Photo: Susan Lehman

Oil and natural gas may be valuable resources out West, but so are the area’s wildlife and outdoor heritage. Increased energy exploration, however, could make certain species much harder to find.

Mule deer, pronghorn antelopes, greater sage grouse, raptors and songbirds that depend on the sagebrush in the region are just some of the wildlife that could be seriously affected by oil and gas drilling.

Oil and Gas Companies Need to Disclose “Fracking” Chemicals

Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a natural gas drilling process raising concerns about the health and safety of people and wildlife across the country.

Not only is the process highly destructive to wildlife habitat, but it can potentially leach toxins into rivers, lakes, streams and groundwater.

Unfortunately, in most cases, oil and gas companies don’t have to disclose the chemicals they use during fracking, which can include nasty ingredients like diesel fuel. Furthermore, the Environmental Protection Agency and other federal authorities can’t fully regulate oil and gas companies because of exemptions in laws like the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Clean Water Act.

Members of Congress from Colorado, New York, Pennsylvania and other states are trying to pass legislation to close loopholes that allow fracking chemicals to remain a mystery and a threat to animals, people and the environment. The National Wildlife Federation is also working to mitigate the impacts of energy exploration on America’s valuable natural landscapes before oh deer turns into no deer at all.

Help Protect Wildlife From Fracking

You can speak up to protect wildlife from the dangers of fracking or support National Wildlife Federation’s work on this and other important wildlife issues.

Reflecting on Leopold’s question I have asked myself: What if there had been no National Wildlife Federation? Looking back over NWF’s 75-year history, I wonder if the United States would have a national Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act or Safe Drinking Water Act, as well as the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the many other laws that protect our environment and our wildlife. Would we have stopped the worst acid rains in the 1990s? Who would have provided a clarion voice for wildlife when nature was in such trouble during the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s, if not for “Ding” Darling, Mrs. H.G. Bogert and the other founding NWF board members?

Working with our members, state affiliate organizations and partner environmental groups, NWF has devoted decades to educating Americans about threats to wildlife and their habitats. We have encouraged members to call on lawmakers, urging them to create a solid legal framework for caring for all of nature. We also have served as legal watchdogs, ensuring the fair enforcement of the existing laws that protect wildlife and the integrity, quality and safety of our environment.

Believing that our nation works best when its citizens unite to solve problems, the Federation’s creators founded NWF as a “big tent” conservation group. Today we invite people from all backgrounds to participate in working for NWF goals. We welcome hunters, anglers, bird-watchers, gardeners, hikers and canoeists to our cause. We embrace political diversity, as reflected in our membership, which is about one-third Republican, one-third Democrat and one-third Independent—all cooperating to assure the nature of our children’s tomorrow. NWF state affiliates work across the nation on issues that give the Federation one of the most geographically varied conservation agendas of any group of its kind.

Age has never been a barrier, either. We offer Wild Animal Baby for infants. Other youngsters can receive Your Big Backyard, and Ranger Rick has influenced millions of American children for nearly 50 years. We celebrate National Wildlife Week each spring with millions of school students across the country, as we have since our early days. We are active on scores of college campuses, assisting students to develop their leadership potential.

Many challenges lie ahead for wildlife and for the National Wildlife Federation. You are needed now more than ever to help us defend wildlife and to make sure our children’s world is not plundered by greed. Only an enlightened U.S. voting public will ensure protection of our air and water, and give hope for a healthy world for wildlife and our children.

Through trying moments in history, Americans have always demonstrated that we work best when we work together. Sadly, our opponents often seek to divide us. Fossil-fuel interests, for example, fund and foster ideological division, knowing that our political system will do nothing to address global warming and our failed energy policies when the citizenry is split.

Nature faces growing threats from dirty fossil-fuel interests masquerading as Americans for Prosperity and other reasonable-sounding front-groups. Through their vast network of influence in Washington and in state capitols, oil, gas and coal lobbyists are striving to unravel the environmental safety net that stands in the way of excess profits. These and other related corporate forces are aligning to gut the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority to enforce key provisions of the Clean Air Act, to eviscerate the wetlands protection provisions of the Clean Water Act, and to block EPA from regulating mountaintop removal and illegal valley fills for coal.

Your support is vital. Help NWF continue to spread the word so that we may wake up the nation to the dangers ahead. By working together, we can ensure that goose music and the rich orchestra of nature will continue to be available to our children.

Otsego County (NY) Gas Group

“The United States has as much natural gas as Saudi Arabia has oil,” said Sen. Ben Cardin (MD) at a Senate committee hearing on the public health and environmental impacts of natural gas drilling. Many states are tapping into the economic benefits of the popular fossil fuel, which burns cleaner than oil and coal. But, Sen. Cardin also noted serious environmental and public health concerns surrounding hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the processing of releasing natural gas from the ground.

Several lawmakers in the hearing called for greater transparency from oil and gas companies on the toxic chemicals they use during the fracking process. Other senators worried about government regulation interfering with energy development. Legislators also heard testimony from representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency, Center for Healthy Environments & Communities, Pennsylvania Environmental Council, Oklahoma Corporation Commission, and Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. Gasland filmmaker Josh Fox also attended the hearing.

Natural gas is a staple in America’s energy portfolio, and development must be done in an environmentally sound way. Striking gold doesn’t have to mean strikeouts for clean air, clean drinking water, and a healthy environment for people and wildlife. The FRAC Act, a new bill introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate, would close oil and gas loopholes in the Safe Drinking Water Act and require disclosure of hydraulic fracturing chemicals. Click here to urge Congress to pass the FRAC Act and protect our drinking water from hydraulic fracturing.

Otsego County (NY) Gas Group

Hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, is the process of releasing natural gas from the ground. But, to get the gas out, water, sand and other chemicals have to go in. Lawmakers from big gas drilling states want everyone to know what those chemicals are and how it may affect your drinking water.

Members of the U.S. House and Senate recently reintroduced the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act. The FRAC Act places hydraulic fracturing under the framework of the Safe Drinking Water Act and requires energy companies to disclose the chemicals used in the fracking process.

Representatives Diana DeGette (D-CO), Jared Polis (D-CO), and Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) sponsored the House version of the bill (H.R. 1084)with thirty-one cosponsors. Senator Bob Casey (D-PN) sponsored the Senate version (S.587) with seven co-sponsors.

“The FRAC Act provides an incredible opportunity to protect wildlife habitat and human health from toxic chemicals,” says Todd Keller, Senior Manager of Public Lands Campaigns for NWF. “Hunters, anglers, conservationists, and local communities are concerned about the impacts of hydraulic fracturing on water quality, wildlife, critical habitat. This legislation moves us toward responsible natural gas development. Exploration should not be done in a way that puts public health and wildlife habitat at risk from exposure to toxic chemicals.”

“This key piece of legislation follows on the heels of statements from Bureau of Land Management Director Bob Abbey that mischaracterizes the impacts of hydraulic fracturing on water resources and downplays the public’s right to know about what may be contaminating their drinking water. It is unfortunate a senior Department of the Interior official would be so cavalier with his words about such an important issue affecting communities all over the country.”

Click here to find out how you can take action to protect our nation’s waters from hydraulic fracturing.

I posted this response on National Journal’s blog in response to the question:

Should the federal government seek to regulate a controversial extraction method for natural gas known as hydraulic fracturing?

In fact, since 2005, the process of hydraulic fracturing—used to extract natural gas–has been free from SDWA protections.

Hydraulic what?

Hydraulic fracturing is a means of extracting natural gas by blasting a solution of water, sand and chemicals into underground rock formations at high pressure.

By disturbing these rock formations, underground aquifers are subject to pollutants as well as the surface water to which they are connected.

Hydraulic fracturing provides the opportunity to tap difficult wells or to ramp up production of aging wells. However, the concern is that this disruption will also release previously undisturbed chemicals into the watershed such as mercury and arsenic.

A recent U.S. House resolution, the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals Act of 2009 (FRAC Act), calls for companies to disclose what chemicals they are using in their processes–noting that the disposal of this drilling water mixture must be disposed of afterward.

With SWDA supervision, natural gas companies would be held accountable for the chemicals they are drilling into communities’ water supplies.

Click here to tell Congress to pass the FRAC Act today.

- By Kolleen Kawa, National Wildlife Federation