We Are So Fracked

A couple of weeks ago, in my "Hey, Barack! You Don't Know Frack" post, I wrote about how the Business Roundtable mega-lobby weaseled its way into the corporation-friendly Oval Office and suggested the fracking industry could frackin' regulate itself. And how the White House started a fracking task force to oversee fracking. And how it was probably just another smokescreen to make us rubes believe the government is operating in the public interest.  

Well, it turns out to be even worse than I thought. According to a report today in Bloomberg, the Obama Administration is considering allowing Big Frack to wait to disclose the cancer-causing chemicals it uses to propel gazillions of gallons of water to blast open the ground until AFTER it has already drilled the wells. And to disclose them on its own self-serving website, called FracFocus. If this is true, we are talking about political malpractice rising to the level of criminal negligence or worse.

You may recall what I wrote about FracFocus last time. When you visit the site to get information about gas drilling in your area, you will see a tiny disclaimer that the information on the individual wells may not be up to date. By as much as a year. Which means it's probably way more than a year. And that you should trust Big Frack telling you their chemicals are safe about as much as you trust BP telling you the oil magically disappeared and their chemical dispersants made deformed Gulf marine life taste better.

In related news,  EPA inspector Al Armandirez was fired by the Obama Administration this week after Koch Brothers shill Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) dug up an old video showing him making a speech about "crucifying" fracking polluters to set an example for other polluters. Armandirez, who once said that fracking one Texas gas well caused more pollution than all the regional cars and trucks combined, had used somewhat intemperate language which the sensitive frackers decided was anti-religion. And the White House naturally agreed, and canned him.  It's Shirley Sherrod all over again. Andrew Breitbart may be dead, but he apparently cloned himself well in advance of the blessed event. 

Yeah. We are so, so fracked.