It’s the end of the Catskills as we know it

Obviously, sung to the tune written by R.E.M., but on to serious matters…

Last Thursday, Sarah Palin campaigning in Wisconsin used the phrase "clean, green natural gas" in her speech.  I catapulted into virtual convulsions upon hearing this!  From the transcript:

"…I have secured agreements to build a nearly $40 billion natural gas pipeline to get our clean, green natural gas down to hungry markets like here in Wisconsin…"

It offended my sensibilities so much that I had to write about it.  Googling the phrase shows that it’s not the first time it’s been used.  Perhaps, it’s a catchy slogan by one of the oil and gas industry’s PR firms?  At any rate, it’s grossly inaccurate.

I suspect that most people are aware of this.  So I won’t bother exhaustively researching the topic.  (If you disagree, please exhaustively research the topic…)  However, a sobering article fell into my lap this weekend; lap being mailbox, fell being put.

You can read the New York Magazine article "The Catskills Gas Rush" online in its entirety, or just help yourself to my cherry-picked rant below.

The article tells of the prospecting and exploitation of natural gas reserves held within the Marchellus Shale, a massive rock formation that stretches from below Albany, New York, through Pennsylvania, and all the way to Ohio and West Virginia.   It is possibly the largest reservoir of natural gas in America.  However, until recent high oil prices, no one has bothered to extract it because of the difficulty and expense.  Unlike other reserves, this gas is tightly trapped in the rock.

Well, the article goes on to explain the process by which this gas is extracted:

 "But the greater concern is the horizontal hydraulic fracturing process—known as “fracing”—which rattles the ground like earthquakes. Out West, where fracing began in 2003, neighbors complained that the process spoiled their drinking-water wells and damaged their foundations. The water for blasting open the shale and freeing the gas is treated with chemicals, to help break up the stone, and mixed with sand, to hold open the newly created fissures. Exactly which chemicals are used is not publicly known. The recipe was pioneered by Halliburton. The company considers the formula to be a trade secret and guards it like Kentucky Fried Chicken guards its batter recipe. One large independent study of fraced wells in the West, by the environmental scientist Theo Colborn, identified over 400 chemical toxins in contaminated groundwater and soil, including the carcinogens ethylbenzene, chromium, and arsenic."

Not exactly "clean and green" is it?  But it doesn’t really matter to the oil and gas companies, because they have a free pass to pollute at will:

"No prosecutions were brought. I was astonished to learn that the Energy Policy Act of 2005, passed by Congress in part to reduce dependence on foreign energy, specifically exempts oil and gas companies from major environmental-protection laws. These include the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act."

Furthermore, regardless of how tidily natural gas could be extracted, it is still a fossil fuel…

"But natural gas is no solution to global warming. It still contributes greenhouse gases…"

The article focuses on the Catskills, a mountain range northwest of New York City.  So this really does hit "close to home" in way that even lifting the ban on offshore drilling doesn’t (which also sends chills up my spine in an age when renewable energy should be our first priority and is within reach if we try).  I’ve spent time in and traveling through the Catskills numerous time and it is beautiful countryside.  It’s vast and lazy, rolling, green mountains so close to industrialized and urban areas are a treasure largely unprotected outside Catskill State Park.  The range also is a fairly impoverished region, so the big gas money coming in is being widely accepted by landowners.

"Many residents eagerly sign without a lawyer; those who don’t are holding out for a better offer. He [the gas company prospector featured in the article] hasn’t found a single person who is anti-gas."

I’m sure the locals would take offense to my taking offense, being that it’s where they live and they need the money.  For me, it’s a wilderness playground away from city life.  But my concerns are of a global scale.

"There are 500 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Marcellus, enough recoverable fuel to meet all of the nation’s needs for two full years."

To me, that reads "only two years"?  How much groundwater do we pollute for decades and generations to come for a mere two years of one country’s energy supply?  And at what climate cost?  At what point do we focus on renewable and climate-safe energy sources exclusively?  I’m afraid it won’t be until after all fossil sources are exhausted.  What will be left of the planet for our children then?

I have been losing more and more sleep over this in recent years.  Sometimes, I think maybe the thing to do is just seek refuge in a cabin in the Catskills and subsist on turnips…but even that plan is now in jeopardy!