Fracking firm admits it causes quakes

Fracking firm admits it caused earthquakes in England

When two small earthquakes struck near Blackpool, England in April and May, suspicious eyes turned toward the hydraulic fracturing operation in the area. In a move few expected, Cuadrilla Resources, admitted that its shale fracking operations were indeed responsible.

In a press release issued today, Cuadrilla explained the findings of an investigation of the tremors

So there it is. ... In black and white. ... A fracking corporation ADMITTING their technology literally causes earthquakes. Couple that with the rash of minor quakes throughout the rust belt, Oklahoma, Arkansas, etc. the past 3-4 years.

Then notice how clever the soothing "new natural gas" commercials are that have become so prevalent lately. Good looking blonde comes marching out, speaking melodically about the "wonders" of "new, safe technology" in the "field of natural gas extraction!!" ... and dreams of "energy independence for a brighter American future" because "it just makes sense." :rolleyes:

They're so careful never to say the word "fracking", "fracturing" nor anything about the toxic chemical shake that gets injected under the bedrock of U.S. neighborhoods and often into their drinking water. That kind of "surgeon general's warning" doesn't spur investment and happiness and gumdrops and lollipops. Nevermind that a growing number of Americans can light the water from their kitchen sink's faucet on fire. As the stunned director says so simply in the documentary Gasland: "ah, that's not supposed to happen."

Increased fracturing, or "new drilling techniques," to conquer this "continent" of natural gas and shale oil here in America? It will do nothing but accelerate the environmental rotting process of this once-great nation.

Even if the United States DOUBLED it's shale oil and natural gas production, assuming private enterprise somehow came up with all the mind-boggling infrastructure and logistical costs associated with such an expansion (during a time of austerity measures, mind you)... wait, no... say TRIPLED. ... It STILL isn't gonna come close to satiating more than a tiny fraction of our 89 million barrels per day appetite. Have you seen the figures for current production, comparing conventional and unconventional oil and gas? I have. They're easy to find on "teh Googles." For total unconventional production, it ain't a big number, annually, at all.

Then imagine the legal costs for any drilling corporation that devastates a U.S. community for "ever more" of this crap.

In the end, it's simple. The dirtier it gets, the more the costs are going to rise. Whether we're talking strip mining the American frontier, or drilling deep under the U.S. sea bed. ... Those costs are going rapidly upward. Both in terms of the infrastructural/extraction/refinement/distribution side of it, AND in the environmental and legal side of it.

Chris Hedges

Chris Hedges, theologist, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of 'American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America:

"I'm an enemy of fundamentalism, period. ... The new Christian right (wing) in this country are heretics. The notion that we are called upon to amass wealth, ... I mean, that's not Biblical. It's not supported by the Bible." 

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"Our decline began when we shifted from an empire of production to an empire of consumption... by the end of the Vietnam War, when the costs of the war ate away at Lyndon Johnson's "Great Society," and domestic oil production began it's steady, inexorable decline, we saw our country transformed from one that primarily produced to one that primarily consumed... 

We started borrowing to maintain a lifestyle - as well as an empire - we could no longer afford... we began to use force to feed our insatiable thirst for cheap oil... and the bill is now due... America's most dangerous enemies are not Islamic radicals, but those who sold us the perverted ideology of free market capitalism and globalization... they have dynamited the foundations of our society.


In the 17th Century these speculators would have been hung. Today, they run the government and consume billions in tax-payer subsidies. These corporate forces will never permit real reform. It would mean their extinction. The oil and gas industry will never allow us to achieve energy independence. That would devastate their profits. Real reform would wipe out tens of billions of dollars in weapons contracts."

 -  Empire of Illusion speech.