In a very real sense it’s not entirely the president’s fault. But it looks now as if that doesn’t really help. To be specific: Most of the administration’s theoretical gains in the fight against global warming have come from substituting natural gas for coal. And a new set of studies - about, of all things, a simple molecule known as CH4 - show that President Obama’s climate change strategy is starting to unravel even as it’s being knit. The need to set up rules after seeing wells and aquifers contaminated, children becoming ill and farms ruined has made activists out of regular working people who seek to protect their safety and health.If you’re a politician, science is a bitch it resists spin. The power of the effort to slow down fracking lies in the conviction of many individuals who would normally go about their business and do not consider themselves activists. Now is the time to continue to advocate for legislative changes in city halls and statehouses. Now is not the time to take a sigh of relief, not until methane emissions and the like are at safe levels in the air we breathe. The air we breathe, the water we drink, the stability of the ground we stand on are not closer to being safeguarded by the alliance of environmental groups with oil and gas companies. Just as the Longmont ban on fracking does not mean we can be complacent and assume that oil and gas drilling companies have taken our hint that our energy future lies in renewables, nor does a partnership between some environmental groups and oil and gas companies mean we can take a sigh of relief either. Hopefully it will build on the effect of the first “Gasland” movie: to make people aware of today’s fracking industry. Seeing the soon-to-be released “Gasland II” and encouraging others to do so is a great step in the direction of education and advocacy. It would go against the oil and gas industry’s mission to educate the public regarding the radioactivity, methane migration, community disruption, forest fragmentation, and liquid natural gas line and compressor station problems. Naturally an entity such as an oil and gas drilling company will have the intention of expanding fracking. will respect voluntary standards in the interest of safety given that their industry negotiated exemptions from the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. It is difficult to believe that Chevron, Shell, CONSOL Energy and EQT Corp. This amounts to oil and gas companies continuing on with their mission with the added blessing of some environmental groups. Therefore, the EDF document is basically meaningless and supports the status quo. These standards correspond to the regulations the industry is already required to follow. The website outlines the voluntary standards co-created by the EDF and Chevron. Josh Fox, the director of “Gasland” and “Gasland II,” says it this way: “Partnerships such as this only set the stage to escalate fracking activity.” ![]() Others feel these regulatory standards are a publicity stunt that could slow the momentum of grass-roots efforts against oil and gas drilling. In addition, the EDF received $6 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies to advocate for these fracking regulations. This has been publicized as the environmentalists making peace with oil and gas companies. ![]() The Environmental Defense Fund, the Clean Air Task Force and a few other environmental groups sat down with big oil companies such as Chevron and listed voluntary oil and gas drilling regulatory standards.
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