The Fracking Regulatory Action Center (or FRAC tracker) is a resource for activists to help secure strong safeguards for fracking. It tracks state efforts to update their rules to stay ahead of the fracking boom, and to blunt its most dangerous effects. It also collects a growing library of technical comments and reports on these rules, which activists can use in their own work.The last time I wrote about fracking, it was in reference to the upcoming exploration at the dormant Newberry volcano in Oregon and the relative silence from the environmental movement and the media in general, despite the fact that a process similar to fracking was being used. I speculated that since the Newberry volcano project involved "renewable" energy, the green movement might be giving it a pass. At the time, I was unaware of the Sierra Club's FRAC tracker. Now a general search of all Sierra Club websites for "fracking" returns 362 results. But interestingly, although not surprisingly, conducting searches on the FRAC tracker for "Newberry" and "volcano" come up with zero results.
A further internet search did yield some references to the project and the Oregon chapter of the Sierra Club. As far back as November 2007, the Juniper Group of the Oregon Sierra Club has been commenting on and opposing the Newberry project. But in fact, it is only on the "oregon.sierraclub.org" portion of the Sierra Club's website where these references are found. And despite the upcoming test this summer that will pump 24 million gallons of water into the side of the volcano, my research found that there have been no references to project on their website in at least a year. Could it be that the Sierra Club's championing of geothermal energy is influencing its consistency on fracking?
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