Natural Gas Will Save Our Energy Ass! Eh, Not So Much

Here's a good rule of thumb that never, ever fails: If it's a fossil fuel, it kills people.

Susie Madrak at Crooks and Liars:

So pumping millions of gallons of carcinogenic liquid into the earth in order to get out natural gas deposits is not looking like such a sustainable energy policy. Thank God here in Pennsylvania, our new GOP Gov. Tom Corbett, an energy-industry shill, quickly moved to eliminate (or stop enforcing) the safeguards our previous Democratic administration put in place. Who cares what it might do to the drinking water in the New York-Philadelphia-New Jersey watershed? Let them drink bottled water, damn it!

Thousands of gallons of fracking fluid have spilled following an accident at a natural gas well in Pennsylvania, WNEP reports.The Chesapeake Energy well in Bradford County lost control late Tuesday night.From WNEP:

The well blew near the surface, spilling thousands and thousands of gallons of frack fluid over containment walls, through fields, personal property and farms, even where cattle continue to graze.

Francis Roupp, deputy director of the county emergency management agency, told AP that there were no injuries, and that although fluids have reached a small stream, "no adverse effects" have been reported.

Roupp suggests a cracked well casing could be the culprit behind the fracking spill, but that certain details won't be known until the situation is under control.Pennlive.com reports that seven families have been evacuated as a result of the spill.

The chemicals used in fracking fluids have been a contentious subject, as many energy companies have long guarded them as a "trade secret." A recent report released by three House Democrats says that millions of gallons of potentially hazardous chemicals and known carcinogens, such as methanol, have been injected into wells across the country by energy companies using the controversial fracking method.

Oil. Coal. Natural gas. Fossil fuel. Dead people.