Extinguishing life on earth before extinguishing was cool: “Fracking hell!”

… the researchers calculate that the impact would have generated thousands of earthquakes of up to magnitude 9.9 (significantly more powerful than the largest recorded by modern seismologists) for hundreds of kilometres around. In effect, it would have been the biggest fracking operation in history, releasing oil and gas from the shattered rock in prodigious quantities.
The upshot, Dr Tohver believes, would have been a huge burp of methane into the atmosphere. Since methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, that burp would have resulted in instant global warming, making things too hot for much of the planet’s animal life. Presto! The Permian mass extinction is explained.

But of course.
h/t Larry

“Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of terrorism-exporting religious fanatics.”

AP:

A landmark federal study on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, shows no evidence that chemicals from the natural gas drilling process moved up to contaminate drinking water aquifers at a western Pennsylvania drilling site, the Department of Energy told The Associated Press.
After a year of monitoring, the researchers found that the chemical-laced fluids used to free gas trapped deep below the surface stayed thousands of feet below the shallower areas that supply drinking water, geologist Richard Hammack said.

More: Gasland II’s Luddite Slander Of ‘Fracking’ Is The Latest Technophobe Attack On Progress

The old burning water trick;

Consider a celebrated case in Parker County, Texas. Resident Steven Lipsky had methane in his drinking water. The EPA fastened on the idea that Range Resources had contaminated his well through fracking, and hit the company with an endangerment finding and remediation order. But as Mario Loyola of the Texas Public Policy Foundation recounts, the EPA couldn’t actually defend any theory whereby the fracking had polluted the well.
Slowly, the agency retreated in ignominy. It turned out that the well wasn’t contaminated at all, but contained levels of methane typical in the area and below levels that the federal government considers a threat to health. “Area residents,” Loyola writes, “had found natural gas in their water wells years before any drilling for natural gas. Some water wells were even ‘flared’ for days after drilling, to release dangerous levels of methane. One area subdivision’s water tanks warn ‘Danger: Flammable Gas.’

‘Peak oil’ web site to close its doors

Q. Why are there trees in Saskatchewan?
A. Because we don’t have to burn them to stay alive.

FrackNation to air on Sun News Network;

FrackNation follows journalist Phelim McAleer across America as he faces threats, malicious 911 calls and bogus lawsuits for just trying to question green extremists for the truth about fracking.
The film was written and directed by a trio of filmmakers: Husband and wife team Phelim McAleer and Ann McElhinney and their colleague Magdalena Segieda.
“FrackNation is pro-truth and pro-investigative journalism. It reveals the exaggerations and frauds that are at the heart of the anti-fracking movement and the length activists will go to reach their goal of banning fracking,” said Phelim McAleer, co-director.
The New York Times called FrackNation “meticulously researched” and said that “much of what it reveals is provocative.”

Watch for it June 6, at 8 and 10 p.m. Eastern

The US State Department is starting to release 1.2 million public comments on the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline. Going into the comment period, environmental groups geared up to show their muscle. They promised that they would deliver one million comments from ordinary Americans who oppose the pipeline, which would create an estimated 20,000 jobs. The one-million comment march would, according to the pipeline’s foes, show a strong grassroots opposition to it, while also showing strong support for President Obama’s position scuttling the pipeline.

Oops.

As the 1.2 million comments begin to emerge from the State Department, more than half of them turn out to have come from Americans who support the pipeline.

So I could start my morning by pulling the plug;

New York City’s pension funds, among the largest in the country, have brought a suit against BP PLC claiming their members lost $39 million as a result of BP’s actions before and after the Deepwater Horizon explosion.
In a 237-page complaint, the pension funds allege their investments in BP were made at “artificially inflated” prices because the company exaggerated its ability to work safely in the Gulf.

h/t Adrian

Daily Mail;

After examining hundreds of thousands of gas extraction operations, the scientists found only three instances where resulting shocks could be detected by residents above ground.
In contrast, they found other man-made activities, such as mining and waste-disposal, are much more likely to trigger noticeable seismic activity.
Lead researcher Professor Richard Davies from Durham University’s Energy Institute, said the risk of fracking resulting in seismic activity that could be felt on the surface is ‘not significant’.
‘In almost all cases, the seismic events caused by hydraulic fracturing have been undetectable other than by geoscientists. It is also low compared to other man-made triggers,’ he said.
‘By comparison, most fracking-related events release a negligible amount of energy roughly equivalent to or even less than someone jumping off a ladder onto the floor.’

h/t EBD

The Hill;

The [Democrat controlled] Senate on Friday voted 62-37 to approve the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline in an amendment to Senate budget.
Sen. John Hoeven’s (R-N.D.) amendment was largely symbolic, but served as a clear statement that the Senate backs the pipeline.
“It puts the Senate on record in support of the Keystone pipeline project. And that’s just appropriate,” Hoeven said. “The Department of State has done four environmental impact statements over the last five years — four — and said there are no significant environmental impacts. And it’s time that we in the Senate stepped up with the American people.”

Via

Ken Green, Senior Director for the Fraser Institute on Canada as “energy superpower”.