Because
the process of hydraulic fracturing is said to create more energy and
in the end reduces carbon emissions in the U.S., the federal government should not want to ban
it, retired U.S. Army Capt. James McCormick, program director of Vets4Energy, said.
Specifically,
hydraulic fracturing, also called “fracking,” “has
given America a new place in the world,” McCormick told TI Daily News, concerning the process, which entails the
injection of fluid – such as a water, sand and chemicals mixture — into shale
beds at high pressure to free up petroleum energy resources, such as oil or
natural gas.
Fracking, which has significantly boosted domestic
oil production and helped drive down gas prices in the U.S., has become increasingly controversial
over environmental concerns. But McCormick, one of the leaders at Vets4Energy,
a group that advocates for energy policies to sustain America’s
security, touted its benefits.
“As a new energy superpower, we’re not only helping drop the
price of oil to record lows, but accessing huge new stores of clean-burning
natural gas. And that has now made us the global leader in the reduction of
carbon emissions,” McCormick, a three-time Purple Heart recipient who served in
Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom, said.
Foreign enemies, in particular, are reeling from the positive
results associated with fracking, McCormick said.
“The economic benefits hydraulic fracturing provides us at
home is one thing, but the more important result is how our new energy
leadership position is taking power and funds away from our enemies, and the killers
like ISIS, who use funds from oil against America and our allies,” McCormick, who also testified recently in support of
the process during an EPA Science Advisory Board Hearing, said.
“Hydraulic fracturing has given freedom a new power over
these regimes, and as an American soldier, that is a power I will always fight
to keep,” McCormick said.
And because of these benefits, McCormick isn’t
quite sure why the federal government wants to ban fracking.
Last week in Wyoming, a federal ruling was handed
down that appears to lean toward the fracking industry.
U.S.
District Judge Scott Skavdahl ruled June
21 that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) doesn’t have the authority to
establish rules over fracking on federal and Indian lands. In fact, Skavdahl said Congress
had not granted BLM the power to make fracking rules. Skavdahl subsequently chose
to exclude the practice from federal oversight.
Skavdahl,
an Obama apointee, has been traveling down this road since at least last summer,
when he initially blocked the BLM rules, which included a requirement that
companies drilling for natural gas and oil reveal the chemicals they use in
the fracking process, required barriers between wells and water zones, and created
recovered wastewater storage protocols, among other items. The regulations have
been stayed since that ruling.
In his
recent ruling, the judge said he wasn’t determining whether fracking was
good or bad for the environment, but whether Congress delegated legal authority
to the U.S. Department of Interior, of which BLM is a bureau, to regulate
hydraulic fracturing.
“It
has not,” Skavdahl said. “The court finds the intent of Congress is clear, so
that is the end of the matter.”
