"Let the buyer beware" Especially if there's Fracking going on - Caveat emptor

Caveat emptor is Latin for "Let the buyer beware" Generally, caveat emptor is the contract law principle that controls the sale of real property after the date of closing,

Most people going house shopping start off their list with the usual; number of bedrooms, extra bath facilities, garage, total floor space and a few other items that helps them "price" their potential new home. Not enough people look into the environmental threats that can make or break a house's worthiness for the price.

The potential for disaster from flooding and pollution are often not even considered as they're not as immediately obvious. Current research sparked by new energy seeking procedures like fracking for oil and gas are now being shown to have an incredible impact on a properties value, rendering some worthless after an accident by oil and gas workers.

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Natural Gas Exposed (Edited Version) Dr. Anthony Ingraffea

Wetzel County - Fracked Up

Shale Gas Industry Blasted by Ex-oil Worker

Maxime Daigle worked on oil and gas rigs for seven years before quitting to devote his life to protesting what he believes are the perils of shale gas drilling.

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Latest Report of the Impacts of Shale Gas Development on the Housing Market

from an article by Marcellus Monthly: a project of the Thomas Merton Center

A new study of property values by Resources For the Future (RFF.org) quantifies what many skeptics knew in their bones: An unconventional gas lease is often just a first step toward giving up the property entirely, with or without financial compensation. The study of 1+ million home sales, over a 7-year period, finds that property values fall in proximity to nearby gas wells.

Even properties with producing wells, whose values reflect the expected streams of royalties, don’t maintain a price premium for long. (The study covered only single-family homes, so any effects of drilling on farming or on other uses of the property weren’t considered.) These findings complement anecdotal evidence and legal filings, which tell of fast production declines, short-changing on royalty payments, cancellations of homeowner insurance, and denial of mortgage loans to would-be buyers.

Will Pennsboro, WV Residents Let The Town Become One Giant Fracking Site?

Quaint Pennsboro, West Virginia (population 1,118) is a small town community of families and retirees in Ritchie County enjoying low cost housing and quiet living but all that is about to change if Antero has their way.

The New Energy Paradigm Where Fracking Falls Short

from an article by Patrick Reis

Some Massachusetts residents pay sky-high prices for
heat in the winter, thanks to a shortage of natural
gas in the state, an oddity when domestic
supplies are booming.
(Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images)

BOSTON—Cold weather created a perfect storm here last winter, with demand for natural gas peaking just as supplies ran low, sending prices soaring as New Englanders attempted to keep their homes warm in the unforgiving climate.

At its height, residents were paying nearly nearly 10 times the typical rate for natural-gas heating. The problem was never solved: It simply faded as demand ebbed with warming weather.

The Shale Rebellion: How Appalachia Became a Battleground in the Fight Over Fracking

“Few Places in the United States are tougher ground for building an environmental-justice movement than the Appalachian counties of central Pennsylvania,” writes Barry Yeoman in a remarkable piece of reporting in The American Prospect’s Storyscapes…

 (via Moyers & Company)

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The science of shale gas: The latest evidence on leaky wells by Dr. Ingraffea

The science of shale gas: The latest evidence on leaky wells, methane emissions, and implications for policy. Physicians, Scientists and Engineers for Healthy Energy, Inc. Butler Community College, Butler Pa, November 21, 2013. 

Cumulative air pollution, building up from the multiple gas well pads in the area, could have long-term health complications.

Mobley Gas Plant in Wetzel County

Drilling for natural gas has created an economic boon in some parts of the state, but what kind of health impact is it having on residents of the Mountain state? The Barr family moved to Mobley, West Virginia in 1970, and they have lived their ever since. But they would have never guessed three years ago they’d wind up with a natural gas rig that does 24-hour drilling so close to the property that you can hear and smell everything that happens.

"Fracking Sites" pose a high risk of injuries from explosions!

West Virginia sits over the Marcellus Shale, a massive, ancient sediment mass that stretches under the surface of seven states. Obviously, the business of drilling for gas is inherently dangerous because of the risk of burns and other injuries from explosion and fire, but officials are also concerned about workers being exposed to dangerous chemicals.

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A fracking accident by Exxon results in negative environmental effects

by Toby Forstater The TEMPLE News

XTO Energy Inc., a subsidiary of the gas giant Exxon Mobil Corp., has recently been fined $100,000 for criminal violations and is forced to clean up a 2010 wastewater spill caused by hydraulic fracking in Lycoming County, Pa. Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s office announced  Sept. 10 that the company will be prosecuted.

XTO is subject to three criminal counts under the Solid Waste Management Act and five counts of violating the Clean Streams Law.

Realities in the Fracking Industry Raise Serious Questions

From the Article by SkyTruth

Half the truth is often a great lie. From Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac  (1758)

Hydraulic fracturing, better known as fracking, and other drilling practices have unlocked previously inaccessible reserves of oil and gas across the United States and the world. However, some of the debate over fracking is distorting public understanding of these practices and interfering with good decision-making about this recent boom in unconventional oil and gas production.