By John Preston, PEC Steering Committee
Member and Advocacy Committee Co-Chair
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| Marcellus Shale Drilling tower |
As a new technology, fracking provides a good illustration
of how the accounting system of our political-economic system is rigged in
calculating the balance of costs and benefits in justifying the social and
economic good of energy technology.
The only costs counted in the marketplace are the costs of
extraction, production, and distribution.
What economists call “external costs” which are the uncounted social
costs, are not counted in assessing the overall benefit of the technology. In the case of hydro-fracking, some of the
costs NOT being counted include the following: 1) Road building and road maintenance
for the heavy truck traffic, 2) Management and transport of the fracking fluids
that return to the surface, 3) Water treatment costs, including building new
infrastructure able to clean these fluids 4) Public and private health costs
from toxicity and radiation that cause illness 5) Loss of green space and the
ecological services provided, 6) Loss of the historic and rural character of
place and 7) Costs related to the global warming and climate change caused by
the unintended release of methane. Some
of these costs can be estimated, but many of these costs are unknown.
Generally, the political-economic system socializes the
costs, making the public pay through taxes and through degraded life-style and
health. Yet, the benefits are privatized
and flow to the wealthiest in our society.
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| Hydro-fracking site "man camp" for workers. |
Because shale gas is a fossil fuel that adds to greenhouse
gas emissions it is not utimately sustainable.
Because it takes advantage of corporate domination in the market place
it avoids the norm of participation.
Because it socializes a hidden part of the cost of energy and privatizes
profit it looks mainly to the sufficiency of the wealthy and violates the norm
of solidarity with all peoples, and those people with the earth.
The policy stance of PEC is to place a moratorium on further
fracking operations until the overall social and economic costs can be known
and paid for by the industry, sufficient regulation can be deployed, and home
rule (i.e. local government) participation guaranteed. Following the wisdom of the precautionary
principle, PEC believes that the burden of proof of the harmlessness to public
health, the environment, and local communities and municipalities should fall
upon the industry. This burden of proof
should meet certified independent scientific standards, prior to governmental
regulatory permits to proceed with this technology. It is also the burden of government to assure
that regulation of this technology is technologically sufficient, affordable,
and effective.
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| Must we choose between energy and clean drinking water? |
An overarching step that needs to be taken in the natural
gas industry to lessen its impact is to reduce leakage of methane. According to
Natural Resources Defense Council, methane, a potent greenhouse gas which makes
up as much as 90 percent of natural gas, is leaked or vented to the atmosphere
when natural gas is extracted by hydro-fracking and other techniques,
processed, and transported. Problems include poorly sealed equipment and losses
during compression of natural gas. There are ten technically proven,
commercially available, and profitable methane emission control technologies
that could collectively capture 80 percent of the wasted methane emissions. The
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), other federal agencies, and the
states should require use of these technologies for methane control.
Resources
Background:
US Department of Energy 2009 Modern Shale
Gas Development in the United States Primer - http://www.rrc.state.tx.us/doeshale/Shale_Gas_Primer_2009.pdf
Fractracker, a clearinghouse of shale gas information. http://www.fractracker.org/
Fracking Resource Guide http://frack.mixplex.com/fracking
Sourcewatch has a helpful history of fracking and policy
background at http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Fracking
Study of drinking water contamination from fracking in North
Carolina by Duke University .
http://www.propublica.org/documents/item/methane-contamination-of-drinking-water-accompanying-gas-well-drilling
Leaking
Profits (reducing methane gas leakage), Natural Resources Defense Council, http://www.nrdc.org/energy/leaking-profits.asp
Interfaith
Power and Light Policy on Natural Gas Development and Hydraulic
Fracturing. http://interfaithpowerandlight.org/public-policy/
Organizations
and Campaigns.
Note: Endorsement is not applied by listing in this
section. These are starting places for PEC members to connect with local and
national campaigns and are not exhaustive. Please e-mail PEC at jehrestore@aol.com to let us know about campaigns
you are involved with.
Citizens
Campaign for the Environment, Hydrofracking Center. (New York)
http://www.citizenscampaign.org/special_features/hydro-fracking-center.asp
Center
for Biological Diversity.(California). http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/california_fracking/index.html
Food and
Water Watch. http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/water/fracking/fracking-action-center/
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