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Friend,
Just a last, brief reminder that tomorrow is the deadline to submit a comment on the EPA's truly fracked report on hydraulic fracturing's (fracking) impact on drinking water. Fracking is a seriously dirty drilling process that involves injecting a toxic mixture of sand, water and chemicals into the ground with sufficient force to shatter the bedrock and release tiny pockets of gas.
The fracking boom has made drillers, frackers and fossil fuel profiteers billions of dollars. But it's an industry shrouded in secrecy thanks to a special exemption to the Safe Drinking Water Act negotiated by none other than former Vice President Dick Cheney. This so-called "Halliburton loophole" has let frackers keep most of the chemicals and processes used for fracking a secret from the public - with disastrous impacts on public health, safe drinking water and the climate. The EPA had a chance to pull back that veil of secrecy, and shine a bright light on the chemicals, pollution and health problems associated with fracking.
But instead they chose to keep quiet, examine only what data the fracking industry chose to share with them and released a feckless report that was then spun as a victory for the industry. It's a shame and it should be a crime -- but we can't be silent. Secrecy is fracking's original sin. Don't let the frackers get away with hiding the truth in this EPA report again. Sign here, before tomorrow's deadline, to submit your comment to the EPA.
Drew,
PS - My previous email is below with more footnotes and background - please forward and share with anyone who needs to know.
There's only one week left to tell the EPA that their fracked report on water contamination is unacceptable. Sign here to have your comment included before the Aug. 28 deadline!
Friend,
Earlier this summer, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a study that was quoted in many headlines as finding that fracking poses no “widespread” risk to drinking water.1 But even that summary is a lie and we're running out of time to disprove it.
The EPA itself admits it doesn't really have the evidence to prove fracking is safe (or dirty) -- because their study is based on what limited information the fracking industry decided to share with them.2 What this report really shows is the ongoing, systemic connection between the fracking industry and EPA -- and a troubling trail of evidence linking fracking to pollution and public health problems.
But it’s not too late to tell the EPA to retract this report and President Obama to stop supporting fracking. Click here to tell the EPA and President Obama to come clean on the dangers of fracking.
The most important reason not to trust this study on fracking’s impact on drinking water: The EPA is a bunch of fracking liars. In July 2013, an investigative report in the Los Angeles Times revealed that EPA officials in Washington, D.C. chose to close an investigation of polluted drinking water in Pennsylvania despite evidence that found “significant damage to the water quality.”3 An EPA PowerPoint Presentation released on DeSmog blog by investigative journalist Steve Horn showed that fracking investigations were similarly shut down in Wyoming and Texas at the same time that the Obama Administration embraced fracked gas during the 2012 Presidential election.4
In addition, the frackers are hiding the pollution, and we know it: Protected by Dick Cheney's Halliburton loophole, the fracking industry has operated in almost complete secrecy about what chemicals they're pumping into the ground, and how those chemicals might impact our health. But even without EPA's help (which we really should have had) researchers and public health experts have discovered an alarming trail of evidence indicating that fracking pollutes our water and harms public health.5
You and I know the truth, but as long as the EPA -- and by extension the whole Obama Administration -- are standing behind this report it will be hard to convince the public to ban fracking. There's still time, but not much, to stop this fracked report with a massive wave of public comments --including yours. Click here to send your comment to the EPA before it's too late.
Thanks,
Drew and the fracking-facts crew at Environmental Action
1. Kelly, Sharon. "EPA's New Fracking Study: A Close Look At The Numbers Buried In The Fine Print." DESMOG. June 25, 2015.
2. Hudson, Drew. You Can't Trust The EPA On Fracking. Environmental Action. June 4, 2015.
3. Neela Banerjee, Message is mixed on fracking, Los Angeles Times, July 28, 2013
4. Ryan Tracy, EPA Drops Fracking Probe in Wyoming, Wall Street Journal, June 20, 2013
5. Environment America, EPA study understates dangers of fracking, June 4, 2015 |
