Germany Chancellor plans lithium deal with Serbia after Rio ruling
Olaf Scholz plans to visit Serbia this week to secure supplies of lithium that are critical for the nation’s energy transition and auto industry.
The US The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has changed the tone on the possible effects of hydraulic fracturing (or fracking) on drinking water resources by saying Tuesday it doesn’t have enough information to make a broad conclusion on the matter.
EPA said such statement, however, cannot become a “national, systemic conclusion” about the impacts of the oil and gas extraction method.
On its long-awaited report on the safety of fracking, the EPA says the technique can, in fact, have an impact on drinking water under certain circumstances, but noted it can not say the same when it comes to a “national, systemic conclusion” about the impacts of such oil and gas extraction method.
“That’s a different question that this study does not have adequate evidence to really make a conclusive, quantified statement,” the report says.
In the draft version of this study, published last year, the EPA had established there was simply no evidence of fracking leading to “widespread, systematic” pollution of drinking water, a conclusion the agency decided to delete from the report’s final version.
Fracking remains controversial in some communities as the technique involves shooting millions of gallons of water, laced with chemicals, into dense rock formations to create fractures and allow oil and natural gas to flow out.
“EPA’s report blows apart the anti-fracking campaign’s most common claim, namely that hydraulic fracturing is polluting groundwater all across America,” said Dr. Katie Brown, a researcher at the pro-industry group Energy In Depth, according to The Daily Caller. “This study took five years to complete, and the EPA found nothing to suggest that fracking is a serious risk to groundwater.”
The agency’s 1,200-page report was mandated by the US Congress and was five years in the making. EPA says it’s the most complete compilation to date of national scientific data on the relationship of drinking water resources and hydraulic fracturing.
4 Comments
Herman Goodfellow
Read about cancer cluster in Houston’s Chasewood subdivision, which the Texas Railroad Commission ignores. Twenty to thirty percent of Chasewood, Tx residents have died of cancer. Phyllis Bailey testified before the Texas Railroad Sunset Commission that “For decades our families, children and pets drank and bathed in poisoned water.” https://www.sunset.texas.gov/public/uploads/Bailey_P_8-22.pdf
Herman Goodfellow
Babies near a high density of gas wells showed a 30% greater congenital heart defects. This requires surgery on newborns. Reference: Lisa M. McKenzie “Birth Outcomes and Maternal Residential Proximity to Natural Gas Development in Rural Colorado.”
http://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/wp-content/uploads/122/4/ehp.1306722.pdf
Herman Goodfellow
People near high fracking areas had increased hospitalization, heart disease, stroke and Parkinson’s http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26176544
Altaf
Last month, I met a guy through a mutual friend. Noticing that I am smoking, he straight away started telling me about his friend who died two months earlier because of smoking. Irritated by his lack of manners, I too told him of one of my friends who died a month ago despite not smoking. I am not saying smoking is not bad. I know it is wrong, I am struggling to quit. When people take moral high ground as a matter of fact, they deserve a kick on thier back side. The point is :
some people live of their hard work, exploring, identifying business opportunities, talking to investors, installing infrastructure, working on the god given assets, weathering demand fluctuations to make a living.
some other people also live of the same asset, joining organizations, which for the most part of the time spreading rumors, false analysis, asking govts not to give licences, asking people not to work there, asking people not to buy the products.