from Root Force
Power lines downed by Hurricane Sandy (Photo: Arlington County/cc/flickr)
The combination of fracking and global warming-driven drought is placing an increasing strain on U.S. energy infrastructure, which depends on water for cooling power plants, the Department of Energy has warned. And that’s not all.
by Gal Fawkes / Earth First! News Wire
Poisoned Water Supply Got You Down? Eco-Capitalism to the Rescue!
Michael Klein at a meeting of the board of eco-industrialists of the Rainforest Action Network.
What if there was a man, an environmentalist lets say—as well as an oil, gas, mining, double d-bag executive—that could turn the toxic nature of fracking into something delicious, into something that marketing professionals could label “green” and would be, of course, highly profitable? Would you then stop, for the love of all things industrial and status-quo, with your damned anti-fracking movement? Please? Continue reading
On the morning of Wednesday, March 26, more than 30 anti-fracking activists from across West Virginia and Appalachia picketed the Bridgeport, West Virginia, office of EQT Energy. The group of activists were supporting two landowners, Eileen and Jim Burke, who came from Doddridge County to try and meet with officials about concerns they had about about EQT’s shale gas operations near their property.
Hydraulic Fracturing, commonly called fracking, is a controversial method of natural gas extraction that involves injecting millions of gallons of chemical-laden water deep underground in order to shatter the bedrock and release the gas Continue reading
Van Eck Global, a New York-based money management firm with $35 million in assets from dirty energy, today launched an energy Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) focused on companies that look for and produce “unconventional” sources of oil and gas, such as oil sands. The New York Stock Exchange name chosen for this “Market Vectors Unconventional Oil and Gas ETF” is “NYSEArca: FRAK”.
Van Eck defined unconventional oil and natural gas as oil shales, tight sand, coal-bed methane and shale gas, among other sources. It said such resources may be geographically extensive or deeply embedded in underground rock formations and can be difficult to extract without the “use of developing technologies.”
The “developing technologies” include hydraulic fracturing—often referred to as “fracking”—as well as horizontal drilling. Hydrofracking for gas injects toxic laden fresh water and sand at extremely high
pressure into rock layers to shatter the stone and release the gas. In over 30 states, hydrofracking has generated immense environmental problems, including contaminated drinking water, toxic waste ponds, drilling fluid leaks, and flammable tap water.
Shawn Reynolds is a senior analyst with Van Eck Global Hard Assets Fund. “It doesn’t stop with natural gas,” said Reynolds. “That is really where a lot of the excitement is—in using some of those technologies to unlock new oil plays.” What a sick fuck.
Indeed, according to Reynolds, in 2005, oil production in the United States was about 7.3 million barrels a day, and in 2011 averaged about 8.3 million barrels.
Fund Details
The new fund tracks a proprietary Van Eck index of the same name, and will normally invest at least 80 percent of its assets in companies primarily engaged in a variety of activities related to the exploration, development, extraction, production and/or refining of unconventional oil and natural gas, the company said in a recent regulatory filing.
Van Eck’s Senior Management includes Jan F. van Eck, CEO. He is a heavy campaign financer to Randy Altschuler, Republican for Congress, whose platform includes expansion of domestic offshore drilling.
Van Eck headquarters are located at:
335 Madison Avenue, 19th Floor
New York, NY 10017
800.826.2333.
EF! DAM
Ecodefense