Another example of extreme wealth

In the April 28, 2011 edition of the Plain Dealer, a group called EnergyTomorrow.org runs a full-page color advertisement quoting a school teacher explaining that through 401ks we are all invested in oil and natural gas. Natural gas companies have also been running ads opposing funding the Environmental Protection Agency. This is at a time that natural gas companies are moving in to Ohio with the plan of establishing natural gas wells through the process of hydraulic fracturing, known as "fracking."

If you don't know about fracking, you need to see the movie "Gasland." Briefly, it involves shooting 400 to 600 tanker trucks of water, laced with hundreds of toxic chemicals into the underground shale to break it up and cause the natural gas to be released. The gas companies attempt to collect all the polluted water, but some of it inevitably ends up dissipating in to the rivers and the ground water. The process has caused earthquakes in Arkansas and has been banned there. Under Bush, this process was exempted from oversight by the Environmental Protection Agency. In any case, 30 years of chipping away at government has rendered the EPA totally understaffed and incapable of carrying out its mission. There is a bill in congress at this time to require companies to render public the chemicals they are putting in the water, and this is being resisted by the industry.

Fracking has already contaminated the well of a family near Youngstown, and an explosion in Bradford County, PA caused fracking chemicals to be released into the river.

The natural gas companies are currently moving in to Ohio and citizens groups are forming to resist them, but citizens meeting in the evening after work are overwhelmed at the prospect of competing with the wealth of international corporations showing record profits.

BP has announced profits this quarter of 7 billion dollars even as they drag their feet at paying for the clean-up in the Gulf. Exxon Mobil profits were up some 65% this quarter, even as gas prices were heading past 4 dollars per gallon.