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Tuesday, January 27, 2015

This Is Too Important To Miss

Hydraulic fracturing or "fracking" for short has been around for over 50 years.  It is a practice that involves putting mostly pressurized water into a new oil or gas well to break up the surrounding rock or other structures so that the production from the well flows in greater quantities and for a longer period.  In some states like Oklahoma, there are literally tens of thousands of wells that have been completed using fracking.  During those decades of use, there has never been an example of fracking causing damage to the environment, particularly the supposed contamination of the underground water on which so much focus has been place in the last ten years.  Nevertheless, about ten years ago, the environmental movement decided that fracking was a bad thing, and they began trying to ban it.  The initial efforts were so far from the basic facts that Congress passed legislation that barred the EPA from regulating fracking directly.  The battle over fracking has continued since then, however, with very well funded environmental groups going after fracking across the country.  The anti-fracking forces had their biggest success in New York where governor Cuomo issued a ban of the practice statewide.  Supposedly, fracking is a health hazard although there has never been any effect on health shown from fracking that has been done properly.  Indeed, investigations by the federal government and various states have shown over and over again that fracking presents no problems regarding underground water or other possible hazards.

In view of the consistent findings that fracking is safe, one has to wonder how it is that the anti-fracking groups continue to be so well funded.  Why, after all, give money to support an effort that is clearly belied by the facts?  Well, maybe we now know.

In an article today, the Washington Free Beacon published the results of an extraordinary bit of investigation.  It seems that the single biggest contributor by far to the major anti-fracking groups is a front company that exists only to hide the source of the cash.  That shield has been pierced now, however, and it turns out that the cash is coming from Rosneft, an enormous energy company owned by the government of Russia.  That's right, the Russian government is spending money to try to have environmentalists stop the growth of American oil and gas drilling using fracking.  In the last ten years, America has increased its oil and gas production by a huge amount, and it is all due to the use of fracking.  This threatens the Russian oil industry which is the principal source of cash for Putin and his buddies in the Kremlin.  What better way to secure higher prices for Russian oil than to undermine production in America that comes from fracking?

This article is too important for me to just summarize it for you.  I strongly urge you to click on the link above and to read the full report.  If Russia is actually funneling cash to American environmental groups in order to damage our oil and gas production, it is a matter that we all need to know about.



 

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