#okquake
#banstobanfrackingbans
#feettothefire
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hold-someone-s-feet-to-the-fire
verb phrase
To subject someone to strong and painful persuasion; use maximum pressure :
I’m sitting here drinking my coffee on this very peaceful New Year’s Day in Jensen Beach. I woke up to an orange striped sky and Florida Fog. A new beginning. yay
I was going to write a blog post on what was trending since I went to bed last night and what caught my eye was #okquake.
Oklahoma’s first earthquake of the year.
I did a quick search and found.
Oklahoma earthquake spike likely linked to fracking boom
Central Oklahoma has seen a massive increase in earthquakes in recent years, leading geological scientists to link the uptick in quakes to oil and gas development in the way of hydraulic fracking.
Fracking has long been associated with seismic activity, as researchers have shown connections between quakes and wastewater injection wells. The toxic wastewater is stored deep underground, causing friction along fault lines, scientists have found.
The injection wells used for oil and gas development are the “most reasonable hypothesis” to explain the earthquake uptick in Oklahoma, Nicholas van der Elst, a post-doctorate research fellow at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, told The Nation.
“The burden of proof is on well operators to prove that the earthquakes are not caused by their wells,” van der Elst said.
One 2011 study, published in the journal Geology, linked liquid infusion with earthquakes in the state, including the largest ever recorded in Oklahoma. The state has over 4,400 disposal wells, StateImpact reported.
a recent report found that some of the most drought-ravaged areas of the US are also heavily targeted for oil and gas development using fracking, a practice which exacerbates water usage.
Half of the 97 billion gallons of water used since 2011 for fracking have gone to wells in Texas, a state in the midst of a severe, years-long drought. Meanwhile, oil and gas production through fracking is on track to double in the state over the next five years, the Guardian reported.”
Study links Oklahoma earthquake swarm with fracking operations
Before the oil and gas industry started drilling so many underground injection wells, they say, it was rare to feel an earthquake. Today, Oklahoma is the second-most seismically active state in the continental United States, behind California.
Now they have some fresh scientific evidence to back up their observations. Researchers from Cornell University and the University of Colorado say a large swarm of earthquakes in central Oklahoma was probably caused by activity at a few highly active disposal wells, where wastewater from drilling operations — including hydraulic fracturing — is forced into deep geological formations for storage.
Four high-rate disposal wells in southeast Oklahoma City probably induced a group of earthquakes known as the Jones swarm, which accounted for 20% of the seismicity in the central and eastern United States between 2008 and 2013, the team reported Thursday in the journal Science.
May 2015
Legislature Sends Anti-Frack Ban Bill to the Governor
The Oklahoma Legislature is sending a message to towns, cities and counties: Don’t try to ban fracking.
Oklahoma legislators were inspired by the November 2014 voter-approved city fracking ban enacted in Denton, Texas. And, like their counterparts in Texas, they were determined to make such action illegal.
During the 2015 legislative session, at least eight bills were filed to prevent municipalities from creating rules or zoning regulations that would ban — or effectively ban — hydraulic fracturing and other oil and gas activities.
Fracking Bans Are No Longer Allowed In Oklahoma
Oklahoma’s towns and cities are no longer allowed to ban fracking under a bill signed into law on Friday by Republican Gov. Mary Fallin.
The new law prohibits localities from choosing whether or not to have oil and gas operations within their jurisdictions, with exceptions for “reasonable” restrictions like noise and traffic issues. Other than that, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission will retain control over oil and gas drilling.
The state commission is run by three elected commissioners, all of whom are Republican. Chairman Bob Anthony is a member of the National Petroleum Council, a group that advises the U.S. Department of Energy on oil and gas industry interests. And Vice Chairman Dana Murphy is a geologist and attorney with “more than 22 years experience in the petroleum industry,” according to her bio page.
Texas has also done this.
In Florida the bills have been filed to do this.
This is not ok.
Our local control is being chipped at piece by piece.
People in Colorado are taking charge.
Back in September I wrote this
Things we don’t see on the tv: Sneaky fracking guys. Politicians. City of Ember. Will we get the sunshine we deserve?
Florida is doing the same thing. Just add this to a continuing list.
We need to wake up and start holding people’s feet to the fire before it’s too late.
cyndi lenz 
Interesting blog. Happy new year.
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Thanks
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Happy new year to you !
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Thanks Jacqui! Happy new year to you and Ed!
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http://bit.ly/1NZlP9h and Geico sent a letter that they don’t cover frackquake damage
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there you go
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thank you kim so much for that.
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Happy New Year Cyndi. Thank you for staying on top of this crisis. (To call it an issue or a problem would be to understate the severity of the threats fracking presents to our environment and our democracy.)
While it’s tempting to blame Republicans for much of this obeisance to the fracking industry – after all, it was the Master himself, Dick Cheney, who secured the industry’s exemptions from the Clean Air Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act – the Democrats are totally on board (at least, at the national level). I discussed the bipartisan nature of the support for fracking here: The Fracking of the American Mind.
But the part of this that tends to be missed by local opponents is the geopolitical imperative that is driving the United States to embrace a technology that seems like the last thing any intelligent species would ever use. That dimension is exposed here: From the Crimea to the Marcellus: America’s Dystopian Vision for the World.
The more recent complication has been America’s attempt to weaken Russia through a concerted effort with the Saudis to drive oil prices down. It won’t work, because the Russians have developed such close ties with China that they can survive this kind of attack. Indeed, it will prove counter-productive in the long run, accelerating the process of Eurasian Integration that American strategists most wish to prevent. The Saudis have been happy to go along for now, despite the loss of revenue causing some fiscal problems at home, because they are hoping to drive many of America’s smaller fracking operators out of business. (Fracking needs a high price of oil to remain viable, and a huge quantity of corporate bonds is currently teetering on the brink of collapse.) I suspect that when the dust settles the larger players will simply buy out all the distressed assets at firesale prices. It’s funny how those patterns tend to repeat themselves….
Bottom line: local resistance to fracking will not work as long as the prime directive of the United States remains global dominance. If the United States could be content to live in a multi-polar world and act like just another member of the family of nations, we might have a chance. But it will never adopt such a posture without being forced into it by economic or environmental collapse, or war. New year, same old story.
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First of all Thank YOU DK for your knowledge and willingness to share and educate us all.
I know its not all the GOP but its the GOP states that seem to be going out and filing all these you can’t bans fracking bans.
Also someone just shared an article about Geico not paying for damage. This thrust upon people and hurting them and there is no recourse to help them.
It pitiful.
So to start off the New Year in a great a wonderful way any suggestions for what we need to do to protect our mother earth?
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Well, other than overthrowing corporate capitalism in a genuine grass-roots revolution….
The two most practical things we can do as individuals are to refrain from eating meat and (unless it’s already too late!) refrain from producing more humans. The impact of industrial livestock “farming” is devastating across the board, as well as morally repugnant.
All our consumption patterns need to be reevaluated. For example, try not to consume anything containing palm oil. It is produced on massive plantations in southeast Asia – mainly Indonesia – which have replaced vast areas of biodiverse habitats for other living things. Western consumers browsing in the air-conditioned comfort of their shiny supermarkets have no idea of the hidden costs of bringing all these “goods” to market.
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very rarely eat meat it just wigs me out. I don’t even like to get veggies at the grocery store. We have green markets and organic shares. That’s interesting about the palm oil.
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[…] Source: Jan 1 2015: FEET TO THE FIRE:Bans to Ban Fracking bans […]
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