2014 Year in Review: Photos of All Things Fracking Related

onDec 31, 2014 @ 06:00 PST

The oil and gas fracking industry continues to change America’s physical and political landscape. Falling oil and gas prices have threatened to stall the industry’s production growth, but for now, new drill sites continue to spring up. It was a very eventful year for both the industry and its critics. Here is my look back at some of the most notable stories and photographs.

In 2014, The Post Carbon Institute and the University of Texas released reports finding the Energy Information Administration’s projections of the fracking boom’s production potential greatly inflated.

Numerous peer-reviewed studies have been published that hold the fracking industry responsible for water and air contamination. And health studies have connected industry emissions to negative health effects impacting those living near fracking sites.

Despite the fracking industry’s continued growth, the anti-fracking movement claimed numerous victories in 2014. The most high profile victories: Denton, Texas voters passed a referendum banning fracking in their city, and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo issued a statewide fracking ban after his health commissioner’s report concluded that the health risks are too great.

Meanwhile, America’s export policy on liquefied natural gas (LNG) is loosening and the federal government will streamline permits for frack sites on public lands overseen by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a unit of the U.S. Department of Interior.

DeSmog Fracking Coverage in 2014

Here are some selected stories covered by DeSmogBlog on the fracking industry in 2014:

Bush Family and Its Inner Circle Play Central Role in Lawsuits Against Denton, Texas Fracking Ban

Oklahoma Ignores Link Between Record Number of Earthquakes and Fracking Wastewater Disposal Wells

Monster Wells: Hundreds of Fracking Wells Using 10-25 Million Gallons of Water Each

Workers at Fracked Wells Exposed to Benzene, CDC Warns Amid Mounting Evidence of Shale Jobs’ Dangers

Triumph For Citizens in Florida As Hughes Oil Company Drops Fracking Project

Obama Opened Floodgates for Offshore Fracking in Recent Gulf of Mexico Lease

Hard Times in a Boom Town: Pennsylvanians Describe Costs of Fracking

Add Toxic Air Pollution To Growing List Of Problems With Fracking

$3 Million Jury Verdict in Texas Fracking Nuisance Case

Confirmed: California Aquifers Contaminated With Billions of Gallons of Fracking Wastewater

Eight Members of Congress Call for EPA to Reopen Contaminated Water Studies Near Fracking Fields

Top Five UK Fracking Moments of 2014

Photos of Fracking 2014

Throughout 2014, I photographed oil and gas industry sites in Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Florida, Mississippi, Arkansas and Oklahoma for DeSmogBlog, Jon Bowermaster’s upcoming film Dear President Obama, Earthworks and the Weather Channel. Here is a selection of my photos taken over the course of the year:

Karnes City, Texas: One of many flares in the Eagle Ford Shale region.The Center for Public Integrity, Inside Climate News and the Weather Channel’s investigative reporting showed that regulatory air monitoring procedures are inadequate to provide a proper analysis of the pollution the fracking industry is contributing to the area. ©2014 Julie Dermansky for the Weather Channel

Weatherford, Texas: Democratic Texas State Representative Lon Burnam (before he lost his bid for re-election this year) stands with Steven Lispky next to Lipsky’s water-well. Lipsky demonstrated to the public he can light his water and water-well vent on fire at an open house event that Burnam attended. ©2014 Julie Dermansky for Ocean 8 Films

Azel, Texas: Crack in the wall caused by an earthquake in Joretta Lanier’s living room next to her deer mounts. A cluster of earthquakes rattled the area after wastewater disposal wells began injecting fracking waste deep beneath the ground. ©2014 Julie Dermansky

Naples, Florida: Pamela Duran next to a protest sign in front of her home, which is 1,000 feet from a proposed drill site. She and other activists were able to help halt the project before it began. ©2014 Julie Dermansky

Dimmit County, Texas: Hugh A. Fitzsimons lll near his ranch in the Eagle Ford Shale. Fitzsimons has been monitoring the air with a FLIR camera he rented since the fracking boom started near his home. ©2014 Julie Dermansky for Ocean 8 Films

Payne County, Oklahoma: Angela Spotts in her home with a painting of a flare behind her. She became an anti-fracking activist when earthquakes started rattling her community. Oklahoma had more earthquakes than California this year. Scientists attribute the quakes to the use of injection wells. ©2014 Julie Dermansky

Big Springs, Texas: A fracking industry site in the Permian Basin where the fracking industry uses millions of gallons of water to frack despite an ongoing drought. ©2014 Julie Dermansky for Ocean 8 Films

Greenbrier, Arkansas: Emily Lane at a compressor station where she collected multiple air samples that were used in a nationwide study on air pollution at fracking industry sties. ©2014 Julie Dermansky for Ocean 8 Films

Garfield County, Colorado: Rick Roles near a fracking industry site on his family’s land. Roles’ health was negatively impacted after the fracking industry boom began. ©2014 Julie Dermansky for Earthworks

Aztec, New Mexico: Shirley McNall in front of a fracking industry site near her home. McNall takes visitors interested in what fracking has done to her neighborhood on a ‘Toxic Tour’ to numerous industry sites in the San Juan Basin. ©2014 Julie Dermansky for Ocean 8 Films

Blanco, New Mexico: Don Schreiber on his ranch. The Schreibers successfully took on the oil and gas industry and the Bureau of Land Management, persuading them to twin existing drill sites instead of drilling nearly a hundred new wells on land they own and land they lease from the BLM. ©2014 Julie Dermansky for Ocean 8 Films

Mandeville, Louisiana: St. Tammany councilman Jacob Groby, Abita Springs mayor Greg Lemons and Ian Somerhalder, actor in Vampire Diaries, with concerned citizens attending a drilling permit hearing at the Lakeshore High School gym. The drilling permit was approved by the Department of Natural Resources in December. Citizens and the local government have filed lawsuits to stop Helis Oil from fracking in the area. ©2014 Julie Dermansky

Paonia, Colorado: Theo Colborn, founder of the Endocrine Disruption Exchange, giving what would be her last on-camera interview. Colborn did groundbreaking research on the health impacts of the fracking industry until her death in December. ©2014 Julie Dermansky for Earthworks

By Julie Dermansky

Julie Dermansky is a multimedia reporter and artist based in New Orleans. She is an affiliate scholar at Rutgers University’s Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights. Visit her website at www.jsdart.com.

Q&A: Cold War Foes Made Treaties to Limit the Spread of Nukes. Could a Similar Approach Wind Down Fossil Fuels?

ByMatthew Green

onNov 22, 2024 @ 04:52 PST

Canadian environmentalist Tzeporah Berman makes the case for a "bold idea" to end the era of coal, oil and gas.

Fish Farming Industry is Using ‘Misleading’ Figures to Downplay its Role in Overfishing, New Research Finds

ByBrigitte Wear

onNov 21, 2024 @ 07:40 PST

High demand for wild-caught species to feed farmed salmon and other fish is taking nutritious food away from low-income communities in the Global South.

Series: Spotlight on Industrial Aquaculture