Historic Grassroots Victory Stops Central Illinois Coal Mine

An eight year battle against a central Illinois strip mine ends in victory for the community of Canton and Orion township. An arm of Springfield Coal Company asked the Department of Natural Resources to terminate their permit for their North Canton Mine before a court hearing challenging errors in permit approval.

"The naysayers told us we couldn't fight city hall and the mine. They have more money. But we stayed the course," said Brenda Dilts, Chair of Canton Area Citizens for Environmental Issues.

The permit challenge hinged on the mine's potential impact to streams and Canton Lake, which supplies water to roughly 20,000 people, but opposition rallied around many ways the community would be harmed, including noise, water well contamination, heavy truck traffic, and airborne pollutants. Only a road and fence would have separated the mine from residents in Orion township, Dilts said. "Now people are free to enjoy their country living and well water."

Dilts wrote a letter to the editor in 2006 after hearing a presentation by the company and the Department of Natural Resources at a city council meeting. "I came home from vacation to voicemails messages full of support for my letter. Only one message was negative. We decided to start having meetings. Twelve people came at first to write letters. Then we had 25 and soon we outgrew our meeting space at the library. We organized until we became a legitimate source of pain for the company."

Read the rest at EcoWatch.

Media Bias is 25 Sports Writers and Zero Environment Reporters

Any news outlet that distributes information unflattering to Republicans or views out of step with conservative ideology will be hounded with cries of "liberal media bias." The badgering will continue until all news outlets are as "fair and balanced" as Fox News. But the most consequential expression of bias in the press is in what stories are covered and what's ignored.

I checked reporting staff listed on four of downstate Illinois' largest newspapers: The Peoria Journal-Star, Belleville News-Democrat, State Journal-Register, and Southern Illinoisan. They list 25 sports writers and editors between them. They name zero editors or reporters primarily dedicated to energy, climate change, and the environment. That's your media bias.

The same problem exists in national news outlets but the impacts hit harder in local news. The most important stories are sometimes covered by reporters who have limited subject background. Fewer environmental stories are covered at all. And when there's news about a fertilizer plant opening in central Illinois, for example, no one mentions that they're some of the most potentially dangerous facilities for workers and the environment.

I should acknowledge that I've been interviewed by a number of excellent reporters who do a good job covering energy issues. In particular, Springfield's alternative weekly, Illinois Times, has been picking up the stories others ignore for years. The Harrisburg Daily-Register doesn't shy away from asking tough questions about the coal industry. The best pro-environment editorials in the Southern are usually from, ironically enough, Sports Editor Les Winkeler.

But it's disappointing that there aren't more exceptions. Many other good reporters are limited by the decisions their publisher and editor make about assigning resources.

Newspapers often write about the influence campaign contributions have on politicians. I'd like to see the same principles of disclosure applied to the news industry. Why not release an annual report about advertising revenue from the fossil fuel industry plus the financial interests of media parent companies? Call me a cynic but I suspect those financial factors have something to do with the for-profit media's failure to focus on pollution and climate change.

What should we do then? There's no shortage of stories to be covered in Illinois with the recent expansion of coal mining, the threat of fracking, the future of coal plants on the line, and clean energy struggling to expand its presence. Twenty-five reporters wouldn't be enough!

This is why I'm launching Illinois Energy Justice. The site will chronicle energy issues from the front lines of the state's energy transition with writing by myself and others. It will also be a collaboration with grassroots groups to highlight their work on coal, fracking and clean energy.

My kickstarter page will fund the launch of a website and expenses for my first round of stories focusing on the work of grassroots groups opposed to fracking. I've broken several stories missed by others, including the state mine safety regulator who was taking political donations from a coal mine operator, and millions in state grants going to coal industry pork projects. I'd like to break many more.

If you're tired of environmental stories and viewpoints not getting the coverage they deserve, now is the time to do something about it by donating.

More "victories" in Illinois fracking law that are functionally useless

I'm looking at registration forms submitted to the Illinois Department of Natural Resources by companies that want to frack Illinois.

One company with a notorious environmental record was able to check the box saying it has no history of violations because the form only asks if they had a violation on fracking in the past five years. Have a violation for conventional oil & gas operations? No problem. You've only been operating in Texas where almost no one gets held accountable? No problem.

It's another part of the Illinois fracking law that sounds good but is basically worthless in practice. As a friend wrote; it would be like one of us having a regular driver's license, getting multiple DUIs and speeding tickets, and then deciding we wanted to get a CDL (commercial drivers license). Without having a search on our previous driving record, without having to take a new test, and only having to pay a license fee. Then if we got caught again, all we would have to do is change our name, and we could start with a clean slate all over again.

This reminds me of the Chicago-based green groups who negotiated the fracking law proudly bragging about the supposed victory they won allowing cities to ban it. Yet, the likely impacted areas are mostly rural counties where banning within city limits is no meaningful barrier to frackers. Countywide bans, which would have a meaningful impact, aren't allowed.

On another topic, the fracking registration forms say no permits will be issued until the rules are finally approved. A few groups who are focused on crafting better regulation made a campaign around getting Quinn to not issue fracking permits until the rules are final. Apparently, Quinn's IDNR never considered anything else. That campaign appears to have been a chew toy that kept groups occupied in a way that doesn't challenge Quinn or change the politics around fracking.

Oil Interests Want Illinois To Frack for the Children

In what may be the most shameless in a long line of dishonest appeals, the Illinois oil industry is now asking us to start fracking for the children.

The oil industry propaganda website, Energy In Depth (or Energy in Deception as it's often called), is blaming Illinois' school funding problem on the state's failure to start fracking. They claim additional revenue from fracking is just what school kids need.

It's part of their campaign pressuring the Illinois Department of Natural Resources to rush weak fracking rules. Extraction industries have grown used to IDNR being subservient to their interests, so like a spoiled Veruca Salt, they can't stand not getting everything they want right away.

There are plenty of ways to resolve Illinois' school funding disparity problem and most of them don't involve exposing children to carcinogens.

Fracking chemicals have been linked to infertility, miscarriages, birth defects, cancer and more. A Colorado study found both minor and severe health impacts from air emissions for those living near wells. A family in Texas successfully sued over a air pollution from gas and oil operations near their ranch.

The inadequate Illinois law does not address the effects of air emissions on those who live near wells.

Fracking is a good idea if you want kids to get nose bleeds, itchy eyes and asthma attacks on the way to school. Maybe the additional funding can be used to hire a school nurse.

This reminds me of my favorite talking point used by industry lobbyists. They like claiming fracking is safe because it includes chemicals you might find under your kitchen sink. Referencing your home kitchen sounds so warm and fuzzy, doesn't it?

But there's a reason people child-proof that cabinet under the kitchen sink. It's so toddlers won't get into the bleach and Drano. What they're really telling us is that fracking involves chemicals that can kill you.

Illinois won't be doing school children any favors by exposing them to a toxic brew of fracking chemicals in the air, soil, and water.

One last point. Energy in Deception continues to paint the opposition to fracking as a "small fringe." Back in the real world, over 400 people attended the public hearing in Decatur, an industrial town with a reputation for having little interest in environmental activism. I'm not aware of any other environmental issue attracting that kind of crowd in central Illinois. In fact, I've only seen a few issues on any topic motivate this level of passion from average citizens. The same is true for the hundreds of people who attended two southern Illinois hearings and over 600 who heard Josh Fox speak.

This level of participation in an environmental rule making process is completely unprecedented for downstate Illinois. The oil industry (and CapitolFax) can keep claiming "fringe" until their typing fingers are raw. It's still a heaping pile of bullshit.

Debunking Illinois oil & gas fracking talking points

I was glad to see how much attention my last piece at EcoWatch and HuffingtonPost received, even if some of it was negative.

CapitolFax engaged in the tsk tsk finger wagging the statehouse old guard always do against any group that gets too aggressive with actions. A Forbes blogger didn't care for my use of the Hunger Games to explain what people mean when they talk about southern Illinois being an extraction sacrifice zone. CapitolFax also called that "over the top."

The comparison obviously struck a chord, but neither writer offered any argument as to why I'm wrong. I suspect the concept of how extraction-based economies breed poverty is too far outside the usual talking points about coal, oil and gas creating jobs. But it's pretty simple. No region that bases its economy on coal mining has ever had lasting prosperity. West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and southern Illinois have all remained poor for a reason.

But, getting to the title of this blog post, I responded in an Illinois Times article to some arguments pro-fracking lobbyists have been using lately.

Denzler called Illinois’ proposed regulations the “strongest environmental regulations in the country.”
Reynolds is not impressed.
“Claiming to have the toughest fracking law is like being the fastest turtle,” he said. “It doesn’t mean much given the competition. No one has shown that regulation can make fracking safe.”

Unfortunately, the four green groups who supported the regulatory law, which helps companies finance large scale fracking operations in Illinois, are repeating the same talking points about how tough it is. So far, I have yet to see any of those organizations publicly correct the politicians and industry lobbyists who use big green support for the law to greenwash fracking and marginalize the fracktivist movement enviro groups claim to represent.

This has been a problem in southern Illinois, where politicians claim Sierra Club support for the law means regulation will protect the environment, and in the legislature, where attempts to fix the fracking law were contradicted and undermined this year by four groups bragging about how strong it is. Defending their decision to back a weak law and their respectability with the statehouse establishment appear to be bigger priorities for pro-fracking greens.

How Much Fracking Will Remain Unregulated in Illinois?

My latest Huffington Post blog covers the latest actions against fracking and a loophole oil frackers plan to exploit to avoid most regulation.

It's also at Democrats for Progress and DailyKos. And the "For Sale" picture is on tumblr.

Opposition continues as people learn more about the inadequacy of a law that was written behind closed doors and rushed through the legislature with very little public scrutiny. A recent day of action saw citizens in Chicago and southern Illinois bring accountability to those responsible for the dangerously weak fracking law.

"For sale" signs were placed at the campaign office of state representative Mike Bost, who co-sponsored the law while claiming it would "keep our air clean, protect our water supply and maintain our environment." In fact, the law contains no provisions to limit toxic air emissions that harm the health of those living nearby.

An Environmental Justice Agenda from Illinois Coal & Fracking Fighters

My new HuffingtonPost piece features a new call to action on the Illinois fracking and coal extraction crisis. I wrote a bit about why we have to think about extraction in rural Illinois as an environmental justice issue.

There's an old political tradition in Illinois of politicians pandering to environmentalists in Chicago and to the coal industry downstate. Convicted ex-Governor Rod Blagojevich mastered the game by heavily subsidizing coal while keeping environmental groups pacified with new air quality laws, efficiency standards, and support for renewable energy. Subsidies to promote fossil fuels as an economic development tool keep rural Illinois focused on short-term, destructive jobs while most green job creation happens in the northern half of the state.
The old game is changing as people in coal and fracking regions are demanding better protections of their health, land, and water. 

I wrote more at HuffPo, but here's the full letter signed by 21 grassroots groups working on the front lines of the Illinois extraction crisis.

Illinois Must Act to Stop Extraction Crisis
Illinois is facing an unprecedented environmental, social and economic crisis. The anticipated launch of industrialized fracking combined with resurgence in coal mining present a double threat to the people, land, water, and long term economic health of southern and central Illinois.

Illinois coal mining has increased 70% in Illinois since 2010 thanks to an increase in coal exports, widespread use of scrubbers to accommodate high sulfur coal, and the reduction of mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia. At the same time, it has become increasingly clear that Illinois' weak fracking law will not adequately protect the public. Leading climate scientists have warned we must leave much of the world's remaining fossil fuel resources in the ground to avoid additional catastrophic consequences of climate change, such as record drought and flooding. The acceleration of fossil fuel extraction in Illinois exacerbates both a local and global crisis. State government must act:

Ban Fracking
Southern and central Illinois must not become a sacrifice zone to a dirty energy policy that will contribute significantly to climate change. Volume limits and other loop-holes will result in an unknown number of wells being exempt from regulation. Even if every provision of the current fracking law is enforced, people and the environment will not be adequately protected. Fracking must be banned.

Create a New Energy Economy in Coal Country
Coal country needs a bailout. Most clean energy jobs are being created in the northern half of Illinois, leaving the rest of the state behind. Downstate deserves more than dangerous, temporary fracking jobs, and empty promises about reviving the coal industry. Establish a coalfields regeneration fund to build a new energy economy targeted to areas left in poverty by boom and bust extraction cycles. We want a future with clean energy jobs like those being created in Iowa and California; not a future as an impoverished sacrifice zone like West Virginia or Wyoming coalfields.

Overhaul Regulatory Agencies
Years of lax enforcement, waived penalties, few inspectors, and recent staff scandals have undermined confidence that the Department of Natural Resources or Illinois EPA can effectively regulate mining and industrialized fracking. Additional funding to hire new staff will not change the institutional culture of agencies that have been unwilling to adequately protect public health. DNR and IEPA must be dramatically reformed or responsibility handed over to federal oversight.

End Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Coal Export Expansion
A report by Downstream Strategies found that the the coal industry costs the Illinois state budget roughly $20 million annually. Illinois must stop subsidizing a devastating industry that will never again provide the jobs it once did. Everyone loses when Illinois promotes coal exports to foreign nations with weak pollution laws. People in developing countries will suffer increased rates of lung disease, heart disease, birth defects, and other health impacts. Illinois suffers the consequences of poorly regulated coal mining. The global community will suffer the impact of climate change. Illinois must end its policy of subsidizing coal through state grants and expanding export infrastructure.

Signed: Buckminster Fuller Future Organization, Canton Area Citizens for Environmental Issues, Citizens Against Longwall Mining, Citizens Act to Protect Our Water (CAPOW!), Eco-Justice Collaborative, Friends of Bell Smith Springs, Gaia House Interfaith Center, Heartwood Forest Alliance, Indiana Forest Alliance, Justice for Rocky Branch, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Nuclear Energy Information Service, S.E.N.S.E. (SIUC Students), Regional Association of Concerned Environmentalists (RACE), Rising Tide Chicago, Shawnee Hills and Hollers, Southeast Environmental Task Force, Southern Illinoisans Against Fracturing our Environment (SAFE), Students for Environmental Concerns (UIUC Students), Sustainable Springfield Inc, Tar Sands Free Midwest

Johnson County Illinois Residents Have Fracking Industry Panicked

Johnson County, Illinois has oil and gas interests panicked about a local effort to stop fracking. They're spending tens of thousands in the rural county to defeat a referendum that opposes fracking and defends local rights. The referendum reads:

"Shall the people's right to local self-government be asserted by Johnson County to ban corporate fracking as a violation of their rights to health, safety, and a clean environment?"

The industry and their cronies recently realized that voters are siding with local control instead of handing their future over to Kansas-based frackers Woolsey Energy. A front group for the oil industry started professional mailings and robo-calls possibly funded by the Illinois Petroleum Council which complain about "out-of-state" interests. Additionally, the Illinois Chamber of Commerce spent $23,500 to promote fracking. That's a huge cash dump in a county where less than 3,000 people cast ballots in the last primary election.

Here's a tip for the fracking forces: when you're doing a mailing that gripes about out-of state-agitators, mail it from in-state. They should fire the consultant who had the bright idea of mailing it from Iowa.



The irony would be funny if the fracking industry weren't pushing a community-killing agenda. It's locals (not Kansas-based Woolsey Energy) who will have to suffer the consequences of fracking. Woolsey's mansion won't suffer when Johnson county property values fall. Woolsey will be counting his profits when local residents are dealing with poisoned water. His workers will be on their way to another state when Johnson county is left picking up the pieces after their roads, community infrastructure and environment are wrecked.

There's a southern Illinois saying for people who'd believe Woolsey Energy really cares about the future of their community: too stupid to find your way to town and back.

The oil industry's inflammatory attacks are dividing the community. Since their campaign began, a local newspaper publisher now refuses to run ads or letters to the editor that oppose fracking. Pro-fracking politicians threaten that the county will be sued if the referendum passes. Locals who had permission to sit at an informational table at a local business for weeks suddenly had the police called to eject them without warning or provocation.

Johnson county resident Tony Gerard recorded a video to break through the newspaper blackout and defend locals who have been organizing to defend their property rights and community.

Post by Tony Gerard.

The oil industry is trying to buy democracy in Johnson county. Residents have the chance in Tuesday's election to decide they want control over their own future without more division and destruction by outside oil interests.

Mayor Houston should keep his word and stop wasting money on Hunter Dam

During the election, Springfield Mayor Mike Houston said something sensible about the proposed Hunter Dam. It's time to fish or cut bait. If the project is rejected by the Corps of Engineers again, he believed the city should cut its losses instead of relaunching the costly process of more studies and applications.

“If they’re going to make us go back and start redoing them, then I think it’s time to probably pull the plug on the second lake,” Houston said.

And here we are. Hunter dam was rejected by state and federal regulators yet again. But, some on the city council still haven't accepted reality and are trying to revive it. Keeping this bad idea alive will mean doing another series of environmental studies and starting the costly years-long process of getting approval from scratch. Houston should keep his word. It's time to let it go.

CWLP may be able to fool the city council with a comically flawed study of the alternatives. Attempting the same stunt with EPA and the Corps of Engineers would be a foolish waste of time and money. 

The biggest water hog in Springfield is CWLP's coal power plants. New federal pollution rules will require CWLP  (probably within the next five years) to either 1) shut down their older Dallman 1 & 2 coal units which date back to the 60's and early 70's, or 2) convert them to natural gas, or 3) spend millions upgrading pollution controls on plants that are already near the end of their lifespan. Thanks Obama! The newer Dallman 4 plant is less water intensive than the aging units. 

Shutting down or converting the older coal units will make CWLP's estimate of their supposed water needs obsolete. In the near future, the city will nearly eliminate the primary reason hunter dam was proposed: keeping Lake Springfield water levels high enough for the now-obsolete coal power plants. 

An ordinance to revive Hunter Dam is on the agenda for Tuesday's city council meeting. Citizens will be there in opposition Tuesday, March 4, 5pm at the Municipal Center West. You can submit this form in advance if you'd like to speak.

Just because a small group of people figured out a way to make lots of money on a project nobody needs, doesn't obligate city taxpayers to waste more money going down a dead-end road.

Pat Quinn Gets Fracking Valentine

Cupid delivered a Valentine's Day message about fracking to Governor Pat Quinn.

Rising Tide Chicago posted video and pictures of Cupid's visit to Quinn's office with the message that the relationship between fracking and Illinois is a "bad romance."

It partly reads, "The Hydraulic Fracturing Regulatory Act and the recent rules released by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources are not based on scientific studies on hydraulic fracturing. They act to protect the profits and interests of industry, not Illinois citizens. Clean air & water and a safe climate are human rights. Hydraulic fracturing threatens these basic rights and no regulations will really protect us."

Rising Tide also posted photos of a message to Pat Quinn along the Dan Ryan Expressway last Monday.

There's a fun video of that action too. It was done in conjunction with a call-in day that united the voice of the environmental movement in Chicago and southern Illinois by asking Governor Quinn to ban fracking. It's strongly encouraging to the environmental movement in southern Illinois to see a group represent their views in Chicago.

Disturbing Video Shows Why Illinois Regulation Won't Make Fracking Safe

A disturbing new video of poisoned water, leaking oil rigs, and lax enforcement at Illinois oil wells highlights why proposed fracking regulation won't protect the state's environment or people. The Greenpeace interview with a southern Illinois native and former oil worker shows a fracking test well in a neglected part of the state where weak enforcement at existing wells is already endangering the public.



Illinois' new fracking law provides funding for the Office of Mines and Minerals to hire new staff. But, that would only be a solution if lack of staffing were the primary problem. Governor Pat Quinn has refused to clean house and restructure an agency notoriously cozy with industry.

The rules proposed for fracking are a sign the agency intends to continue the same old culture of weak enforcement that allows companies to pay meaningless fines while continuing to operate. Proposed fines from $50 to a few thousand dollars are pocket change, and even those can be waived at the agency's discretion. Companies with hundreds of past violations may receive permits for new wells, as we've already seen with OMM's poor oversight of coal mines.

Many local residents understand something that groups headquartered hundreds of miles away who support the fracking law apparently don't. Even if the new law does everything it's designed to do, a fracking boom will still be a major environmental and public health disaster for downstate Illinois. A better funded Office of Mines and Minerals still can't be relied on to protect Illinois with only weak penalties and an internal culture that views themselves as partners with industry.

Governor Quinn failed to mention fracking when he listed accomplishments during his State of the State speech today. Just last year he pushed hard for the law and bragged about it's passage. Seven months later, it's a political liability he'd rather ignore. Efforts by the movement to ban fracking, including the MoveOn Fracking Fighter petition, are shifting political realities. And people in potentially impacted areas aren't interested in settling for whatever minor, face-saving improvements to the regulations Governor Quinn has in the works.

Will Illinois Ban Fracking After Disaster Strikes Or Before?

I forgot to add links here to my latest blog post! It's up at EcoWatch and Huffington Post.

An Illinois ban on fracking is inevitable. The question is whether it will happen beforeor after a major fracking disaster.

The public comment period on Illinois' draft regulations ended January 3 with groups in potentially impacted areas repeating their call for a ban on fracking. A group of southern Illinois residents representing several grassroots groups drove to Illinois Department of Natural Resources headquarters in Springfield to join with Frack Free Illinois in delivering comments on the regulation and a petition asking Governor Quinn to oversee a rewrite.

Tabitha Tripp, of Anna-Jonesboro, said in a statement, "these inadequate rules will leave nothing but legacies of disasters to those who voted on this irresponsible law and abandon Illinois tax payers who will indeed foot the bill for public health issues like cancer and leukemia."

You can read the rest here.

One purpose of this essay is to promote my new MoveOn.org petition to ban fracking in Illinois. I was selected as one of 100 MoveOn.org Fracking Fighters so the petition is part of that effort. It's got off to a fast start and is still growing steadily!

I know I get cynical about so many petitions around and whether they'll be noticed by anyone. I'm working with people on fun ways to make sure this one is noticed by elected officials. It's part of an ongoing organizing effort so sharing this petition will help build the effort to stop fracking in Illinois. Please sign and share if you haven't already!

Illinois Geological Survey Called Out and Hillbilly Resistance to Fracking

The comment period for Illinois' draft fracking regulation is over but there's more must-see video and text from the public hearings I haven't posted yet. 

Brent Ritzel is in one of the videos on my last Huffington Post blog. He ran out of time before finishing his full comment so I asked him to send me his notes which are posted below.

The Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity and the Illinois State Geological Survey have long seen promoting extraction industries as part of their mission. ISGS is involved in carbon sequestration projects to show it's viable. Just to be clear, they're not engaging in unbiased research to determine whether or not carbon capture and sequestration for coal plants is economically realistic and safe for the public. They're granted funding to work with corporate partners on projects with the predetermined outcome to show it's viable. That part of their work is why they participated in public hearings over the failed coal carbon capture and sequestration plant proposed in Taylorville.

Now, they're taking the same approach with fracking by giving industry talking points the credibility of a state agency the public would expect to be unbiased. Brent does a good job of holding ISGS accountable for misleading the public. He references his study "Fracking Industrialization & Induced Earthquakes" that you can read here. Here's his comment to IDNR:

Thank you very much for your time. I do NOT envy y’all. You have been given the impossible task of regulating a technology that has already been exempted from 7 different major and essential environmental and public health protection laws…
Clean Water Act,
Safe Drinking Water Act,
Resource Conservation and Recovery Act,
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act
National Environmental Policy Act
Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.
The Superfund Law

Fracking was obviously never really supposed to be regulated, but it seems to me that if you were tasked with such a project, the FIRST STEP would be put all those protections back in that the Halliburton Loophole removed.

A couple of weeks ago completed a research study entitled “Fracking Industrialization and Induced Earthquakes,” which took a comprehensive look at more than fifty years of studies regarding the known connection between disposal of wastewater in deep-injection wells and induced earthquakes.

What propelled me into researching and writing “Fracking Industrialization and Induced Earthquakes” was my attendance at the July 18, 2013 Fracking Conference at Rend Lake College, which was sponsored by Illinois DCEO, and witnessing a presentation by Robert Bauer of the Illinois State Geological Survey. For the event the presentation had the straightforward title “Hydraulic Fracturing, Horizontal Wells & Unconventional Oil/Gas Resources,” however in its YouTube treatment it was given the title “Are Environmentalists’s [sic] Concerns Over Fracking Valid?”

Now instead of addressing the real and substantive concern of damaging wastewater induced earthquakes as large as magnitude 5.7, Bauer tells the audience that fracking process does not induce felt earthquakes.
Bauer Completely avoided the fact that Fracking Wastewater Disposal has led to 6 to 9-fold increase in felt earthquakes in Midcontinent region,
WHILE mocking any concern over earthquakes as fracking only creates earthquakes that are the equivalent to the force of an apple hitting the ground from a 3-foot drop.

In reality, what seismologists and geophysicists have learned is the following…
Midcontinent 3.0+ earthquakes:
            1970-2000:             21 /yr
            2001-2008:             29 /yr
            2009:                      50
            2010:                      87
            2011:                      134-188

But they’ve known about this phenomena, and the mechanisms underlying it, since 1966…
Another one of Bauer’s Slides Reads: “Induced Seismicity Potential in Energy Technologies - National Research Council report 2012: Current process of hydraulic fracturing a well does not pose a high risk for inducing FELT seismic events…”
Bauer got this quote from page 85 of the 265 page report. Just three pages later, starting on page 88, is an in-depth analysis of felt earthquakes induced by fracking wastewater disposal in injection wells.

The problem here, once again, is that we have Government pretending right along with industry that there is not a single negative consequence of fracking industrialization…
What are we supposed to do when our government misinforms us, misleads us, so that we are less equipped to protect ourselves from obvious risks to public health and safety?

The level of mass industrialization of rural American due to fracking is truly unprecedented in American history. Regulating fracking is an absurd notion, and that has been demonstrated by the practice of other states, due to both staffing issues and the lethargic enforcement activity of states. While Texas had over 13,000 wells drilled in 2012, oil & gas companies were caught in 55,000 violations of state fracking laws, with only 2% of those violations actually being enforced.

The only way extraction industries exist at all is by leveraging risk. Corporations much prefer leveraging the risk of others, rather than taking that risk on themselves. That is standard operating procedure for extraction companies like oil & gas, because their real and actual costs of doing business is always far greater than any revenues that can be generated from such activities.
EXAMPLE OF COAL:
            Harvard Medical School Study
            State of Illinois’s deal with coal

However, they are open for business if they can find someone to take on that risk for them. This is where the government comes in and provides them with the perfect solution: we won’t make you clean up after yourselves, and you pass those exorbitant costs onto the unsuspecting public in the form of degradation of their environment and compromising their personal health.

We are not just merely the collateral damage of the toxin-laden extraction processes of fossil fuel industries, we are THE COLLATERAL ITSELF that allows this transaction to take place between the state and the industry.
We are human bargaining chips, and our value to the industry is in our declining health, our increasing hospital bills, our rising insurance premiums, and of funerals for the most vulnerable among us. As long as the oil & gas industry does not have to clean up after itself, those are the costs that we, THE PEOPLE, will be paying.

The strongest regulations would result in none of us dying from fracking, and the only way to achieve that end is to ban fracking, which is not only the only rational choice to make, but it is also the only constitutional and moral choice to make. Let us never forget that Article XI of the Illinois Constitution guarantees our “right to a healthful environment for the benefit of this and future generations.” That would make fracking an epic fail.

The video of Brent posted by Christopher Oliver:





I don't have video of Tabitha Tripp at the hearing but her inspiring comment is essential reading if you weren't there.

I live another 45 minutes south of here. When I took the time to drive all the way to Springfield last spring, to talk to legislators (who were always too busy to make time to talk,) it was a long trip and I am dedicated to protecting our communities.

I have been in this campaign to stop fracking for 22 months working with SAFE, IPA, Heartwood Forest Council, Vineyard Indian Settlement, RACE and the Shawnee Chapter of the IL Sierra Club.

You have seen me at each one of the hearings. Why? Because it is that important to us down here. It’s not enough to get a news report- we want to know exactly what happened.

Activist Don West says, “The abuse of the land has always gone hand in hand with the abuse of the people, It’s easy to take and frack or mine someone’s land if we have convinced the world- through news--that it’s inhabitants are disposable, poor white trash or in essence a Bunch of hillbillies”

I am native of southern Illinois, I am a graduate of SIU. I am a mother and a poet and we live on a 5th generation family farm with a deep well for water. I live in the boonies and often I don’t even have internet.
But that does not make us expendable to Oil and Gas industry. I might be a hillbilly, but I am proud of it.

It does not make us any less significant. This department and the state have done exactly that- deemed us disposable.

Sacrifice Zones have been determined throughout Southern IL as economically depressed and in need of stimulation via fracked wells and hydrocarbon extraction. Leaving us with ruined water, worthless land and health effects as far as the eye can see into the future, we will be no better off than when we started extraction technology 200+ years ago.

Not the stimulation my children were hoping for!

Officials and agencies entrusted to protect public health and the environment, have gutted laws and created industry loopholes. You’ve sold us out, just like our legislators did.

These rules do NOTHING to uphold the already lax safety guarantees set forth in Public Act 98-0022. That LAW states Section 1-75.2 All phases of HVHF shall be conducted in a manner that shall not pose a significant risk to public health, life, property, aquatic life or wildlife. There is NO part of regulation that will successfully allow safe fracking.

At the very least- if I am going to be reading the rules again, comparing them to the law passed in May and then substantiating my comments to prove the incompetency of these rules during this joyous holiday season, then the least I could do is bring you a partial list of scientific research as a my gift to you.
This compilation of papers includes:
-Radioactivity in Shale Deposits
USGS maps 100 year flood plain and Liquefaction maps due to Earthquakes
Several research papers on Fracking induced Seismicity
OSHA regulations on Exposure to Silica Dust and Toxic Chemicals
American Journal of Nursing Research on Fracking and Public Health
Research on Waterless Fracking
Peer Reviewed Publication Research on Air Quality near Fracking operations
FWW: The New Global Water Crisis and water demands and Climate Change scenarios
NRDC’s research on disposal of radioactive liquified oil field waste

By light of the yule log, I will be reading the ACLU guide on civil liberties to my children, because I am pretty sure at this point, the only way to maintain our right to a healthy environment, Article XI of the Illinois constitution, will be to defend those rights by force against our government and the corporations who have hijacked our democracy.

Quoting Don West: “In a hungry world the struggle between oppressor and oppressed is unending. The inevitable question “which side are you on?” To be content with things as they are, to be “neutral” is to take side with the oppressor who wants to keep status quo. To challenge the power of the oppression is the poet’s responsibility. Such action will preserve and build faith and hope in humanity. Nothing-NOTHING raises the spirit of the people more.”

Both comments show they understand the political dynamics of Illinois that causes them to be viewed as expendable people and collateral damage. Their own state legislators are taking six figures in campaign contributions from the industry and their actions reflect it. Too many Chicago legislators who normally protect the environment find it easy to shrug their shoulders and accept a little more damage to southern Illinois because the region has always suffered the consequences of energy consumption. Hillbillies are easy subjects for compromise.

But, the dynamics are rapidly changing. Too many people are drawing a line against fracking.

The Statehouse Bubble Bursts: Illinois Revolts Against Fracking

I have a new piece at Huffington Post about the incredible public response at the fracking hearings. It includes must see video from the Carbondale, Decatur and Effingham hearings.

The Chicago hearing had a raucous crowd, but the two southernmost hearings took a more ardent tone. In Carbondale and Ina, calls for nonviolent civil disobedience to resist fracking outnumbered those who merely asked for better rules to make it safe.

The defiant tone reached a crescendo with a fired up crowd of over 200 at the final hearing in Carbondale. Politicians and interested businessmen who believe fracking in Illinois is "inevitable" should watch video of the Carbondale hearing for a reality check about the stiff opposition they'll face.

Please share! You have one last day to submit comments on the proposed regulation to IDNR before the January 3 deadline.

Decatur, IL Fracking Hearing Video

Here's video of a few speeches and a pan of the big crowd at the IDNR public comment hearing on fracking regulation held December 17, 2013. Between my amateur camera and amateur video skills, I didn't get that much usable footage, but the select comments in this video are excellent.

The opening music clip is Dust Bowl Children by Decatur native Alison Krauss and Union Station. The lyrics seem appropriate.

Strip mines and one crop farming drained the green earth dry.
We lost it all till only love was left, and that was the one thing money can’t buy.
We’re all Dust Bowl Children
Singin’ the dust bowl song
Well, the crops won’t grow,
And the dust just blows
When the green fields are gone.
When the green grass growing fields are gone.

I previously posted comments by Roy Wehrle that aren't included in the above video, and you can catch video of the entire hearing at the end of the Illinois Times article.

Fracking Comments from Effingham. Even a Monkey Wouldn't Allow Fracking.

On a dark and foggy night, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources held a public hearing in Effingham to take comments on proposed fracking regulation. It was less well attended than other hearings after being quickly rescheduled to December 16 due to a snowstorm. I'm not kidding about the fog. The deer hanging out along the side of the highway didn't make the drive more fun either.

Despite the dangerous driving conditions and late rescheduling, citizens still came to speak out against fracking and weak regulation proposed in Illinois. Only three people spoke in favor of fracking and two of them admitted to working in the oil extraction industry.



In this first video, Nancy spoke about the restrictive rules on who has standing to request a public hearing for fracking permits. Since fracking fluids travel far, her water well could be poisoned by a fracking site for which she has no right to request a public hearing. "Of course Illinoisans can expect the oil and gas industry to badger the hearing officers tasked with deciding whether or not individuals have standing to request public hearings."

Bob, a Bond county resident, is worried about how much water fracking companies will use and where it will come from. The regulations place no limits on water usage and won't protect the depletion of streams and drinking water supplies, as happened in Texas fracked towns. "I have to haul water. Will I go to town and will there be 20 tanker trucks in front of me? I don't know."

Girwana spoke about the failure of the rules to regulate fracking operations that use water below specified levels. She also pointed out that DNR doesn't have to answer questions at public hearings. "How is the public to be assured that their concerns will be addressed if IDNR only has to sit and listen to them without responding."

Then a monkey owned by Gene from Makanda, Illinois made some of the most thoughtful comments of the evening about how extraction economies target and harm poor people. "We're between two major seismic zones. There's scientific evidence to show that fracking causes earthquakes and we are between two major seismic zones. It is scandalous that you would even consider doing this here. You all wear ties and I wear a monkey suit. I look like the weirdo, but no, look, you are the irresponsible ones here that are even considering doing this. ...This can't be made safe and it has to stop in Illinois."



Vito Mastrangelo spoke about his concern that, despite owning the mineral rights to his property in southern Illinois, horizontal fracking could happen underneath his land without his consent. Noise, light and other pollution from large scale fracking could dramatically change the region. "We're not talking about a few wells. This could look like a large city."

Jessica Fujan spoke for Food and Water Watch about Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and toxic open pits of fracking waste fluids. "DNR should disallow all permits until fracking is proven safe and risk free."

I'll post more video from the Effingham hearing tomorrow. Comments can still be submitted to DNR through January 3.

Roy Wehrle Speaks at Decatur Fracking Hearing

Over the next week I'm going to post text and video highlights from the final three hearings on the tentative fracking regulation proposed for Illinois. I'll start off with comments from noted central Illinois environmentalist and community leader Roy Wehrle. He spoke at the Decatur hearing, where roughly 400 people attended and only one spoke in favor of fracking. I asked Roy to send me his notes and you can see the video from Illinois Times.

Roy Wehrle, Professor of Economics at UIS Emeritus, speaking as a member of Illinois People’s Action and Fair Economy Illinois:  formerly an economic adviser for Presidents Kennedy and Johnson
.
Thanks you – two points this evening:  Probability of Damage and VOCs

l. Probability of Harm.
What is not well understood by the public is that though the probability is low for any one bad thing happening in fracking, the probability is much higher that something bad will happen.  In other words, the probability in one fracking field may be quite low for each of these occurrences:  radioactive contamination, leakage of methane or benzene into the aquifer, and an earthquake.

But what is most important is not the likelihood of each event but of any serious event taking place. And the latter probability is always a good deal higher than the former. Assume there are eight possible bad consequences that could occur in a fracking field, and each has a probability of 1/10 or 10% of happening.  It turns out that the probability that one of these bad things will happen is 83%.  None of us would like to live in a neighborhood with those odds of bad things occurring. Quite a difference, 10% and 83%.  I will hand in a memo setting forth the mathematics of estimating such a one-in-a-series-occurring events.

 II.  Volatile Chemical Compounds
First, three quick points on chemistry.  First, volatile means that the substance boils at a low temperature so that volatile liquids boil and hence evaporate at low temperatures, even below zero. Volatility is how we smell most things. Maybe that is how the talking trees in C. S. Lewis’ masterpiece Narnia talked to each other.

Second, volatility is a stealth process.  Liquids and gases escape invisibly during the drilling and also the subsequent fracking process and also when volatile liquids are stored on the drilling pad and moved from the pad.  Though invisible to our eyes, an infrared camera shows plumes of these gases moving into the air at drilling sites.

Third, ground-level ozone smog is created by volatile chemicals combining with the nitrous oxides from exhausts, all baked in sunlight.  When these volatile chemicals, often called smog precursors, combine with Nitrous Oxide they produce ground-level smog. Many volatile chemicals and compounds are smog precursors.

As many as 100 different chemicals are used in the combined drilling/fracking process by the various drillers, many are volatile and many of these chemicals damage human health directly while others become the smog that damages human health by slowly eating away at the tissue of the lungs, as described by Dr. Theo Colburn.  He tells us that, unlike other bodily tissues, damaged lung tissue cannot be repaired by the body.

So how serious are these volatile chemicals and compounds, these VOCs, to human life and happiness?  VERY.  Consider first smog and other air pollutants which now engulf major Chinese Cities and killed prematurely 1.2 million Chinese in 2010.  Now smog is found in our countryside where fracking takes place. There are many other damaging health effects from VOCs including: irritation to eyes, ears and nose, headaches, damage to kidneys and liver and to nervous and immune systems, cancer of various forms, impairment of mental processes including memory loss, and loss of coordination, dizziness.

Heart rending accounts by individuals who have breathed in these toxic chemicals are as real as real can get, and well documented in Pennsylvania, Colorado, Texas and North Dakota. The following web site gives testimony from 1,100 people whose lives were besmirched by VOCs and other fracking caused pollution.  VOCs are toxic invaders of schoolrooms, houses and businesses, unwelcome and unseen, until eyes smart and burn. The proposed IDNR rules do not protect our citizens from these toxic trespassers.

It is essential that each well site be carefully monitored for escaping VOCs and that  all transportation of materials containing VOCs be monitored. As the draft rules now read, firms do not have to mitigate escaping VOCs if it is not cost effective or proves economically unreasonable. One asks in wonderment:  "Why does this regulation only consider the producers’ costs and not the costs in damage to the people and wildlife? The costs to the public must be recognized and estimated using the various studies that are available.  The costs of asthma, neurological damage, endocrine damage to the immune and reproductive system and many more health effects must be counted in as public costs.  These costs are every bit as real and morally more important than the remediation costs to the producers.

Protection and remedial steps should be added to the final rules:  a) monitoring escaping volatile gases and setting limits on these, b) requiring remediation where harmful gases are escaping requiring VOC abatement technologies be used where feasible, c) forbid storage of volatile liquids in open pits, d) require manifests for all haulers taking away produced water and other liquids containing VOCs and toxic chemicals showing quantity, origin and destination of the transit, e) require that the well be capped and terminated when the VOC regulations are breached or the VOC emissions exceed a set ceiling.

Finally, you all know the saying: “If it seems too good to be true, it isn't”. I would add a sister saying which goes “If many things could go wrong, one will”.  Thank you kindly for your attention.

Merry Fracking Christmas, Pat Quinn

Elves erected a fracking well on Governor Pat Quinn's lawn earlier today. No more artificial green for Quinn this Christmas. The public are finding out his promise to make fracking safe is a con.

And there's video.



The public can submit comments to DNR on the proposed rules through January 3.

Time to retire the Illinois Office of Coal Development

The Illinois Times published my guest op-ed this week about ending state coal subsidies. I'm excited about this one.

Although the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity promotes green jobs in the new energy economy, the Office of Coal Development keeps downstate officials disproportionately focused on nostalgia for old coal jobs. The empty promise of reviving coal led to disappointment in Mt. Vernon, Mattoon and Taylorville. The state wasted tens of millions in direct payments and offered tax breaks to subsidize “clean coal” plants proposed in those communities that never materialized.

“Clean coal” pipe dreams squandered years of effort and money that could have been used to attract green jobs to communities that badly need them. Now, even extreme coal boosters like Congressman John Shimkus, who supported the projects, admit carbon sequestration isn’t economically viable or ready for large-scale deployment.

Message makers in the big green groups should take note that the editorial only makes passing reference to the environment and argues how the new energy transition can be good for coal country economically.

Representative Proposes Naming a Chicago Street "Mandela Road"

Illinois State Representative La Shawn Ford is proposing renaming Cicero Avenue in Chicago to honor Nelson Mandela. His press release states:

"Illinois Route 50 is the perfect state highway to be renamed, as it crosses so many different communities and will remind us of the almost miraculous work that Nelson Mandela undertook as he brought together people in his own country and all over the world to advance peace, democracy and opportunity. His work should be an inspiration for us to work for those same goals."

At 66 miles long, Cicero is certainly no side road. The change would put Mandela's name on the tip of many Chicagoan's tongues daily. Ford has an online petition to support his proposal.

I think it's an excellent idea! The old Roman Senator Cicero won't mind since he still has the Illinois town named after him. Mandela Road will have more meaning to young people who should be taught about the man's legacy.

Hundreds of thousands greeted Mandela during his 1993 visit to Chicago. Now the city has another chance to honor him.

I've been recommending that people read Mandela's autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, if you haven't already. It's exciting as a movement history, a narrative of his time in prison, and even his early tribal upbringing was like a story from another world. Read it now or give it to someone for Christmas. The world should now his true story.