This issue is of extra interest to me because of the proximity of the issue to my family that lives in Connecticut. For those of you who don't know, on November 21st a vote will be made by the Delaware River Basin Commission as to whether or not they should allow hydraulic fracturing to corporations. If the corporations should win, an estimated 15 million people will be affected by contaminated drinking water.
Josh Fox, director of Gasland (which we watched in class) appeared on Democracy Now! talking to Amy Goodman about the severity of the issue. I've posted the link below.
http://www.democracynow.org/seo/2011/11/11/white_house_could_cast_decisive_vote
You can also find more details on the coalition overall here:
http://savethedelaware.wordpress.com/
-Thomas Cullen
This is a big deal for sure--I'm glad you posted it. Up with Chris Hayes on MSNBC had Josh Fox on his show talking about this issue this weekend.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting!
The issue of Fracking has also interested me. I do not live in the area like your family does, but it just broke my heart to watch people lighting their faucets on fire and encountering several health issues due to poor drinking water. Water is such a precious commodity and it is such a shame that people even consider putting it to waste. As George talked about in class, some things that have to do with water just do NOT make sense!! Also from George's lecture, I think we can assume corporations typically win these battles. Hopefully, this time the public will win their right to safe drinking water and vote against fracking.
ReplyDeleteI was looking back at our older posts and this one intrigued me because I knew Thomas said there was a vote coming up in his original post. After doing some research I found out that they actually cancelled the vote, here is an article with more details:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.newschannel34.com/content/developingnews/story/Hinchey-Applauds-DRBC-Decision-to-Cancel-Vote-on/byP2cw9vB06pkj-zxo4X7Q.cspx
The congressman working on the case, Maurice Hinchey, seems like a stand up guy. He was fighting for the cancellation of the vote because the study he had conducted to investigate the full impact of gas drilling on the environment has not been completed yet. Hinchey argued that until the study has been completed we do not know the full effects of fracking and it wouldn't be fair to hold a vote to determine the future of fracking in the area. One thing that this article clarified for me is that the vote is not to determine if fracking will be allowed or not, but instead to determine if the EPA will be able to regulate fracking under the Safe Drinking Water Act. This essentially might be the same thing as I doubt the EPA will approve of much fracking.
Thomas,
ReplyDeleteThis was very informative. It seems to me that allowing hydraulic fracturing helps the corporations make more money at the expense of many citizens. If this is allowed to happen, then corporations benefit, but a staggeringly high percentage of the United States population will suffer and be exposed to contaminated water. It's amazing that there is even a vote for this, with the potential hazard to so many people. However, large corporations have a lot of power, so this doesn't surprise me too much.