Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

There is yet another attempt by New York’s high society to frustrate natural gas development for upstate residents and landowners who so desperately need it.  This one comes from the Grace Communications Foundation, still another Rockefeller family affiliate.

The more we learn about the natural gas opposition, the more obvious it becomes the fractivist universe is little more than a group of pawns.  Every time I say this, I get hate-mail from some who insist their opposition is as real as could be, but that isn’t really the point.  Whatever the sincerity of the foot soldiers, they are being manipulated in a campaign by a relative handful of extraordinarily wealthy elitists to create a utopian energy world.  The far left likes to suggest the world is run by a bunch of plutocrats, all the while taking money and doing the bidding of those same plutocrats.  There is now yet another example in the Grace Communications Foundation, which is connected to the usual suspects.

The Grace Communications Foundation is lending its hand to an obviously choreographed campaign to stop natural gas development in New York, which is what the entire battle everywhere is ultimately about.  It manifests itself in a blog called Ecocentric, which, when it is not promoting already debunked Gasland Part II, is coming out with articles such as this latest one entitled “Waste Without Borders: Fracking’s Dirty Dilemma.” It is a shallow piece, that repackages some of the oldest canards regrading hydraulic fracturing.

Kyle Rabin, the author of the piece begins by suggesting he has a “love-hate relationship with hydraulic fracturing” but, if so, it’s a love-to-hate one because the rest of the article only trashes the process that is safely and responsibly making America energy independent.  He indicates, for example, the following:

As recent news coverage and Gasland Part II make abundantly clear, fracking operations require a lot of water. The typical frack job needs 3 million to 5 million gallons of water injected deep underground, along with sand and a concoction of chemicals, to fracture shale rock and extract the embedded natural gas. Withdrawing large amounts of water over a short period of time can stress local water supplies, especially in drought-prone regions in the West, like Texas, where nearly 15 million people are living under some form of water rationing.

He plays the all too typical trick of throwing around big scary numbers in hopes some of them will stick, ignoring several key facts; 1) the amount of water is relatively small in comparison to other uses such as irrigating golf courses, 2) there are always restrictions on water withdrawals during periods of low-flow, 3) natural gas operators are now recycling the water used in fracking, and 4) natural gas combustion generates more water when combusted than is used to produce it.  These are all easily verifiable facts and if you think Gasland Part II is a reliable source, then read this.  It’s garbage and that’s why it’s fallen flat.

Rabin then goes on to throw out some scary words to accompany his meaningless scary numbers by interjecting “radioactive” into the discussion with a broad assertion that New York State “is the only state that is importing fracking waste from other states while under a moratorium banning high volume horizontal drilling inside of the state.”  This is the thrust of the article and, once again it it heavily distorts the truth and is about five years behind the curve.  Natural gas companies in Pennsylvania are now recycling their water, as noted above, and the wastes consist largely of drill cuttings that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) found the following when conducting it’s Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) on hydraulic fracturing (emphasis added):

Additional radiological analytical data for Marcellus Shale drill cuttings has been reported from Marcellus wells in Pennsylvania. Samples were collected from loads of drill cuttings being transported for disposal, as well as directly from the drilling rigs during drilling of the horizontal legs of the wells. The materials sampled were screened in-situ with a micro R meter, and analyzed by gamma ray spectroscopy. These data are provided in Table 5.3. As discussed further in Chapter 6, the results, which indicate levels of radioactivity that are essentially equal to background values, do not indicate an exposure concern for workers or the general public associated with Marcellus cuttings.

The SGEIS goes on, in Sections 5.2 and 5.3, to further discuss the whole issue in detail, indicating there is little, if any, substance to Rabin’s claims, but that’s hardly surprising.  The Grace Communications Foundation is committed to stopping fracking in New York (even though it’s been done safely there for decades), whatever it takes in the way of money.  And, who are these people?  Well, it’s simply another elitist group funded with the help of the Rockefeller family to thwart what the famous family wrought.

The Rockefeller family has directly or indirectly funded or influenced every major player on the anti side in the New York fracking wars.  It is integrally related to the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), its various off-shoots (including the Open Space Institute and Catskill Mountainkeeper), the Sustainable Markets Foundation (which funds multiple upstate anti-fracking groups and the efforts of my friend Walter Hang), Environmental Advocates of New York (where Rabin came from), the Delaware Riverkeeper and numerous other organizations fighting fracking with old oil money.

The Grace Communications Foundation is a “donor advised fund” associated with the Rockefeller Family Fund as this annual report from the latter states.  Two sisters named Helaine Lerner and Joan Rechnitz are the primary funders and organizers of this group.  Helaine is an anti-meat crusader and New York socialite.  Here she is (on left) at a high society summer event in the Hamptons celebrating with her husband Sid Lerner and Susan and David Rockefeller (photo from Susan Rockefeller blog).

Who Helaine Lerner associates with is her business, of course, but the shared money connections and shared causes are threats to upstate residents and landowners desperate for economic development.  The Grace Communications Foundation is just another phony Catskill Mountainkeeper type group intended to protect elitist special interests.