Credit: PennLive’s series on fracking “The Shale Bargain”

It seems like almost every day a new study or investigative report comes out of Pennsylvania’s Gaslands. They confirm what families have been saying for years- fracking is harming Pennsylvania communities and the government is failing to protect them.

Our Map of the Week comes from a new series by PennLive on fracking. ‘The Shale Bargain’ series is the result of a six-month long investigation that found the Department of Environmental Protection “relied heavily on energy companies to largely police themselves and, in the process, ignored citizens’ constitutional right to clean air and water.”

And what the maps show is just the beginning of what the fracking industry has planned for Pennsylvania. A new report from PennEnvironment found “that since the beginning of 2007, Pennsylvania has issued more than 19,300 permits for fracking wells,” and “by 2030, Pennsylvania could see up to 60,000 wells extracting resources from the Marcellus Shale alone.”

Knowing how much damage has already been done, it’s terrifying to imagine what that map would look like with 60,000 wells.

The Pennsylvania Government is on board with fracking overtaking the state and is more interested in protecting the industry than its citizens. Something we’re seeing in many fossil fuel extraction states.

But all over the country scientific evidence and public opposition is mounting against fracking. We wont stop until fracking is banned everywhere. Below are three powerful tools that you can use to share the truth about fracking with your community and elected officials.

Educate and activate your community:

Shalefield Stories -Volume 2: Shalefield Stories is a powerful compilation of first hand testimonies from people who have been harmed by dangerous drilling in the oil and gas shalefields across the US, many of whom are suffering in Pennsylvania’s Gaslands.

To get your copy of Shalefield Stories visit http://www.shalefieldstories.org

 Compendium of Scientific, Medical and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking, Third Edition: In easy to understand language, the Compendium summarizes hundreds of peer-reviewed studies on fracking. The Compendium covers numerous risks with sections on air pollution, water contamination, the threat of fracking infrastructure, climate change, worker safety and more.

View the Compendium: http://concernedhealthny.org/compendium/

GASWORK, The Fight for C.J.’s Law – GASWORK is a new short film by Josh Fox that investigates dangerous working conditions in the oil and gas fields.

Watch the film and take action at www.gasworkfilm.com and email screenings@gaslandthemovie.com to host a community screening

Thanks and have a great weekend,
Lee Ziesche, Grassroots Coordinator

If you have videos or maps you’d like us to share on our blog please email me at leeziesche@gmail.com

I’ve been looking at maps of  bomb train routes. Maps of proposed pipelines and other infrastructure projects like LNG ports and gas-fired power plants. Maps of fracking wells and areas where fracking earthquakes are popping up like crazy.

Looking at all these maps, I see each community that has been put on the fossil fuel chopping block and think about the people I know who are now forced to live their lives in these danger zones. Looking at map after map, I can also see the bigger picture of fossil fuel domination as it expands across our country, a dangerous web of pipelines and train tracks that connect well pads to the rest of the world, threatening us all.

Seeing the bigger picture is a powerful thing, that’s why were starting a new series on our blog- Map of the Week.

All maps from: http://explosive-crude-by-rail.org/

Our first Map of the Week shows the danger zone created by crude-oil bomb trains running through my hometown of Pittsburgh, PA.

The red is 0.5 Mile US DOT Evacuation Zone for Oil Train Derailments and the yellow is 1.0 Mile US DOT Potential Impact Zone in Case of Oil Train Fire.

Pittsburgh may have been the first city in the world to ban fracking, but when it comes to crude oil bomb trains, it’s marked by a giant X of potential disaster, with trains running by all three major rivers and near sporting stadiums and hospitals.

And it’s not just Pittsburgh.

Once the crude oil is fracked in North Dakota, it's shipped out over a dangerous web of rails across our country through the backyards of America, into our major cities. In some places, these are the very same tracks that carry passengers through Amtrak and commuter rail.

The bomb trains in and around Chicago form a catcher's mitt of potential disaster.

Parts of LA are also in the crosshairs

Bomb trains run along the Hudson River and circle Albany like a dangerous ring of fire.

From Fort Collins, down through Boulder and Denver, to Colorado Springs, many Colorado towns are at risk.

* in this case indicates a potential bomb train disaster in Fort Worth

For more information on these dangerous bomb trains, watch our Video of the Week: “A Danger on Rails” by Jon Bowermaster.

And to see if your town is in the bomb train blast zone visit http://explosive-crude-by-rail.org/

Lee Ziesche, Grassroots Coordinator

P.S. If you have videos or maps you’d like us to share please email me at leeziesche@gmail.com
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