I've been tempted to write about this for a while, but haven't found sufficient support to warrant it. But the following merits serious consideration.
First, Reuters (my emphasis):
UK firm says shale fracking caused earthquakesWho is Cuadrilla Resources? They're the ones who found the shale gas and started drilling. I suggest we believe them — if this is a novel, they're the perp.
Shale gas exploration triggered small earthquakes near Blackpool in northwest England earlier this year, UK firm Cuadrilla Resources said, adding to concerns about the safety of a technology that is transforming U.S. energy markets.
A spokesman said on Wednesday tremors were triggered by pumping vast quantities of water at high pressure 3 kilometres underground through drill holes in a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which is designed to prop open shale rocks and release trapped gas.
"It is highly probable that the hydraulic fracturing of Cuadrilla's Preese Hall-1 well did trigger a number of minor seismic events," a report commissioned by the company said.
Then the U.S. Geological Survey piles on. Via Treehugger:
In a surprising turn of events, Cuadrilla Resources, a British energy company, recently admitted that its hydraulic fracturing operations "likely" caused an earthquake in England. Predictably, this news quickly sent a shockwave through the U.K., the oil and natural gas industries, and the environmental activist community. And it certainly feeds plenty of speculation that the same phenomenon could be occurring elsewhere.From that report (see link above):
Speculation that would be well-founded, evidently. Right on the heels of Cuadrilla's announcement, news is spreading that the United States Geological Survey has released a report (pdf) that links a series of earthquakes in Oklahoma last January to a fracking operation underway there. Evidently, a resident reported feeling some minor earthquakes, spurring the USGS to investigate. They found that some 50 small earthquakes had indeed been registered, ranging in magnitude from 1.0 to 2.8. The bulk of these occurred within 2.1 miles of Eola Field, a fracking operation in southern Garvin County.
Our analysis showed that shortly after hydraulic fracturing began small earthquakes started occurring, and more than 50 were identified, of which 43 were large enough to be located. Most of these earthquakes occurred within a 24 hour period after hydraulic fracturing operations had ceased.There were suspicions after an earthquake shut down the North Anna nuclear plant in Virginia that fracking might have been involved in the quake, but nothing emerged that looked like evidence.
Do we know enough to say fracking is the perp? No. Do we know enough to credibly investigate? Absolutely, if the above is true.
Look again at that North Anna story (or consider Fukushima) to understand what's at risk.
It's stunning what chances the failing-empire dead-enders want us to take — just to sweeten their bottom line.
Will we let them? Your call. Maybe it's time to re-Occupy the Earth.
GP