Don’t frack with Pittsburgh

PITTSBURGH--Explosions at gas wells in the region, together with the BP oil disaster in the Gulf, have served as lightning rods for growing popular discontent over the rapid expansion of a new form of natural gas drilling--"hydraulic fracturing," known simply as "fracking."

One explosion, just northeast of Pittsburgh in late July, killed two workers. But now the energy companies that brought fracking to the region are facing a grassroots movement dedicated to educating people about the dangers of this technology--and demanding a stop to it.

"Fracking" allows energy corporations access to previously inaccessible natural gas deposits buried deep within shale rock formations. One of the largest such formations--the Marcellus Shale--lies beneath much of Ohio, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and New York state.

Extracting natural gas through "fracking" involves drilling into shale and pumping in millions of gallons of water, sand and a toxic cocktail of nearly 600 chemicals. The pressure from pumping builds until fractures or cracks form in the shale bed, releasing the natural gas. The process has been compared to creating mini-earthquakes to release the valuable fossil fuel.

Though several of the chemicals used in the process are known carcinogens, energy companies refuse to divulge a full breakdown of the cocktail. They argue that this is a "trade secret."

But many of the chemicals and some of the natural gas seep into groundwater around drilling sites. Once the chemicals are in the groundwater, they can easily pollute household wells, streams and lakes.

The immense demand for water in the fracking process and lax regulations on dumping wastewater only makes matters worse. Fracking is currently exempt from most federal environmental regulations, including the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Industry officials usually deny that fracking poses potential dangers to groundwater. But people in the affected areas have a different story to tell. Environmental Protection Agency officials recently told the people of Pavillion, Wyo., which had previously been a site of extensive fracking, not to drink their tap water--and to be sure to ventilate their morning showers to avoid explosions!

None of this seems to matter to the energy corporations. After all, they argue, natural gas burns cleaner than other forms of fossil fuels, and it can help Americans achieve energy independence.

These arguments miss the point. Natural gas won't replace oil and coal, but only supplement them. Unless prevented from doing so, energy corporations will continue to develop new and more dangerous ways of extracting more fossil fuels from the earth. And while natural gas may emit less carbon than coal, it still contributes to global warming.

Meanwhile, as Chris Williams shows in Ecology and Socialism, hydraulic fracturing is a bonanza for energy companies. Estimates say it will double the size of the gas reserve in the U.S.

RURAL PENNSYLVANIANS are no strangers to energy politics. Abandoned oil rigs, many gradually reclaimed by forests, litter the landscape in the rural northwest. Small towns with names like Oil City and Petrolia offer evidence of the world's first oil boom. Coal from the state's rolling mountains fueled the development of industrial capitalism, providing the energy to run the blast furnaces in Pittsburgh's steel industry and light up the skylines throughout the urban Northeast.

Now, energy corporations are again on the prowl in rural Pennsylvania. They're taking advantage of the rural poverty left in the wake of the decline of industry and farming. In the absence of meaningful alternatives, tens of thousands of dollars for leases to drill is more than tempting for many people.

But like the millions of workers who fought back against the coal and steel barons in past decades, groups of people throughout Pennsylvania and across the whole region that sits on top of the Marcellus Shale area are fighting back.

Those willing to stand up to the energy companies have organized educational events and picketed and packed public hearings and city council meetings.

New York state has responded with a moratorium on drilling. And in Pittsburgh, under pressure from their increasingly organized and informed constituents, members of the city council made it clear that they will oppose Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's boneheaded proposal to allow drilling...in city parks!

With future drilling uncertain in New York state, energy executives have set their sites on Pennsylvania and plan to host a conference hyping their gas operations in Pittsburgh on November 2-4.

The Marcellus Shale Protest coalition and the Pittsburgh Student Environmental Coalition will be ready to greet them on the 3rd--Pittsburgh-style. Both groups are demanding a ban on drilling.

This mobilization comes in the wake of demonstrations around the Pittsburgh region, which has already seen drilling in some suburban towns. Activists have staged protests outside the Washington County courthouse, a mass meeting near Canonsburg, and protests at many town council meetings, including Jefferson Hills.

This list hardly scratches the surface of all the actions in the area--involving people who weren't necessarily political before, but are outraged at pollution now, along with eco-activists, anarchists, Greens and socialists, including the International Socialist Organization. In November, they'll come together to send a message to the energy corporations: "Don't frack with Pittsburgh!"