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
Westhoff, Texas: A drilling rig next to a cemetery in the Eagle Ford Shale region where the fracking industry is booming. ©2014 Julie Dermansky for Ocean 8 Films
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
Westdale, Louisiana: Two rigs on one frack site in the Haynesville Shale region. ©2014 Julie Dermansky for Ocean 8 Films
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
Abita Springs, Louisiana: General Russel Honoré giving a speech about the need to stop the fracking industry from operating in St. Tammany Parish. ©2014 Julie Dermansky for Ocean 8 Films
Kentwood, Louisiana: Larry McDaniel’s dairy farm next to a Goodrich Petroleum frack site in the Tuscaloosa Shale region. ©2014 Julie Dermansky for Ocean 8 Films
Amite County, Mississippi: A well in production with a flare burning. ©2014 Julie Dermansky for Ocean 8 Films
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
Eddy County, New Mexico: Aerial view of the “Oil Patch” in the Permian Basin, revitalized by the fracking industry. ©2014 Julie Dermansky for Ocean 8 Films
Artesia, New Mexico: Train cars with toxic content pass in front of the Artesia Navajo Refining Company in the Permian Basin. ©2014 Julie Dermansky for Ocean 8 Films
Winkler County, Texas: Poison gas warning sign in the Permian Basin where the hydraulic fracturing industry is booming. ©2014 Julie Dermansky for Ocean 8 Films
Midland, Texas: Flares burning at a fracking industry site next to the Bush Tennis Center. ©2014 Julie Dermansky for Ocean 8 Films
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
Snyder, Texas: Smoke drifts away from a fracking rig in the Permian Basin. ©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
Quitman, Arkansas: A fracking industry site next to the Greers Ferry Lake in the Fayetteville Shale region. ©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
Weld County, Colorado: Active drilling rig on a hilltop near Greeley, Colorado. ©2014 Julie Dermansky for Earthworks
Weld County, Colorado: Noble Energy site in Weld County in The Pawnee National Grasslands where fracking is done on federal land. ©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
Lybrook, New Mexico: Shale industry site on BLM land in northern New Mexico. ©2014 Julie Dermansky
Denton, Texas: Kaden and Cassidy Bush live between two fracking sites. Their mother, Maile Bush, actively supported the fracking ban in Denton. ©2014 Julie Dermansky
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
