'Straight from the Horse's Mouth': Former Oil Exec Says Fracking Not Safe...
Retired Mobil VP confirms technology is dangerous and untested
- Lauren McCauley, staff writer
"In a message "straight from the horse's mouth," a former oil executive on Tuesday urged New York state to pass a ban on the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, saying, 'it is not safe.'
"Making fracking safe is simply not possible, not with the current technology, or with the inadequate regulations being proposed," Louis Allstadt, former executive vice president of Mobil Oil, said during a news conference in Albany called by the anti-fracking group Elected Officials to Protect New York.
Up until his retirement in 2000, Allstadt spent 31 years at Mobil, running its marketing and refining division in Japan and managing Mobil's worldwide supply, trading and transportation operations. After retiring to Cooperstown, NY, Allstadt said he began studying fracking after friends asked him if he thought it would be safe to have gas wells drilled by nearby Lake Otsego, where Allstadt has a home. Since that time, he's become a vocal opponent of the shale oil and gas drilling technique.
"Now the industry will tell you that fracking has been around a long time. While that is true, the magnitude of the modern technique is very new," Allstadt said, adding that a fracked well can require 50 to 100 times the water and chemicals compared to non-fracked wells.
He also noted that methane, up to 30 times more potent of a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, is found to be leaking from fracked wells "at far greater rates than were previously estimated."
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http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2014/04/23-1
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Last edited Thu Apr 24, 2014, 12:55 PM - Edit history (1)
I have a job that restricts my ability to be more proactive, but I do receive their newsletters and keep informed.
Response to adirondacker (Original post)
you could dream up? Maybe you think you are posting at freeperville? 
you are telling me something about fracking I did not know.
path of least resistance. It pertained to a landfill/incinerator site. They ended up erecting it 40 miles away from where the main source of trash came from, 1 mile away from a trophy trout stream, in the middle of an impoverished township. Outta site/outta mind.
Best wishes to my Green Mountain neighbors and hope like hell you can organize enough resistance.
Seen yesterday on Twitter:
Beverly Hills Becomes First City in California to Pass Fracking Ban
Food & Water Watch | April 24, 2014 10:44 am |
On Tuesday night, Beverly Hills became the first city in California to pass a ban on fracking and related extreme well stimulation techniques with a unanimous vote. The ordinance not only would make it unlawful to use hydraulic fracturing, acidizing or any other well stimulation technique from any surface area in the city—it also prohibits these activities from any site outside city limits that would drill and extract oil and gas underneath the city. The ordinance will now return to the Beverly Hills City Council for its final reading at an upcoming formal meeting where a second vote will put the law into effect.
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“I do believe in local control, and we are exerting our power as a city to say fracking is not a compatible land use in Beverly Hills,” said Councilmember John Mirsch. “But this issue goes beyond that. This is not a ‘not in my backyard issue’—it should not be in anyone’s back yard. And we also need to think long-term, even if our city is not a center of drilling—injecting millions of gallons of water and chemicals at high pressure into the earth can’t be good. Asbestos and smoking was once also considered safe. Fracking is not worth the risk.”
All four councilmembers in attendance voted in favor of the ban including Mayor Lili Bosse, Vice Mayor Julian A. Gold M.D., Councilmember John A. Mirsch and Councilmember William W. Brien M.D.
“We congratulate the Beverly Hills City Council for passing a ban on fracking and related toxic extraction techniques. Given its proximity to oil and gas activity, it makes sense for Beverly Hills to join the growing number of cities and counties that have acted to protect their residents from severe health, safety and environmental impacts,” said Brenna Norton, Southern California organizer of Food & Water Watch. “We look forward to seeing this ordinance take effect and setting a positive example for other communities and Gov. Brown, who should immediately enact a statewide moratorium to protect all Californians.”
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