Why Do Fracktivists Hate the Center for Sustainable Shale Development?

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From the No Fracking Way blog:
So what’s CSSD going to do?  Don’t expect much to be done about the impact to the environment or your health.    What CSSD will do is “certify” natural gas corporations.   For a mere $30,000 a natural gas corporation will be certified.  Certified as what?
The Center for Sustainable Shale Development’s diverse participants have adopted 15 progressive and rigorous performance standards for sustainable shale development that address the protection of air quality, water resources and climate. The certification process, including a plan for comprehensive third-party auditing, is currently in development.
It is expected that energy companies may begin applying for standard certification later in 2013.
Certification Process Overview
For a company wishing to achieve certification, an independent audit firm – which has met qualifications set by CSSD – will be retained to evaluate the company’s practices against the CSSD standards. The outcome of the audit may be Certified, Certified with Conditions, or Not Certified. Certified with Conditions will be granted where only minor deviations from the standard are present and corrections must be made within 90 days.
If a natural gas driller meets standards, they get a nifty certificate that they can use in their advertising campaigns.
Read Standards Here.   One of the standards requires natural gas drillers to list frack chemicals on …. wait for it…..  yep, FracFocus.   (Related: FracUNfocusED)
Nothing in the standards or on CSSD website indicates what happens if once “certified” a natural gas corporation fails to live up the standards.
For all the media hype, CSSD is not an enforcement agency.   They have no regulatory power, no authorization to levy fines, issue violation notices or otherwise oversee natural gas operations.
Read the rest here.

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