This website is dedicated to and for the use of workers in oil and gas, both current and past, their families, communities and friends.
EXCERPT: “Sadly, in most of the United States, neither state nor federal agencies are providing information on violations in a transparent, easily accessible, or comprehensive way.
Corporations aren’t providing this information either.”
(Gas Vets note: Courts and corporations have more importance than the public health…)
After his failed attempts to fight the state’s oil and gas law in court, Alfonso Rodriguez, M.D., is ready to sign a nondisclosure form to view a full list of ingredients in hydraulic fracturing fluid. If only someone could tell him where to find it. Read more at the Hazleton Standard Speaker…..
In its majority opinion, the Court stated, “We are asked in these two appeals whether towns may ban oil and gas production activities, including hydrofracking, within municipal boundaries through the adoption of local zoning laws,” Associate Judge Victoria Graffeo wrote in the majority opinion. “We conclude that they may because the supersession clause in the statewide Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Law (OGSML) does not preempt the home rule authority vested in municipalities to regulate land use.”
(Poster’s note: New York’s municipalities have been awaiting an appellate level decision for three years. During that time, municipalities around the State have been banning “oil and gas production activities” or they have been reluctant to do so in the face of threatened lawsuits. Although this decision is open to appeal, all New Yorkers, no matter their stance on fracking, should celebrate this affirmation of local control. Read the Court’s opinion here.)
“While the suit centers on fracking, it seeks to protect the citizens’ right to self-governance under the Community Bill of Rights. The residents allege that the Colorado Oil and Gas Act and the industry’s enforcement of it violate that right to local self-government under the U.S. Constitution…. ‘This class action lawsuit is merely the first of many by people across the United States whose constitutional rights to govern their own communities are routinely violated by state governments working in concert with the corporations that they ostensibly regulate,’ said Thomas Linzey, Esq., executive director of the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund, which helped craft Lafayette’s Community Bill of Rights.” (Read more….)
I’m probably the last person in the fracking world to find this but in case anyone else is interested, here’s a terrific link to daily air quality maps. You can look at your specific zip code, at an entire region, etc. (Follow link….)
Obviously, these maps are excellent resources for natural gas industry workers and folks living near natural gas industrial activities, especially in light of recent jury awards.
Excellent video about the impacts of fracking and related activities on worker health. This is particularly interesting in light of silicosis and all of what NIOSH and OSHA have known for years. Please review our timeline of federal regulations, including what the Feds knew in 1988-89.
“A major insurance company is accusing dozens of localities in Illinois of failing to prepare for severe rains and flooding in lawsuits that are the first in what could be a wave of litigation over who should be liable for the possible costs of climate change. Farmers Insurance filed class action lawsuit last month against nearly 200 communities in the Chicago area for failing to prepare for flooding. The suits argue towns should have known climate change would produce more flooding.”
