Opinion: Politics slowing down environmental progress
This week, I had the opportunity to meet and talk with Bob Deans, Associate Director of Communications for the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Action Fund about climate change, clean energy and the challenges of environmental journalism. We also talked about his most recent book, Reckless: The Political Assault on the American Environment, in which he describes the role politics plays in the challenges faced in the environment today. During this discussion, it became apparent that the role he describes is much too large and completely driven by money.“There is no scientific debate; there is no natural debate; there is a political debate,” Deans said. Scientists agree that climate change is a serious problem that needs to be addressed, but yet the Republicans in Congress do nothing to take action. Why, you ask? Because they receive about $800 million in lobbying from the oil and gas industries!Despite what politicians seem to believe, there is clear evidence of climate change, and the impacts are eminent. All across the world, deserts are widening, arctic ice is melting and carbon emissions are a large contributing factor. In 2012, wildfires destroyed 9.2 million acres in the United States alone; it was the hottest year on record and included the largest drought our country has seen in 50 years. But still no definitive action is taken.As of February, the 113th Congress has already seen 11 bills focusing on climate change. During the 112th Congress, over 100 bills dealing with climate change were introduced, of which only two were enacted into law. The government has taken no action in the issue of climate change. But Congress has the responsibility to respond to environmental and ecological changes that impact our land and infrastructure because without laws and regulations, nothing is keeping us from destroying our own environment. Environmental groups like the NRDC do not have the finances or power to take on the task alone.Perhaps the most shocking part of my conversation with Bob Deans was on the topic of fracking. For those who don’t know, “fracking” is the shortened term for hydraulic fracturing, which is the process of extracting natural gas from shale rock formations by injecting water and chemicals to fracture the rock layers and create flow paths from the wells into the shale formations. Deans believes that it’s no longer a question of whether it will be done, but “the question is if we’re going to do it in a responsible way.” It seems that the answer to that question is “no.”Fracking companies are exempt from requirements outlined in both the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, and in the state of Ohio, the government also exempts these fracking companies from following local ordinances. Furthermore, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 contains a provision that exempts them from abiding by the requirements in the underground injection control (UIC) program of the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). A recent investigation reported that 32 million gallons of diesel fuel had been illegally injected into the ground as a fracking chemical in 19 different states between 2005 and 2009.With as much of 44 percent of the US population depending on groundwater for its drinking supply, as reported by the National Groundwater Association (NGWA), how can our government exempt these companies from keeping it safe? Simple: money. In 2010, U.S. shale gas production due to fracking generated $76 billion. Unfortunately, it seems that we won’t see Congress take action to regulate this because our government is more concerned with what’s in their wallets than what’s in our water.