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(5,602 posts)SammyWinstonJack
(44,130 posts)valerief
(53,235 posts)DisgustipatedinCA
(12,530 posts)steve2470
(37,457 posts)FiveGoodMen
(20,018 posts)hootinholler
(26,449 posts)On controversial subjects. This is great news:
Governor Peter Shumlin has said he supports the measure, and has indicated he will sign it.
WOOT!
L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)Vermont first state in nation to ban fracking for oil and gas
by Carl Etnier | May 4, 2012
http://vtdigger.org/2012/05/04/vermont-first-state-in-nation-to-ban-fracking-for-oil-and-gas/
With a 103-36 vote in the House of Representatives, Vermont on Friday became the first state to ban hydraulic fracturing to extract oil or natural gas. The bill passed the Senate earlier this week.
The House debate was short. Heidi Scheuermann, R-Stowe, raised concerns that Vermont was banning the practice without knowing what natural gas resources it was giving up. We have no idea if some farmers in Franklin County might be able to take advantage of an economic opportunity on their property, she said in floor debate. Scheuermann urged the House to vote for a moratorium, which would sunset after a number of years.
David Deen, D-Westminster, argued that there was a small semantic difference between a ban and a moratorium, since no legislature can bind a future legislature. If we put a ban in place at this time, by this time next year, that ban could either be a moratorium or lifted.
Rep. Anne Donahue, R-Northfield, raised different questions. If Vermont is the first state to pass a fracking ban, she wanted to know about the possibility of the state being sued ..........
Wind Dancer
(3,618 posts)Sure wish I could relocate to Vt. permanently.
MoreGOPoop
(417 posts)K & R
Justice wanted
(2,657 posts)anywhere else.
Kind of a sad fact.
Uncle Joe
(58,506 posts)Thanks for the thread, garybeck.
malaise
(269,254 posts)and safe
Uncle Joe
(58,506 posts)Put some Bob Marley on for me, peace to you and have a good weekend.
malaise
(269,254 posts)Enjoy your weekend - we have a good track and field meet tomorrow night.
Uncle Joe
(58,506 posts)school, university or something related to your Olympic team?
malaise
(269,254 posts)Bolt, your Carmelita Jeter and a host of stars from everywhere.
The coverage will be streamed live on:
http://www.facebook.com/SportsMax;
http://www.facebook.com/CEENTV
http://www.livestream.com/tracksonsportsmax.
cali
(114,904 posts)the GMO labeling legislation? Nope.
There's not enough natural gas in Vermont for anyone to bother with fracking anyway.
crayfish
(55 posts)That won't ever happen in a state that actually produces energy people demand.
cali
(114,904 posts)Taverner
(55,476 posts)This is ripe soil.
If that happens, it will trigger a movement.
crayfish
(55 posts)There's very little hydrocarbon production in the other 3 you mention. I believe I know what would happen if they tried that in Illinois, Ohio, Texas, Lousiana and probably Wyoming and N. Dakota...anybody who wanted to crimp energy production would be run out of state on a burning rail. People are notorious for promoting stuff like banning fracking until they discover it will cost them a lot of money. Then there is the fact that nobody has yet proven it to have caused any serious harm.
RC
(25,592 posts)Between the contaminated water tables, burning water taps, earthquakes and few dead cattle, yeah, no harm.
crayfish
(55 posts)much what I have in my freezer...and if fracking ever actually did cause some small earthquakes (a claim lacking factual evidence) that would actually be a -good- thing because it would relieve fault stresses that could otherwise lead to catastrophic diastrophisms. They have been doing hydraulic and sand fracking in southern Illinois for over 55 years and there has been zero seismic activity there. You can check it out.
happerbolic
(140 posts)...that industry capitalizes pay-dirt on what the earth has been trapping for thousands of years, leaving all the rest of us the delightful plight of suffering the consequences of a multi-thousand years worth of trapped toxins and heavy (non-industry viable) elements to endure all at once, all because of achieving the brief corporate hard-on.
are you for real crayfish?
MADem
(135,425 posts)crayfish
(55 posts)idiotic conspiracy-theories that fail miserably in the face of science. (I've read the "Left Behind" books too...with some hilarity and a lot of sorrow that people believe that shit)
\
MADem
(135,425 posts)I think you didn't see the film, or if you did, you weren't paying attention.
crayfish
(55 posts)Every one of those 'burning water' reports had been traced to natural gas seeping into the water table, and not every investigator is a tool of the energy industry.
MADem
(135,425 posts)How did that natural gas seep into the water table? All by itself?
Before fracking: cool, clear water. After fracking: flammable water.
You have one of those nice days.
crayfish
(55 posts)I assume you are not a geologist.
MADem
(135,425 posts)canuckledragger
(1,671 posts)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing#Air_emissions_and_pollution
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing#Groundwater_contamination
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing#Radioactive_contamination_in_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_fracturing#Earthquakes
crayfish
(55 posts)anyway. And even at that, the "conclusions" they draw in that horribly researched piece (it's full of 3rd hand reports and urban myths that wouldn't pass muster in a municipal court) are carefully couched in terms like "uncertain", "undetermined" and "possible". I don't buy it, sorry.
canuckledragger
(1,671 posts)groundloop
(11,530 posts)If fracking doesn't harm aquifers then the drilling companies wouldn't have had anything to worry about as far as the Safe Drinking Water Act. But they had to get their pals at the time (Bush Cheney) to exempt them from that. Hmmmm.
donquijoterocket
(488 posts)That's logic and the wingers have no knowledge of,or use for, actual logic.Ever tried that as a question for a full bore fracker? I bet the hemming and hawing was near deafening,not to mention time consuming.
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)joshcryer
(62,287 posts)Which is an effective ban for all of the venture capitalists. Would have to be a very well established company that can afford to meet the standards as far as I understand.
azurnoir
(45,850 posts)it's kind of like my state MN banning whale hunting nice gesture but.....
crayfish
(55 posts)to go ice fishing...and it was the most backbreaking experience of my life. It took us half a day to make the hole big enough to put the boat in!
Oldtimeralso
(1,939 posts)I did that the last time I went to MN in the winter (Sept-May) and I did good I caught a 125# block of ice!!!
garybeck
(9,942 posts)garybeck
(9,942 posts)"a shale formation thats been tapped for gas north of the border in Quebec extends south to beneath the northwestern corner of Vermont and Lake Champlain."
http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2012/05/04/verge-historic-fracking-ban/WrzON0vsFlmfKjS9j9DkJP/story.html
plus the law bans dumping of waste materials used in fracking in other states
cali
(114,904 posts)"Its unclear if there is enough natural gas under Vermont to interest the industry in drilling for it. Geologists who attended a news conference with Shumlin last month said they didnt believe that Vermont had the abundant natural gas that has been found in nearby New York state and Pennsylvania"
Let's face it our ledge failed on GMO labeling and failed horribly on the right of child care workers to unionize- both more important that the distant threat of fracking.
Taverner
(55,476 posts)Doesn't matter your position on Natural Gas, fracking is dangerous no matter which way you look at it.
Zorra
(27,670 posts)I'd move there if it wasn't so darn cold in winter.
Bjorn Against
(12,041 posts)Sometimes I wish I could live in Vermont where they actually have good government, we used to have good government here in Minnesota but that left several years ago. We now finally have a governor who actually cares about the state, but unfortunately the only thing he can do for us is keep us from becoming another Wisconsin by using his veto pen to strike down the extreme right wing ALEC bills the house and senate keep pushing on us.
Vermont makes me envious, it seems they lead on damn near everything.
eggplant
(3,917 posts)Their artery clogging cheese?
(A reference to the movie Thank You For Smoking, for the humor impaired.)
slackmaster
(60,567 posts)Smilo
(1,944 posts)and I hope to visit one day
Good for Vermont standing up against those frackers.
burrowowl
(17,654 posts)kestrel91316
(51,666 posts)But then, maybe I'm still just in a snit about the medical MJ thing.
groundloop
(11,530 posts)My crystal ball sees this scenario - A gas producer takes the state to court. The case winds it's way to the Supreme Court, where the repub court hands the gas producers a victory.
happerbolic
(140 posts)...with the court system here. They will just go through the WTO courts to sue individual states and/or the federal gov't.
a2liberal
(1,524 posts)Between this, single payer (how's that going btw?), Bernie, cheese, etc. I may have to move there some day. Any software industry there?
cali
(114,904 posts)the work on Green Mountain Care is ongoing with a lot of focus on containing costs. And yes, there's a software industry here.
Auntie Bush
(17,528 posts)But don't forget all the marble.
derby378
(30,252 posts)handmade34
(22,759 posts)freshwest
(53,661 posts)MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)Thanks, VT!
We're trying to preserve local control over zoning laws. This is gonna help...
countryjake
(8,554 posts)Harriety
(298 posts)malthaussen
(17,230 posts)"No legislature may bind a future legislature," Deen said. "And if we put a ban in place this time, by this time next year, that ban could either be a moratorium or lifted."
(Statement by Dem. Legislator)
-- Mal
sellitman
(11,608 posts)I hope CT is next.
davidpdx
(22,000 posts)I hope some other states follow suit. Anyone who hasn't seen it needs to see Gasland.
raouldukelives
(5,178 posts)Garion_55
(1,915 posts)in the state of vermont?
course the series was only good for the first 1 1/2 seasons so no big loss.