Midwestern rural communities are being devastated by energy companies searching for a form of sand to use in their destructive fracking operations elsewhere in rural America.
The current fracking-enabled natural gas boom across the United States has poisoned drinking water, polluted air and sickened people living near gas wells.
Many homeowners unknowingly sign nondisclosure agreements that prevent researchers from gathering data on the health and environmental impacts of fracking.
Aubrey McClendon has been taking out personal loans to finance stakes in Chesapeake Energy's wells, and using those same stakes as collateral for additional loans.
But the study concluded that natural faults and fractures in the Marcellus, exacerbated by the effects of fracking itself, could allow chemicals to reach the surface.
A Texas town is ignoring its own test results to allow fracking to continue in violation of city ordinances and to the endangerment of local residents.
In many states, the chemical make-up of fluid pumped into the ground while fracking is shielded from the public, thanks to laws promoted by ALEC and Exxon Mobil.
"It sets a floor for what the industry needs to do," said attorney Erik Schlenker-Goodrich of the Western Environmental Law Center. "The reality is we can do far better."
We cancer survivors, who know something about the fragility of life, hereby declare that the exchange of life-giving water for death-dealing fossil fuel is unacceptable.
Think of this as taking fracking to the next level so that we can continue to speed along on our highway to hell -- peak oil, and the earth, be damned.
Colorado's hydrofracking boom — a technology that heavily relies on water — only adds additional strain as farmers and drillers bid for a scarce resource.
