Do your Black Friday shopping spree plans include shopping for a clothes washer, clothes dryer, dishwasher or refrigerator?

If you’re buying appliances on Black Friday, whatever you buy, make sure they carry the ENERGY STAR logo. Here’s why, courtesy of Appliances Connection, a one-stop shop for appliances and a good source for suggestions on how to save energy.

Why ENERGY STAR? Cleaner Air, Lower Bills

After heating and cooling, our homes gobble up the most energy by powering our appliances. Clothes washers, clothes dryers, refrigerators, freezers, stoves and ovens all run on either electricity or, in the case of some stoves and clothes dryers, natural gas.

Most electricity is generated by coal-fired power plants. Burning both coal and natural gas releases carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. This CO2 creates a gaseous blanket over the earth that causes global warming and climate change.

Burning fossil fuels like coal and natural gas also pollutes the air with smoggy particles that can make it difficult for people to breathe. Polluted air causes asthma and other respiratory problems and can increase the chances that someone will have a heart attack.

Appliances that carry the ENERGY STAR logo are independently certified to meet standards established by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and its many partners to ensure that appliances perform exceptionally well while saving energy and, in the case of clothes washers, water.

What difference does it make?

Let’s take just one example: Clothes washers.

By the way, many appliances now use this “high efficiency” label. But ENERGY STAR says that, “there are no standards for energy efficiency” associated with it. “Only products that have earned the ENERGY STAR are independently certified to save energy.”

If you buy a clothes washer that is labeled with both ENERGY STAR and the “High E,” make sure you use High E detergent.

Here’s a sample clothes washers that have earned the ENERGY STAR logo.

What Else Should You Look For When Buying Appliances on Black Friday?

• Size – In addition to the ENERGY STAR logo, consider how much capacity you need. If you’re a two-person household, do you need a machine with capacity for 12?
• Energy-Saving Options – Many machines can let you choose different cycles so you can air dry dishes or use a high-spin cycle with clothes to remove most of the water before you put them in the dryer. Dryers may come with moisture sensors so they will shut off when they sense the clothes are dry, rather than keep running for a certain amount of time.
• Ability to Recycle Old Appliances – Many utilities now pay their customers to pick up old refrigerators and air conditioners, then offer a rebate when the customer purchases a more energy efficient model.

Appliances Connection has compiled detailed buying guides that will help you save energy, water, and money as well as purchase the appliance that makes the most sense for you. They offer buying guides for pretty much any appliance you’re buying, as well as for bedroom furniture, mattresses, even sofas.

NOTE: Sponsors help us bring you expert content at no cost to you. We only work with sponsors who meet our criteria for providing eco-friendly products and services. Our editorial opinions remain our own.

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 If you’ve been wondering what fracking is and whether it’s good or bad, you’re not alone. It’s a complicated, high tech process whose advocates say it produces abundant clean energy. As an environmentalist as well as a consumer, though, I’m concerned about the impacts fracking is having on drinking water, clean air, and farmland.

To try to chip away at my confusion, I electronically interviewed expert Maya van Rossum. Maya is the Delaware Riverkeeper, the spokesperson for and leader of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network (DRN), a nonprofit environmental organization working to preserve, protect and restore the Delaware River Watershed, an area that extends into four states: New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. Here’s what she had to say.

Maya, in a nutshell, can you explain what fracking is and why it worries you?

Fracking is the process of discharging massive volumes of water under high pressure into a drilled well in order to fracture the shale found under ground.

The fracking process requires 5 to 9 million gallons of water for each well frack. Often this water comes from aquifers, streams and rivers. To that fresh water has been added toxic chemicals.

Water that stays underground after the fracking has occurred is highly toxic, but the water that comes back to the surface is even more toxic.

The toxified fluid trapped underground can make its way to our freshwater aquifers, threatening drinking water supplies. Toxified water that gets back to the surface of the earth is often stored in open pits or transported to other sites by truck or piping. In all of these activities, failures happen, contaminating streams, farmlands, our air and our communities.

 I’ve heard that toxic methane gas is released during fracking. How serious is that?

Fracking increases the presence of methane gas underground, contaminating drinking water and homes (the photo above, from the excellent film Gasland, shows how water coming out of the faucet in a fracked community contained so much methane, it caught on fire).

In some cases, families have experienced explosions in their homes as a result. Methane is also a dangerous greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming and climate change. In fact, in a 20-year time frame, methane is 72 times more potent than carbon dioxide at causing waring.

According to increasing research, so much methane is lost from the drilling process, and so much pollution is released from trucks, compressors, loss of trees, and chemical use, that shale gas is a greater contributor to climate change than coal.

How extensive is the fracking problem?

It’s massive. We’re not talking about a well here, and a well there. We’re talking about a proliferation of wells throughout our communities. In just the 8,700 square miles of the upper portions of the Delaware River watershed that lie partly in Pennsylvania and partly in New York, we are talking about 32,000 to 64,000 wells. That means 160 billion to 320 billion gallons of water and 800 million to 3.2 bilion gallons of toxic chemical additives. It means 128 million to 256 million truck trips through our towns, and thousands of miles of pipelines and compressors.

It means devastating quality of life, ecotourism, recreation, and the hundreds of thousands of jobs and tens of millions of dollars that depend upon a healthy Delaware River, not to mention putting at risk the drinking water supply of over 17 million people in New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

What about the waste fracking generates – if any?

It’s toxic, and radioactive. UItimately it ends up in our waterways or being injected into underground caverns that are increasing earthquakes in our communities.

It’s simply not worth it.

Back to the energy question, as horrible as these impacts sound, don’t we need to frack for gas to obtain energy independence and increase our national security?

No. Contrary to the folk tales the gas companies spin, shale gas development is not about energy independence, increased jobs, or protection from climate change. It’s about profits for the gas companies regardless of the harm or costs to the US and us citizens. Many fracking companies plan to export the gas they recover because they can sell it abroad for as much as 3 times the price they can get in the U.S.

I don’t live in Delaware. How can I find out if companies are considering fracking in my part of the country?

It’s pretty easy to find out if you are in an area subject to potential fracking and drilling. Just search “fracking + name of your state/town/community.” I guarantee you’ll find more information on what is happening in your area than you care to read!

What can I do to protect my community from the pollution fracking causes?

The only way is to stop the industry in its tracks. Politicans are receiving a lot of money from the drillers, pipeline companies, LNG facilities and others who are profiting from this polluting industry. We need to ensure that those politicans understand that if they take that money and act on behalf of the drillers and frackers, they will be voted out of office.

We also need to demand increased investment in sustainable energy, and get our politicans to pass stronger environmental laws that wipe out the special exemptions that the natural gas industry enjoys.

Finally, you can help spread the word by talking with your friends and neighbors. A good way to open people’s eyes is to hold a house party and show them the movie Gasland, then have a follow-up part and show the recently released Gasland II (available on demand, on HBO, and for sale).

 Once everyone is educated and energized, write letters, attend events, support local organizations working on this issue, and vote!

GET MORE INFO HERE:

Maya hosts a Shale Truth River Series on YouTube. Take a look.

Fracking: A Clear and Present Danger

What the Heck is Fracking? And Why Don’t You Want It Anywhere Near Your Water?

The post What’s so bad about fracking? Here’s what you need to know. appeared first on Big Green Purse.

But it’s not. Fracking is short for “hydraulic fracturing,” explains Chris Bolgiano in this Bay Journal article. “It involves drilling a hole a mile down, then thousands of feet horizontally, and pumping down millions of gallons of water laced with sand, salt and chemicals to crack the shale. Gas is forced up, along with roughly 25 percent of the contaminated wastewater, often hot with radioactivity.”

Chris adds, “Fracking chemicals include formaldehyde, benzene, and others known to be carcinogenic at a few parts per million. Municipal plants can’t handle fracking wastewater, and it’s stored in open pits until trucked elsewhere. If enough fresh water can’t be sucked from streams on site, trucks haul it in.

“Eighteen-wheelers rolling 24/7 pulverize country roads and cause accidents, like the one that spilled 8,000 gallons of toxic materials into a Pennsylvania creek last year. And they emit enough carbon to seriously shrink the greenhouse gas advantage of fracked gas.”

Fracking is rampant up and down the Eastern Seabord right now, as the natural gas industry tries to tap the gas that’s trapped under a massive underground rock formation called the Marcellus Shale. But it’s also occurring in the Midwest and southwest, 36 states in all. The industry claims that it’s doing the public and the environment a service, since the U.S. has abundant natural gas reserves and natural gas emits half the carbon emissions of coal and oil. Plus, says the industry, fracking creates local (though temporary) jobs.

But here’s the very significant downside:

EXPLOSIONS

Fracking causes explosions similar to the oil blowup that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico last year. One explosion in Pennsylvania last June spewed flammable gas and polluted water 75 feet into the air for sixteen hours. A blast in West Virginia injured 7 people while flames shot 40 feet into the air.

TAP WATER ON FIRE

Over 1,000 cases of water contamination have been reported near fracking sites, reports Food and Water Watch. Fracking operations in Pennsylvania alone are expected to create 19 milion gallons of wastewater. The Oscar-nominated documentary GasLand captured this tap water catching on fire because it contained so much methane as a result of drinking water contamination from nearby fracking operations.

WORSE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE

About that methane: According to the Environmental Protection Agency, methane is 21 times more damaging a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Similarly, a study released by researchers at Duke University in April found methane levels in shallow drinking water wells near active gas drilling sites at a level 17 times higher than those near inactive ones.

AND — WHO’S SURPRISED? — CANCER

Scientists at the Endocrine Disruption Exchange who tested fracking fluids found that 25 percent can cause cancer; 37 percent can disrupt our endocrine system; and 40 to 50 percent can affect our nervous, immune and cardiovascular systems.

HERE’S WHAT YOU CAN DO

Citizen, public health and environmental groups cheered yesterday when New Jersey’s state legislature became the first in the nation to unanimously ban fracking. Said Senator Bob Gordon (D-Bergen), “Any benefits of gas production simply do not justify the many potential dangers associated with fracking such as pollution of our lakes, streams and drinking water supplies and the release of airborne pollutants. We should not wait until our natural resources are threatened or destroyed to act. The time to ban fracking in New Jersey is now.”

New Jersey is a good start, but remember: Fracking is currently underway in 36 states. Here’s what you can do to stop it in your state.

On Capitol Hill, the FRAC Act, a bill that has been in the Senate since 2009, would force the natural gas industry frackers to comply fully with the Safe Drinking Water Act and protect our drinking water. You can easily sign a petition here to ask your Senators to support the FRAC act.

Do it today.

Want to Read More?

Fracking in Maryland: Chesapeake Bay Foundation Petitions White House

Regulation Lax as Gas Wells’ Tainted Water Hits Rivers

Marcellus Shale Protest: What’s the Big Deal…?

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