http://kdka.com/local/gas.well.fatal.2.1821020.html
After attending the County Council meeting on Wednesday and listening to the industry representatives state repeatedly how safe this drilling process was, I find it slightly ironic that there is an accident at another local drilling site less than 48 hours afterward.
I do not mean to make light of the situation as two people lost their lives in the explosion.
The point is that this is a dangerous industrial process that has many short-term and long-term impacts to the communities and areas in which shale drilling is occurring and planned to take place.
What risks acceptable in this rush for gas in this state?
Update: As further information came to light about this incident, it was found that this site was not performing deep drilling in the Marcellus shale. It is however another example of the risks in any industrial operation, no matter how long the process has been in place.
Also of note, the nearest experts to deal with this type of emergency were flown in from Texas.
http://www.thepittsburghchannel.com/news/24367420/detail.html
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Due to the "risks involved in any industrial process" should we cease all industrial processes? What is acceptable risk and who decides that risk. You? Politicians? Or the folks working in the industry? The folks working on these risks and mitigating them on a daily basis. Is your issue with the entirety of the oil and natural gas industry? Or just proposed marcellus shale exploration in and around the city/lincoln place? Seems like a classic case of NIMBY. Enjoy driving your car and heating your home and cooking your food, but make sure the oil and gas you use to do it come from far far away from you. Not In My BackYard. Let big oil get all the oil and gas you demand from second and third world countries with corrupt governments and the inablity/disinterest to clean up any spills, i.e. Venezuela and crazy hugo chavez and the open lakes of spilled oil in Kenya and sub-saharan africa.
ReplyDeleteBe honest your just angry you don't control the mineral rights to your property and will miss out on all lease and royalty payments.
Lack of financial compensation + NIMBY = Lincoln Place Action Group
Quite to the contrary anonymous...We do own our mineral rights and all of our group members had the opportunity to sign their neighborhood away and take the blood money for the "huge"(lol) royalty checks that industry promised....but we chose to educate ourselves before we signed, the dollar signs did not blind our logic ....the Marcellus Shale gas industry is our main issue, although the whole drilling industry needs some work. This horizontal and hydraulic fracking may be new but the tricks the industy plays have been going on for way too long and the industry thinks that they can just buy everyone's silence with the flick of a pen! No amount of money is worth my children and neighbor's children's future health. Just as in the asbestos industry, the world won't pay attention until people start dying. Have we as a country not learned anything from our past mistakes? The risks involved are real and the people should decide what the acceptable risks should be, after all this is a democracy that we live in. Why should the drilling industry get to decide how and to what extent they can poison me? Even Russia is more responsible, they are waiting to see what happens in the US before they tap into their shale formations.
ReplyDeletethe industry should spend the disgusting amount of money that they have made thus far on developing more responsible ways to extract the gas, ways that don't harm the basic elements of life like air and water! I'm kinda partial to windmills myself!
Now you be honest... you're just angry because you're not smart enough to see past the $$$ signs.