Fracking causes earthquakes in places they never occurred before.
 |
|
Hi Alan,
The North Carolina General Assembly short legislative session began yesterday. Just a few days ago, a legislative committee cleared a bill on fracking for consideration. It’s a mix of mildly good and bad provisions, but frustratingly, it doesn’t resolve any of the threats that make fracking such a bad idea for North Carolina.
Please tell your state legislators: fracking threatens our health, our communities, and the environment:
Fracking is a controversial method of drilling for natural gas (learn more here). The bill recommended by the Joint Legislative Commission on Energy Policy does nothing to directly address some of the top threats fracking would bring to our state, such as:
- Compulsory pooling: This is when a fracking company can force an unwilling landowner to let the natural gas underneath their property be extracted against their will (if enough of their neighbors sign leases). The bill only asks for further study of this practice, but it instead should ban it.
- Wastewater disposal: Fracking for natural gas creates huge volumes of polluted wastewater. State law already prohibits deep well injection of wastewater, but our state lacks standards for surface discharge of fracking wastewater (the other alternative), and the bill does nothing to address that looming problem.
- Toxic air emissions: In other states, toxic air emissions from fracking operations have sickened families, destroyed property values, and appear to have caused higher birth defects among newborns nearby. The bill does nothing to address this toxic threat.1
- Long-term well and property contamination: Contamination of neighbors' wells and land can show up years after fracking operations have begun – sometimes even after a driller has closed up shop and left. Nothing in the proposed bill provides a solution for people whose health or properties are destroyed by long-term contamination.
|
No comments:
Post a Comment