Wyoming Air Pollution Surpasses L.A. Due To Fracking For Natural Gas
Wyoming Air Pollution Surpasses L.A. Due To Fracking For Natural Gas
Pinedale, Wyoming is a small town of less than 1,500 people nestled 7,100 feet high, in the foothills of the Wind River Mountains. From my earliest memories, Pinedale has been a the destination for family relaxation at my maternal grandparent’s house. Each summer my cousins and I roamed those streets and it was like a Technicolor Mayberry to me. I remember earning coins for chores and taking my cousins to the corner ice cream shop; stopping by my aunt’s flower shop for honey suckers; fleeing moose at the children’s fishing pond; observing a quiet albino fawn in the shade beneath a lilac tree; hanging humming-bird feeders; wading in glacier fed lakes; and roasting marshmallows after family barbeques. Each evening, before we’d shut the doors and not lock them, we’d take handmade chicken wire cages and place them over the flower and vegetable gardens, because deer and moose loved to eat them in the cool of the night.
Throughout my family’s history in that town, big oil has been circling. In the 1970′s there were even proposals to use nuclear explosions to loosen the tough shale that housed that gas, but the community fought those off. In the 1980′s and early 1990′s oil companies continued to be annoyed with the lack of ability to reach these pockets of natural gas. Finally, in the late 1990′s companies like Encana were able to develop fracking processes that were able to complete the violent act that was once only possible with nuclear explosives – and thus drilling for natural gas in the Green River Basin of Wyoming began. With the drill baby drill policies of the Bush administration that were continued by Barack Obama as well – the little town of Mayberry was soon overrun by the influence of big oil. High on the tax windfalls, Pinedale built a fancy swimming pool in the local school and added other amenities like a senior citizen bus route. At first, and even still today, many residents think of oil companies positively.
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