To the Editor:
(Canastota, NY – Feb. 2013
) Recently, Boeing had to ground planes until the lithium-ion batteries they use are shown to be safe. So why doesn’t the gas industry have to prove hydraulic fracturing is safe before it’s allowed? Maybe it’s because the gas industry was given exclusions from the very laws that were made to protect us from harm.
Hydraulic fracturing operations are excluded from the National Environmental Policy Act that promotes efforts to prevent damage to the environment. Now the public has to prove harm; the industry doesn’t have to prove it’s safe.
The 2005 Energy Bill exempted gas companies from many environmental laws. For example, even though some chemicals used in the [hydraulic fracturing] process would ordinarily be classified as toxic and radioactive … any fluids produced in association with gas production are not classified as such and were exempted from hazardous waste regulation under the Resource Recovery and Conservation Act.
Hydraulic fracturing is also exempt from the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act; the gas industry is exempt from reporting releases of toxic materials. It is also exempt from sections of the Safe Drinking Water, Clean Air and Clean Water Acts and the Superfund program, which ensures parties contributing to damage to natural resources are legally responsible for the cost of cleaning it up.
Boeing has to demonstrate batteries are safe before planes can resume flying; however, the gas industry can inject cancer-causing chemicals into potential sources of drinking water at high pressure to extract natural gas, a process known as [hydraulic fracturing], without federal regulation. Why is this?
Maybe because of the all-too-cozy relationship between the gas and oil industry, the EPA and the United States Congress. Please call 866.584.6799 and ask Gov. Andrew Cuomo to ban [hydraulic fracturing] in all of New York.
Linda Steffen, Canastota