EPA’s Abandoned Wyoming Fracking Study One Retreat of Many

[marmar]

EPA’s Abandoned Wyoming Fracking Study One Retreat of Many

by Abrahm Lustgarten
ProPublica, July 3, 2013, 11:58 a.m.


When the Environmental Protection Agency abruptly retreated on its multimillion-dollar investigation into water contamination in a central Wyoming natural gas field last month, it shocked environmentalists and energy industry supporters alike.

In 2011, the agency had issued a blockbuster draft report saying that the controversial practice of fracking was to blame for the pollution of an aquifer deep below the town of Pavillion, Wy. – the first time such a claim had been based on a scientific analysis.

The study drew heated criticism over its methodology and awaited a peer review that promised to settle the dispute. Now the EPA will instead hand the study over to the state of Wyoming, whose research will be funded by EnCana, the very drilling company whose wells may have caused the contamination.

Industry advocates say the EPA’s turnabout reflects an overdue recognition that it had over-reached on fracking and that its science was critically flawed. .......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.propublica.org/article/epas-abandoned-wyoming-fracking-study-one-retreat-of-many

[enough]

1. This article is well worth the read to get a full picture of the

extremely discouraging pattern ongoing in Obama's EPA.

[xchrom]

2. du rec.

[G_j]

3. what's up with this?

Over the past 15 months, they point out, the EPA has:

· Closed an investigation into groundwater pollution in Dimock, Pa., saying the level of contamination was below federal safety triggers.

· Abandoned its claim that a driller in Parker County, Texas, was responsible for methane gas bubbling up in residents’ faucets, even though a geologist hired by the agency confirmed this finding.

· Sharply revised downward a 2010 estimate showing that leaking gas from wells and pipelines was contributing to climate change, crediting better pollution controls by the drilling industry even as other reports indicate the leaks may be larger than previously thought.

· Failed to enforce a statutory ban on using diesel fuel in fracking.

[Divernan]

6. Yet Obama will OK Keystone if it doesn't "significantly" exacerbate carbon pollution.

In other words, he'll make damn sure his EPA doesn't come up with any embarrassing studies proving otherwise. And of course "significantly" is a subjective term which can be so glibly manipulated.

As the State Department comes under increasing pressure from Republicans and business leaders to approve the Keystone XL pipeline, Obama said the project should be allowed to move forward only if does not “significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution.”

“Allowing the Keystone pipeline to be built requires finding that doing so would be in our nation’s interests,” he said.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/06/president-obama-outlines-plan-to-combat-climate-change-says-keystone-pipeline-must-not-increase-greenhouse-gases/

[Javaman]

4. just remember a special someone comes from Wyoming.

his name begins with dick and ends with chaney

[cali]

5. this is an important article. And it's a tragedy that politics are controlling the EPA

k&r

[abelenkpe]

7. Ugh. Disgusting.

Essentially turning it over to the drilling company? Self regulation? Cause that works....for corporations who want to profit while poisoning the rest of us.

[brentspeak]

8. Illustrates just how much of a farce the Obama administration is

Bush's third and fourth terms as played by a Democratic president who feigns helplessness.

[byeya]

9. I don't want to but I have to agree with you. Environmentally, Obama rates a D-

[MoreGOPoop]

10. There are no laws

and never will be any laws powerful enough to
stop Big Oil. They only negotiate via war.

[brentspeak]

11. kick