The Frack (Counter) Attack. By Jason Mark, EarthIsland.org, August 17, 2010. "Throughout this steamy, restless summer, most greens were consumed with fighting one of two battles: Either struggling to hold BP accountable for its giant mess in the Gulf of Mexico, or else fighting to defend the ultimately doomed climate legislation in the US Senate. But in communities across the country, from the arid Rocky Mountain West to the dairy lands of New York and Pennsylvania, another environmental battle is rumbling: The efforts to halt, suspend, or, at the very least, learn more about the natural gas extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing. If you haven't yet seen the eco-indie flick Gasland, or read the fracking exposes in Earth Island Journal, The Nation, or The American Prospect, here's the deal: Hydraulic fracturing, better known as 'fracking,' uses millions of gallons of high pressured water, sand, and chemicals to break apart (or crack) bedrock and cause fissures that allow petroleum and natural gas to escape from underground reservoirs.
"According to ProPublica (which has a handy illustration here), the process is used in 9 out of 10 natural gas wells in the US. The method is so effective at extracting gas from deep within geologic formations like the Marcellus Shale (in New York and Pennsylvania) and the Barnett Shale (in Texas) that is has spurred a natural gas rush in the US and around the world. In Texas alone, more than 13,000 gas wells have been drilled in the last ten years, so many that there is something of a natural gas glut. Gas imports to the US are a fraction of what they once were. At the same time, as Journal editor Amy Westervelt reports at SolveClimate, fracking's ability to extract shale gas has upended energy markets around the world, especially in Europe, where countries are eager to break away from Russia's grip on the gas market. Groups like EarthWorks are organizing communities to demand a stop to gas drilling. Emotional videos, like this one [3:41 min], by New York based Clean Water Not Dirty Drilling are going viral, and deepening worries about fracking. The issue is so controversial that the EPA recently had to postpone fracking hearings at Binghamton University because they expected some 8,000 people to show up."
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