The Fracking Industry Buys Congress - But for how much?

Environmental News Service
Blue Ridge Press
By Sharon Guynup

WASHINGTON, DC, February 16, 2012 (ENS) - A natural gas drilling rush is on in rural North Dakota. And with it, residents are reporting growing numbers of respiratory ailments, skin lesions, blood oozing from eyes, and the deaths of livestock and pets.

Elsewhere, residents of Texas, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Wyoming and other states who thought they'd hit the lottery by signing natural gas drilling leases have watched their drinking water turn noxious: slick, brown, foamy, flammable.

In December, for the first time, federal regulators scientifically linked hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to the contamination of an aquifer, refuting repeated industry claims that the practice does not pollute drinking water.

It happened in the rural ranching community of Pavillion, Wyoming, an area riddled with 162 natural gas wells dug between 1990 and 2006. Despite a decade of complaints from residents that their reeking water was undrinkable - and that many suffered from nerve damage, asthma, heart trouble and other health problems - state officials did nothing.

Finally the EPA stepped in, launching a three-year study running from 2008 to 2011.

In its report, the EPA identified numerous fracking chemicals in Pavillion's water. Cancer-causing benzene was found at 50 times safe levels, along with other hazardous chemicals, methane, diesel fuel, and toxic metals - in both groundwater and deep wells.


Continue reading...   Just how much money is spent on oil and gas lobbying?

Election showed fracking's key role in region

Money, lobbying increasing in races

Sunday, November 13, 2011

By Erich Schwartzel, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Right up to Election Day, Peters residents were receiving sleek fliers in the mail encouraging them to vote against a referendum to ban gas drilling in the Washington County community.
The mailers weren't coming from local opposition, but from Houston-based industry group Consumer Energy Alliance.

On Tuesday, the Peters referendum was defeated, and Rich Fitzgerald was elected county executive in neighboring Allegheny County.

On Wednesday, the Consumer Energy Alliance named a director for its new Pennsylvania chapter: Mike Mikus, who ran Mr. Fitzgerald's campaign.


This past week's election offered a preview of a Pennsylvania political landscape where money from outside the state is flowing into the most local of local races, where officials pass through the revolving door of political and industry jobs, and where a billion-dollar industry and grassroots activists are mobilizing to turn every race into a with-us-or-against-us choice.

As drilling for natural gas increases in the large Marcellus Shale formation that underlies much of Pennsylvania as well as portions of neighboring states, the issue has become more and more tied into politics and efforts to gain influence with both politicians and constituents.

Mr. Mikus said his new job involves "no lobbying whatsoever" of Mr. Fitzgerald or any other politician.

"We focus at the grassroots level, trying to educate citizens to see behind a lot of the misconceptions about energy."

Also working to educate people is Marcellus at the Polls, an anti-drilling group, which compiled a list of "fractivist friendly" candidates for last week's election.

The multi-national corporations moving into the Marcellus region -- firms such as ExxonMobil or Chevron -- have long dedicated millions of dollars to lobbying efforts. Range Resources and EQT Corp., two of Pennsylvania's most active drillers, each have a lobbyist in Harrisburg.


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Groups Release Report Detailing Natural Gas Industry's Monetary Influence Over Public Policy

Source: Common Couse

By Jason Gottesman

Several government watchdog groups held a press conference today in the state Capitol’s main rotunda to release a report detailing campaign and lobbying contributions by the natural gas drilling industry in Pennsylvania, at both the state and federal levels.

Barry Kauffman, of Common Cause PA, said the report details the power of political money in the execution of public policy in government. Reporting a total of $747 million in campaign and lobbying expenditures by the natural gas industry, Kauffman said this money has allowed the industry to exempt itself from strict environmental regulation. A move he said has been made easier by the US Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case.

Kauffman pointed out Congressman Tim Murphy and Senator Pat Toomey have taken the most natural gas money in Pennsylvania and noted three Pennsylvania Congressman that sit on the Congressional oversight committee have received campaign contributions from the industry. He said Pennsylvania is known as the “sweet spot” for natural gas drilling due to the Commonwealth’s lax environmental regulations due to the industry and their affiliated political action committees injecting millions of dollars into officials’ campaign coffers.

 

 

Kauffman elucidated that Gov. Tom Corbett has received $1.6 million in campaign contributions from the natural gas industry, including one time donations nearing $150,000. He noted Pennsylvania is one of eleven states that does not regulate campaign contributions and said 228 contributions made, totaling 52 percent of the total value of donations, exceeded federal campaign donation limits. He pointed out these failings are only compounded by gift rules that allow corruption and pointed to all expenses paid trips to the Super Bowl from the natural gas industry taken by Senators Joe Scarnati (R-Jefferson) and Tim Solobay (D-Washington).

Kauffman argued for four reforms to make the system better:

· Regulate campaign contributions.

· Require online, public filing of campaign contribution reports.

· Require more campaign contribution disclosures and require quarterly and non-election year filings.

· Make it illegal for lobbyists with policy concerns before government bodies to give gifts.

Continue reading... much more revealing information!