Saturday, August 13, 2011
John Deutch
Since his days as head of the CIA, John Deutch has earned more than $1 million serving on the boards of energy companies. The problem with this, say environmentalists and scientists, is that Deutch has been chairing Energy Secretary Stephen Chu’s advisory group on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the controversial natural-gas development that may contaminate groundwater supplies.
Twenty-eight scientists told Chu in a letter that Deutch, a trained chemist, should be removed from the Natural Gas Subcommittee of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board. The CIA director under President Bill Clinton received more than $1.4 million from energy companies Schumberger and Cheniere Energy from 2006 to 2009.
Critics also note that all but one member of Chu’s advisory board have financial ties to the natural gas industry. Those members are Stephen Holditch, Kathleen McGinty, Susan Tierney, Daniel Yergin and Mark Zoback.
Not surprisingly perhaps, the advisers have told Chu that the use of fracking is okay, as long as companies reveal the chemicals used in the process and that monitoring of their work is performed. They also recommend the establishment of standards for emissions of airborne contaminants.
Although the Energy Department doesn’t regulate natural gas production, a positive endorsement of fracking by the advisory board could lend weight to industry’s fight to keep the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating the mining process.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
U.S. Advisory Group on Fracking Has Abundant Ties to Energy Industry (by Evan Bush, iWatch)
Fracking Contamination Report Kept Hidden for 24 Years (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
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