so yes we're going to keep on grill yes we're going to keep going emphasizing production yes we're going to make sure that we can get worse. but that's not going to drive gas prices down and even president obama is willing to admit that so why is the u.s. in such a drill baby drill state when people are getting sick by the methods used. and that's the reason gas prices are sky high these days politicians would have you believe the wrong is to blame but that's certainly not the case tell you how a little fear goes a long way for your pocketbook and question the consequences of following israel

toward the safest person in the world is someone who is caring for america is a country was founded with a basic understanding that. armed with the constitution millions of americans buy guns every year some as frequently as every thirty days and even that might not be frequent enough but it does doesn't seem the second amendment is the only why is it it seems that the second amendment is the only fight the only right americans are willing to defend. it's thursday march twenty second four pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching our t.v. well more controversy this week surrounding the practice of fracking the u.s. department of agriculture has dropped the plan to require an extensive environmental review before handing mortgages to people that plan to use that land

for oil and gas drilling now this has outraged opponents of hydraulic fracturing the. eases up rules on the drilling not that they believe the practice is common with extremely harmful health and environmental risks so another debate over energy rages on in america let's talk more about this i'm joined now by greg palast is an investigative journalist and author of the book voters picnic and pursuit of petroleum pegs power pirates and high finance carnivores affect to be out in bookstores on november fourteenth. welcome there so first of all i want to ask you what is fracking and what is so dangerous about it well fracking is brand new wave getting gas and oil only out really really use for about a decade or so. it what we do they do is they drill down then they go horizontal through shale deposits which normally couldn't get gas out of except then they use

an explosive and blow through an explosion they blow sand through the pipe zillions of holes and then they dump chemicals and high pressure waters that wracks fractures the rock around the pipe when that pipe but when all that rock is fractured then the gas little gas bubbles within that rock start pouring through into the pipe and up the pipe now sounds good because this is now increased the amount of the actual gas that we can pull out of american the american soil by a good five hundred percent i mean just quintuple the melt of natural gas supply in the united states easily but what's the problem the answer is it can kill you if you close in two ways number one. the fracturing process he could just use e o two in sand and water but these characters who are doing it like halliburton have been filling these holes with mystery chemicals everything from

diesel fuel every type of toxin you can imagine anything that would help them fracture that rock or that they think might help them fresh that rock when the gas comes up all that poison sucks back up and they've got to get rid of it and often it's just dumped in in ponds. dumps wherever so you have a tremendous amount of elderly poisonous toxic residue and the second thing is you're fracturing rock if fractures all the way up into a water aqua for now you're drinking the stuff and but really what might be in lately is discovered might be the most dangerous part of it is the drilling itself but this is the drilling down vertically you have to put cement around every drill casing they have to be. encased in cement otherwise gas comes up around it it poisons the aqua for as a cause all the way up so if there are oxford's that aquifers by the way you're drinking water you're underground reeking water if it if that if those poisons get

into the underground drinking water forget it we've seen just all over america now this is happening and these wells can then explode the cement jobs are being done on the cheek there are thousands and thousands and thousands of wells being dug there are nearly a half million gas wells in america and they're drilling so fast that they are not properly cementing these pools while letting said greg i want to show you because one of our correspondents headed over to pennsylvania and i wonder what happens when they when they get a little water on fire and this is tap water let's take a look at what happens in this town. it got so bad that you and his cousin who lives down the street decided to find out what would happen if they let their water on fire. a lot of flames would come a gal would like was here they were the place like i like that i think.

i mean that's pretty shocking right there how does that happen where somebody is tap water becomes flammable all of a thought and what are the health consequences of being exposed to water like that are. built to things how it happens is that most part it looks like the will casings the cement jobs are done only it's just like the deepwater horizon that's what happened deep water rises at the cement that is supposed to plug the drill of the bore hole gave out the smiths all schools around these pipes so it doesn't leak and obviously we had a leak here in school ocker for what's really gainers about the size if you can explosive drinking water. is that if if there was gas in that drinking water almost certainly you're going to have all that toxic crap that they put into these fracking wells diesel oil and and we literally don't even know the toxins they're putting in because helper ins made a big point of keeping these it's so-called secret formula. you know

a proprietary secret you know it's point your water supply and that's the problem i mean just by the looks of it it looks pretty dangerous i mean i wouldn't want to drink water that you can catch on fire but at the same time right now the u.s.d.a. is going back on their plan requiring this environmental review do you find this troubling. yeah because see the review is about mortgages the agriculture department for farms and we have f.h.a. and and other government agencies which guarantee home mortgages if you have homes where you have fracking under those homes these fracking lines can run eight miles under under houses and those houses end up contaminated bill the land becomes poisoned the water systems are destroyed those homes are worthless then the us government is on the hook for those people are in real trouble because you think they've allowed something safe they may get five bucks

a month in royalties but now their homes worthless we have to find out i mean it's just like having a termite inspection there literally saying. we're not going to look you know if there's no problem what's the danger in looking they don't want to look because they're afraid of what they're going to see except that means that the u.s. taxpayers are on the hook. here's a disaster and a half million houses become worthless and of course homeowners are going to lose everything now greg energy is becoming a is a hot button topic today especially during campaign season and many are blaming president obama for the high gas prices you know they're saying he's not drilling enough but it shows that since it's that show that the more more drilling doesn't necessarily mean lower gas prices how could i mean gas prices are set by the world market including the world monopolies the oil companies a pick maybe these people who are saying drill baby drill have never heard of saudi

arabia and opec saudi arabia only produces seven billion barrels of oil a day if the united states by some absolute miracle increased production by million girls would be the saudis would just knock it down by mirrors their production by a million barrels and they'd be ciro effect on gas it's up to opec it's up to the international oil markets it's up to the big oil companies we could drill ourselves to oblivion and have fracking in and the excell pipeline in every polar bear out of alaska but that will not change the price of gasoline by three cents it's nuts to even talk that now despite all this greg there are some proponents to fracking people say it creates jobs allows five to drill for our own natural gas and in turn makes us more competitive it can give us an ad job or china and we have some examples of here are some some of the arguments for why people are supporting . we did sign on and. not sorry that we did some squatter town

is kind of a poor town and so a lot of people did get work and they got jobs and they're making money so to me that's a plus so to make of that argument greg here folks in pennsylvania who say they have benefited by fracking and their town per se there's nothing wrong with oil and gas drilling but you have to remember the argument well this creates jobs it's true nuclear waste dumps that's true of the coal mines when you when you look at it why is it so poor they had coal mines there and the coal mines devastated their department devastated their economy and for a while it was live in high people high good paying jobs in the coal mines now they're going it's kind of like coal mine part two when they learn anything i mean that's basically resource extraction it's never been

a long term solution for any community or any nation it's all right greg is more telling us is the answer what is. well you know sustainable sustainable energy operations like solar wind etc it's not tree hugging greenie stuff it's how china's economy is zooming in and of the u.s. economy they're deep committed into production that keeps going not just extracting until the land is depleted and poisoned we have to have sustained it's when we talk about sustainable energy we're talking about sustainable industry sustainable jobs that's very different than saying let's suck out all the stuff under my house or under my farm for a while and then we go bust and then it's all poisoned that's not an industry that's on the economy that's resource extraction it's a disaster but we need is is new energy industry it's just nuts to let china take over that industry while we are just putting holes in the ground and

hoping that our water doesn't blow up greg thank you for coming on the show and weighing and that was greg palast investigative journalist and author of the buck. and pursuit of petroleum power pirates and high finance carnivores and it is coming to a bookstore near you and i'm reporting from. it's all energy is also part of the picture when it comes to the conflict with iran the country has threatened to shut down the critical strait of hormuz where much of the world's oil passes through meanwhile an article in the new york times the it tells a leaked u.s. war game it's a simulation that foreshadows what could happen should israel launch a strike against iran and what played out was a strike leading to an all our regional war the us inevitably drawn into the conflict so what are the real consequences of a war with iran and who stands to benefit and who would lose out on the talk more about this trita parsi founder and president of the national iranian american

council and author of the book a single roll of the dice welcome to the show trita . so i want to start off by talking about oil prices a president of the republicans are blaming president obama for the rising prices at the pump people are getting frustrated it's costing for citing some reports that a five dollars a gallon but how much does the conflict in iran have to do with it actually has quite a lot to do with it and the president is putting the blame right back at the feet of the republicans if you took note of the speech that he gave at the apec conference about two weeks ago or so he really warned against what he called this reckless talk about war because what war is doing the talk is doing is that it's being a lot of risk premium to the oil prices which is causing them to rise which is actually causing the iranian government to make more money out of the war that they can sell so the only losers in this actually would be the president himself the republicans

don't seem to mind too much at all prices are rising because the height or prices go the more difficult it will be for president obama to create jobs and that's going to be the critical variable for his reelection and obviously the republicans don't want him to and so you think the republicans they're in favor of high gas prices a bad this time because temperley they don't see it as a hazard obama yeah they don't seem to be too bothered by it and here is what president obama had to say today about this topic let's take a listen. the price of oil will still be set by the global market and that means every time there's tensions that rise in the middle east which is what's happening right now so with a prayer the price of gas the main reason the gas prices are high right now is because people are worried about what's happening with the run. so the president is saying hey this is not my fault this is out of my control he's blaming so that he's learned the turmoil in iran and the fact that gas prices are rising what's your

reaction to his remarks today well i think it also adds a lot of pressure to himself to make sure that there is a much more robust and much more persistent effort at the plough mysie in order to resolve the conflict with the iranians over the nuclear issue and there seems to be now increasing information that says that there will be meetings held sometime in april and it might be a series of meetings and if that happens if the tensions are reduced to things will happen it will significantly if there are ongoing negotiations will significantly reduce the chances of the risk of an israeli military strike and it will also slowly but surely push down on prices that will benefit the president that will benefit job creation in this country and he will be able to use that as a major plus but it will require a lot of political will from his end to make sure that the pressure to make the negotiations fear or push back and also you know people are playing the blame game

as to who is responsible for these rising gas prices but we should mention that really what are a lot of what's behind it the fact is wall street and the way that there is speculating on energy there certainly is one factor but i would say right now it seems like the biggest portion of the oil price right now the reason why it is a one hundred twenty three or so dollars is mainly because of the risk premium and the fear that exists in the market particularly the last couple weeks that there would be some sort of a clash between israel and iran and potentially between the united states and iran that causes a lot of panic in the market that so far has pushed up oil prices about twenty or so dollars if you actually were to lead to a full scale war and then there are speculation that it could actually reach above two hundred they are saying that just the fear that the conflict in iran is leading to. sir gas prices it certainly is and i don't think it is a coincidence that the iranians have been making a lot of billy calls statements because he wants all prices to go up our that's

a way for them to put pressure back on the west in response to the many sanctions that the west has been imposing on iran and away it shows that the sanctions are kind of backfiring and it's affecting the pocketbooks of every every person every average that is that sanctions that bite spite both ways so if you have any sanctions that actually do put a lot of pressure on the iranians it will also put a lot of pressure on others including those who oppose them and i also want to talk about this so-called it's a u.s. war game it was a simulation and biggest likely what this simulation showed is that if israel were to launch an attack any any attack on iran that it would lead to this all a regional war and that the us ultimately are inevitably get involved what can we take away from this simulation a couple of things first of all it's not a coincidence that it leaks there's been an ongoing campaign for the last couple months in which the u.s. military is leaking information about

a how dangerous it would be if the israelis were to attack iran how counterproductive it would be and what it would do to the united states because it would drag the us into a war that its main objective is really difficult to achieve militarily if not impossible so this is a way also for the military military to push back and make sure that the politicians of the civilians don't make a decision that would put the military again at the center of a disaster and now in light of all this we're seeing how even just the fear of war and this rising tension in the region is not that benefiting our economy here in the u.s. who that would benefit from a conflict with iran well from one perspective one can say that the netanyahu government seems to be more fearful of a negotiated settlement on the iranian nuclear issue because of a fear. that the you were us would go with a compromise that would not meet the israeli red lines and as a result they actually seem to be more comfortable with the idea that there would

be a military confrontation but i think that is also a miscalculation or would lies in israel's interest because in the long term a war will not be in israel's interest either because it will bring about not only a tremendous amount of turmoil in the region but also so far israel has not had a military confrontation with any of the middle east's non arab states in fact between iran and israel or the last two and a half thousand years the relations have more often than not been good it would be a very strong red psychological red line if it were to break out between israel and iran and lastly to just one ask you at this point how optimistic are you that a diplomatic solution can be reached where the iran well you know there's a lot of talk about how difficult this would be and it would be difficult but at the same time this is not the most complex problem that humanity has encountered this is not the technical aspects of this problem that is difficult it's the political side of it that is tricky if there is a significant insufficient political will to put into place

a diplomatic process that is sustainable and persistent and i do believe that this can be resolved the problem is that the political will does not seem to be sufficient on all sides at the same time are a trader pleasure to have you in the same area in your coming and that was treated party say the founder and president of the national iranian american council and author of the bark of a single roll of the day. meanwhile some countries are benefiting from same sions against iran india one of the iran's biggest oil buyers is now getting their fuel for much cheaper new delhi now caving in to pressure from the west to follow its lead in stopping imports iranian oil and dealing with its central bank r.t. is preassure either takes a look at how not everyone is following suit and. iran the message is clear if iran's intransigence continues it will face increasing pressure

and isolation the west is ramping up the pressure on new delhi to follow its lead in stopping imports of iranian oil and dealing with the central being put into refuses to follow through it is not possible. you don't test you believe. each. of them are doing a former u.s. state department official said that india is aliar to stand with the west on the oil embargo is a slap in the piece for the united states and raises questions about india's ability to lead but despite all that indian officials won't budge on the issue of india at the ranga largest oil customer with an annual trade of twelve billion dollars officials here in new delhi are negotiating with their counterparts in tehran to continue that trade using repeat instead of dollars to get around the one

thing since rather the sanctions work or not is what india's concern these are sanctions imposed by the united states and the european union they didn't consult us with the impose new sanctions. so it's that's the american problem not ours. is the role for the people of that and. that's why many feta think sions will be totally ineffective if the asian giants won't play ball countries which are sort of out of the future already near term sanctions would not bite sufficiently enough to achieve first i'm going to use objective if india and china were not to come on board edu you i think are designed to isolate iran but if asia won't played out the question arises what will or can the last few know preassure either r.t. new delhi india. all the tragic case of trayvon martin a seventeen year old boy fatally shot in florida has highlighted the debate over america's gun laws but it seems that the momentum and america is on the side of gun

rights not gun restrictions and for much of the country the right to bear arms is anonymous with liberty and if guns mean freedom virginia just got a whole lot more free last month a say repeal the law restricting handgun purchases to one every thirty days as our artie's lucy captain of reports. just across the river from the nation's capital virginia a slice of traditional american green spaces and trying to form lands on offer refuge from urban life a place where red white and blue is displaying with pride but here the symbol of liberty isn't just a flag it's this. it definitely is a sign of freedom you know to be able to own one and until now one was all you could buy in virginia every thirty days the law was supposed to curb gun trafficking but many here failed to curb freedom instead it's not anyone's business how many guns i own or how our bible or i buy them from really we have the second

amendment for a reason. for jr repeal the one handgun permit law in february and come summertime the right to bear arms will mean the right to buy as many of these. so you want there are so many different makes and models and brands but you know got to have a more it's there but for much of the worlds this kind of freedom may seem bizarre to young men apparently dressed in long black trench coats open fire across the globe guns are associated with tragedies. or bloodshed in battlefields of war. but for gun owners like jim hansen and guns belong in the hands of american citizens the safest person in the world is someone who is legally carrying a firearm america is a country that was founded with a basic understanding that guns are a bad seed in this world is to the people my friends.

as the most heavily armed nation in the world there are few diggers to be found in america as of two thousand and seven there were an estimated two hundred ninety four million guns in this country that's nearly enough to arm every man woman and child. but in communicating and in virginia gun shops like this one people just can't seem to get enough whether it's handguns assault rifles or shotguns sales are better than ever they are booming they are definitely through the roof. and in a place where guns mean freedom that trend isn't likely to change an armed society is a polite society you know we are here because of guns as bad as i might sound but we've defended ourselves and we are the free nation and we are because of. the thirty years after a powerful gun control movement and nation americans are returning to their roots and raising the idea of opening and carrying firearms like these with his zeal unseen since the days of muskets and malicious for many freedom is symbolized by

the barrel of a gun its democracy locked and loaded for r.t.e. on loose the company of in virginia. little account is up next on our team let's check in with lauren lister to see what is on today's agenda lauren what can we look forward to i lived i heard you talking about obama's speech today did i hear that right because we are going to talk about it a little too he was up there on the podium talking about domestic solutions for gas prices blaming some of it on the oil markets what about the global issue of energy depletion that could certainly be said to be in play here so we're going to get into a broader discussion of globalization because as that is an example of it has opened up a lot of efficiency opportunity created well there is also an underbelly and consequences and problems with it so we're going to look at it with the financial system where it is certainly played a large role in both allowing crises to happen and also allowing achievement so

we're going to talk to what in golden who is a former v.p. of the world bank and he also is an expert in this area and he is tasked with creating solutions as director of the oxford martin school at oxford university so we will get the answers from him also talking about the world bank president because he has been writing a scathing warning about how the world bank could become irrelevant if it doesn't get it right with this nomination and selection of its next president will a lot to look forward to that's next on the capital account that's going to do for the news for more of the stories we covered you can head on over to you tube it's youtube dot com slash artsy america there we posed all of our interviews online in full so if you missed part of the show or if you want to watch an interview again you can find it all online you can also find it on our website and that address is r t v dot com slash usa and to find out what i'm doing when i was not reporting the

news you can also follow me on twitter at was wall i'll see you right back here at five. wealthy british scientists are. tired of. the market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's cause or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to cause a report on r g.

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