Wednesday, February 12, 2014

'Regulation?" Don't Mean a Damn Thing in Pennsylvania: Comments on the Greene County Gas Well Explosion


I posted the following as comment at the Marcellus Monitor, Amanda Gillooly, Editor, on her excellent Op-Ed, "Accountability Should Be Demanded in Wake of Green County Gas Well Explosion, " (http://marcellusmonitor.wordpress.com/2014/02/11/accountability-should-be-demanded-in-wake-of-greene-county-gas-well-explosion/).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Tfx6ckcVFc

How many accidents like this will have to occur before we collectively decide we have had ENOUGH? Why don't we call CHEVRON--one of the world's WORST human rights violators--what it IS--a sponsor of industrialized TERRORISM? Why on earth do we continue to accede our rights as citizens and human agents to this predictable, preventable VIOLENCE?

And they call US the terrorists?"

But I'd add this: If THIS is the best--and it IS--that we can expect from "regulation," imagine what we're in for if the export facilities at locations like Cove Point, MD become a reality.

Imagine accidents like this magnified by 100,000 wells--and their compressors, pipelines, transport tankers, etc. Imagine this occurring, say, at the EXCO 7 well head pad on Rt 118 less than a driver's minute over an old bridge from an elementary school near Lairdsville, PA, and on a rural route shared by school buses and frack waste tanker trucks. Wanna see just how close that is? Look here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wendylynnelee/collections/72157634625434504/.


Or how about the Inflection Nature Boy Costello Pad, Rt. 87, Montoursville, PA--directly across a road heavily travelled by school buses and local traffic from an established residential neighborhood: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wendylynnelee/collections/72157633517335343/.


Regulation means nothin' but "controlling the rate--not the AMOUNT--of harm.

Scratch that--it doesn't even mean that.

2,200 gas wells

20-30 workers on site.

One worker still missing. Last seen near another worker injured in the explosion.

"Putting out the fire could take three days."

"An explosion that could be heard clear across town."

Seriously, WHAT is it going to take to convince us that life is more valuable than money?



2 comments:

Paul_Roden said...

Isn't the "Halliburton Loop Hole just grand! It just goes to show you how wonderful the protections are of the "unregulated, invisible hand of the free market". Don't you feel protected by the regulations, zoning codes, the inspectors and monitors from the "Don't Expect Protection" department or DEP of PA? We can't have the "burdensome regulations" from the EPA, DEP or the DCNR messing up corporate profits now can we. No, No, No. drill baby drill. All the more reason to outlaw and ban fracking. Fracking is too dangerous, too expensive and totally unnecessary for our energy needs. Jacobson, M.Z., and M.A. Delucchi, Providing all Global Energy with Wind, Water, and Solar Power, Part I: Technologies, Energy Resources, Quantities and Areas of Infrastructure, and Materials, Energy Policy, 39, 1154-1169, doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2010.11.040, 2010. (link)
http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/JDEnPolicyPt1.pdf
Delucchi, M.Z., and M.Z. Jacobson, Providing all global energy with wind, water, and solar power, Part II: Reliability, System and Transmission Costs, and Policies, Energy Policy, 39, 1170-1190, doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2010.11.045, 2011. (link)
http://www.stanford.edu/group/efmh/jacobson/Articles/I/DJEnPolicyPt2.pdf
A Plan To Power the Earth 100% With Renewable Energy, November, 2009 Scientific American
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=a-path-to-sustainable-energy-by-2030
Converting Individual States:

Converting New York State Entirely to Renewable Energy: What Would It Look Like?
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2013/03/converting-new-york-state-entirely-to-renewable-energy-what-would-it-look-like#readercomments

Cost Minimized combinations of wind power, solar power and electrochemical
storage, powering the grid up to 99.9% of the time
Cory Budischak a,b,*, DeAnna Sewell c, Heather Thomson c, Leon Mach d, Dana E. Veron c,
Willett Kempton a,c Journal of Power Sources 225 (2013) 60e74
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378775312014759

Wendy Lynne Lee said...

Thanks Paul!