Jew World Order

Many homeowners unknowingly sign nondisclosure agreements that prevent
researchers from gathering data on the health and environmental impacts
of fracking. The “Rogers” family signed a surface-use agreement with a fracking
company in 2009 to close their 300-acre dairy farm in rural
Pennsylvania. ~      Mike Ludwig

That’s not the end of the Rogers’ story, but the public,
including the Rogers’ own neighbors, may never learn what happened to
the family and their land as drilling operations sprouted up in their
area.

The Rogers did not realize they had signed a nondisclosure
agreement with the gas company making the entire deal invalid if members
of the family discussed the terms of the agreement, water or land
disturbances resulting from fracking and other information with anyone
other than the gas company and other signatories.

“Rogers” is not the family’s real name, it’s a pseudonym offered by
Simona Perry, an applied anthropologist who cannot reveal the family’s
identity.

Perry has been working with rural families living amid
Pennsylvania’s gas boom since 2009. Mrs. Rogers initially agreed to
participate in a study Perry was conducting on rural families living
near fracking operations.

She later called Perry in tears, explaining
that her family could no longer participate in the study because of the
nondisclosure clause in the surface-use agreement.

She told Perry she
felt stupid for signing the agreement and has realized she had a good
life without the money the fracking company paid them to use their land.

Perry has been working with and collecting data on
rural families living amid Pennsylvania’s gas boom since 2009 and she
told Truthout that the Rogers were not the only family who could not
share their experiences due to nondisclosure agreements.

Perry said the
nondisclosure agreements prevent doctors and researchers from gathering
valuable data on the health and environmental impacts of fracking and
have a chilling effect on people and communities living near the rigs.

“As communities struggle to contend with these impacts and risks in
their daily lives, citizens are forced or sometimes unknowingly sign a
nondisclosure agreements, [and] they have lost their freedom to speak
and share their knowledge and experience with their neighbors,” Perry
said. “As a result, whole communities have been silenced and repressed.”

Doctors Demand Access to Fracking Data

Controversial hydraulic fracturing oil and gas drilling methods known
as “fracking” involve pumping water and chemicals deep underground to
break up rock and release oil and gas.

Advanced techniques have
facilitated an oil and natural gas boom across Pennsylvania and beyond
in recent years and brought the drilling close to homes and farms.

Besides air emissions standards recently introduced by the Environmental Protection Agency, fracking remains largely unregulated by the federal government and has been linked to earthquakes and
air and water contamination across the country.

Fracking companies
disclose some of the chemicals used in fracking fluid, but others – and
their concentrations – are often exempt from disclosure because they are
considered trade secrets.

Other exemptions buried in state and federal
law allow drillers to avoid disclosing contents of fracking fluids after
they return from deep underground.

Dr. Jerome Paulson, a physician and director of Mid-Atlantic Center
for Children’s Health and the Environment, said that the fracking
industry has told the public that the drilling procedure is safe, so
there is no reason to hide information on health impacts from public
view.

Nondisclosure agreements with private landowners and disclosure
exemptions, Paulson said, are preventing doctors from doing their jobs
and protecting the public.

“How do we provide appropriate treatment recommendations to who are
ill?” Paulson asked during a press conference last week. “For the
population of individuals who are healthy, how do we provide prevention
recommendations when we don’t have the information?”

A spokesperson for the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group
that represents fracking companies in Pennsylvania, was not available
for comment.

Headaches, Nosebleeds and Sealed Records

Chris and Stephanie Hallowich and their children thought they had
found their dream home when they moved onto a farm in Mount Pleasant,
Pennsylvania, but they did not know the prior owner had leased the gas
rights to a fracking company, according to Matthew Gerhart, an attorney
for the group Earthjustice.

The family soon found themselves surrounded by gas development as
fracking companies exploited the gas-rich Marcellus Shale that runs
under much of the state.

The Hallowich family became outspoken opponents of fracking and said
that they and their children began suffering from headaches, nosebleeds,
burning eyes and sore throats as drilling operations expanded on their
land and in their neighborhood.

The family tried to get the attention of
the media, state regulators and the gas companies, but ended up filing a
lawsuit in 2010 and abandoning their home.

The lawsuit was settled in last year. The settlement hearing was
closed to the press and the gas companies persuaded a common please
judge who approved the settlement to permanently seal it from public
view, according to Gerhart, who assumes the settlement includes a
nondisclosure agreement.

Two area newspapers, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and
the Observer Reporter, have since sought access to the court records,
but were initially denied.

Last week, the newspapers appealed the
judge’s decision denying them access to the records to the state’s
Superior Court.

Dr. Paulson joined Earthjustice, Philadelphia Physicians for Social
Responsibility, and other groups in filing a brief in support of the
newspapers’ appeal, arguing that the public deserves access to crucial
information about the potential health impacts of fracking.

“We’re involved in this case because the gas companies insistence on
confidentiality is the tip of the iceberg, for one example of a pattern
of secrecy and in other contexts,” said Gerhart, who hopes that the
effort to unseal the records will be a step toward greater industry
transparency. “… We need real data and access to the real people that
are affected by fracking.”

The brief filed by Earthjustice and the doctors’ groups lists 27
cases in heavily fracked states such as Colorado, Arkansas, Texas and
Pennsylvania where details of the case or the settlement are being held
out of public light due to sealed court records and nondisclosure
agreements.

Mike Ludwig – May 8, 2012 – posted at AlterNet

Source

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Many homeowners unknowingly sign nondisclosure agreements that prevent
researchers from gathering data on the health and environmental impacts
of fracking. The “Rogers” family signed a surface-use agreement with a fracking
company in 2009 to close their 300-acre dairy farm in rural
Pennsylvania. ~      Mike Ludwig

That’s not the end of the Rogers’ story, but the public,
including the Rogers’ own neighbors, may never learn what happened to
the family and their land as drilling operations sprouted up in their
area.

The Rogers did not realize they had signed a nondisclosure
agreement with the gas company making the entire deal invalid if members
of the family discussed the terms of the agreement, water or land
disturbances resulting from fracking and other information with anyone
other than the gas company and other signatories.

“Rogers” is not the family’s real name, it’s a pseudonym offered by
Simona Perry, an applied anthropologist who cannot reveal the family’s
identity.

Perry has been working with rural families living amid
Pennsylvania’s gas boom since 2009. Mrs. Rogers initially agreed to
participate in a study Perry was conducting on rural families living
near fracking operations.

She later called Perry in tears, explaining
that her family could no longer participate in the study because of the
nondisclosure clause in the surface-use agreement.

She told Perry she
felt stupid for signing the agreement and has realized she had a good
life without the money the fracking company paid them to use their land.

Perry has been working with and collecting data on
rural families living amid Pennsylvania’s gas boom since 2009 and she
told Truthout that the Rogers were not the only family who could not
share their experiences due to nondisclosure agreements.

Perry said the
nondisclosure agreements prevent doctors and researchers from gathering
valuable data on the health and environmental impacts of fracking and
have a chilling effect on people and communities living near the rigs.

“As communities struggle to contend with these impacts and risks in
their daily lives, citizens are forced or sometimes unknowingly sign a
nondisclosure agreements, [and] they have lost their freedom to speak
and share their knowledge and experience with their neighbors,” Perry
said. “As a result, whole communities have been silenced and repressed.”

Doctors Demand Access to Fracking Data

Controversial hydraulic fracturing oil and gas drilling methods known
as “fracking” involve pumping water and chemicals deep underground to
break up rock and release oil and gas.

Advanced techniques have
facilitated an oil and natural gas boom across Pennsylvania and beyond
in recent years and brought the drilling close to homes and farms.

Besides air emissions standards recently introduced by the Environmental Protection Agency, fracking remains largely unregulated by the federal government and has been linked to earthquakes and
air and water contamination across the country.

Fracking companies
disclose some of the chemicals used in fracking fluid, but others – and
their concentrations – are often exempt from disclosure because they are
considered trade secrets.

Other exemptions buried in state and federal
law allow drillers to avoid disclosing contents of fracking fluids after
they return from deep underground.

Dr. Jerome Paulson, a physician and director of Mid-Atlantic Center
for Children’s Health and the Environment, said that the fracking
industry has told the public that the drilling procedure is safe, so
there is no reason to hide information on health impacts from public
view.

Nondisclosure agreements with private landowners and disclosure
exemptions, Paulson said, are preventing doctors from doing their jobs
and protecting the public.

“How do we provide appropriate treatment recommendations to who are
ill?” Paulson asked during a press conference last week. “For the
population of individuals who are healthy, how do we provide prevention
recommendations when we don’t have the information?”

A spokesperson for the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an industry group
that represents fracking companies in Pennsylvania, was not available
for comment.

Headaches, Nosebleeds and Sealed Records

Chris and Stephanie Hallowich and their children thought they had
found their dream home when they moved onto a farm in Mount Pleasant,
Pennsylvania, but they did not know the prior owner had leased the gas
rights to a fracking company, according to Matthew Gerhart, an attorney
for the group Earthjustice.

The family soon found themselves surrounded by gas development as
fracking companies exploited the gas-rich Marcellus Shale that runs
under much of the state.

The Hallowich family became outspoken opponents of fracking and said
that they and their children began suffering from headaches, nosebleeds,
burning eyes and sore throats as drilling operations expanded on their
land and in their neighborhood.

The family tried to get the attention of
the media, state regulators and the gas companies, but ended up filing a
lawsuit in 2010 and abandoning their home.

The lawsuit was settled in last year. The settlement hearing was
closed to the press and the gas companies persuaded a common please
judge who approved the settlement to permanently seal it from public
view, according to Gerhart, who assumes the settlement includes a
nondisclosure agreement.

Two area newspapers, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and
the Observer Reporter, have since sought access to the court records,
but were initially denied.

Last week, the newspapers appealed the
judge’s decision denying them access to the records to the state’s
Superior Court.

Dr. Paulson joined Earthjustice, Philadelphia Physicians for Social
Responsibility, and other groups in filing a brief in support of the
newspapers’ appeal, arguing that the public deserves access to crucial
information about the potential health impacts of fracking.

“We’re involved in this case because the gas companies insistence on
confidentiality is the tip of the iceberg, for one example of a pattern
of secrecy and in other contexts,” said Gerhart, who hopes that the
effort to unseal the records will be a step toward greater industry
transparency. “… We need real data and access to the real people that
are affected by fracking.”

The brief filed by Earthjustice and the doctors’ groups lists 27
cases in heavily fracked states such as Colorado, Arkansas, Texas and
Pennsylvania where details of the case or the settlement are being held
out of public light due to sealed court records and nondisclosure
agreements.

Mike Ludwig – May 8, 2012 – posted at AlterNet

Source

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