have joined in with other activists and organizers in West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York to raise awareness and expose the irreversible damage done to human and animal health, and air, soil, and water quality when high-pressure, horizontal hydraulic fracturing is used to extract gas from shale located deep within Mother Earth.

Here is a lil more information…

From Pro Publica:

The push to find clean domestic energy has zeroed the country in on one resource it has plenty of: natural gas. Vast deposits large enough to supply the country for decades have become the focus of a drilling boom stretching across 31 states. But water contamination has also been reported in more than a thousand cases where that drilling is taking place, raising questions about the primary drilling method being used to get to the gas.

That drilling technique, called hydraulic fracturing, shoots large amounts of water, sand and toxic chemicals into the ground to break up rock and release the gas. The Environmental Protection Agency has declared the process to be safe despite warnings from several of its own scientists that it is not. The gas companies are exempt from federal laws protecting the nation’s water supplies, and are allowed to conceal the identities of their chemicals as trade secrets. Together these things have made it difficult for scientists and investigators to determine the exact cause of the contamination that is occurring in water supplies.

That’s why lawmakers in Congress and in several states are pushing for deeper study of the impact of drilling and for closer oversight of the gas industry. The U.S. House and Senate are considering legislation to reverse the federal exemptions, and New York state is considering a partial ban on drilling anywhere near New York City’s watershed. The industry — in the form of millions of dollars spent on lobbying, a slew of court cases, and a robust public relations campaign — is pushing back.

So… we are gearing up for a massive organizing campaign as we seek to protect our air, our water, and our homelands for seven generations to come.  We will keep ya’ll posted on the latest developments and what you can do to help.

Peace!

Did you know that some studies suggest that over the course of our lives “most people spend only 4% – 5% of their time outdoors?”

YIKES!

So, Green Guerrillas Youth Media Tech Collective figured that — just in case this sad statistic applies to us (what exactly?) — we would defy these odds during Summer 2009 by engaging with our local landscape to improve our cinematography skills.  Here’s what we came up with:

Let us know what you think!