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Different values, different outcome?

At a symposium held in State College, Representative Bud George, a long-time friend of Pennsylvania’s environment, said, “Only when the people of Pennsylvania can match one voice to each dollar the gas industry is spending to influence legislative policy will there be any hope of changing the direction of the pending industrialization of Pennsylvania’s forests and rural landscape.” Sadly, too many Pennsylvanians have remained quiet; perhaps in apathy, perhaps unaware of the potential threats posed by the industry. Such is not the case with our neighbors to the north in New York State. Their voices have crossed party lines, reached into the halls of government, and made a difference. Is it too late for PA? With enough voices raised in unison, maybe not.

Pick up the phone and call your legislators today. RDA suggests that you: 1.) Speak in favor of a severance tax and of using the tax revenues to pay for additional oversight and to support local communities impacted by drilling. 2.) Ask your state Senator to vote YES on a moratorium disallowing additional leasing of state forest land for drilling, a bill already passed by the House. 3.) If you favor a full drilling moratorium – ask for it!

Here’s how NY got a moratorium.

The Fight Against Fracking
New York’s Recipe for success
by Maura Stephens

When politicians refer to natural gas as a "clean" alternative to oil and coal, they seldom mention a commonly used technique called horizontal hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking.

But in New York, residents were concerned enough about the long-term environmental, health, and economic fallout of fracking that they convinced the state Senate to institute a moratorium on the practice. In a 48-9 bipartisan landslide, state leaders voted to prohibit fracking for nine months so they can evaluate the environmental and health impacts of the practice before deciding how to continue.

"It was absolutely the result of thousands of citizens weighing in with their senators,” said Katherine Nadeau, director of the Water and Natural Resources Program for Environmental Advocates of New York. “When that many people call, write, and show up, it gets results. The other side was spending obscene amounts of money, but the more compelling argument was that there have been serious tragic repercussions to drilling."

Those repercussions have included fatalities from exploding wells, 30-mile stretches of streams without any living organisms, exploding tap water, diesel fuel spills, sick children and adults, plummeting property values, farmland that is no longer tillable, the destruction of vast swaths of once-beautiful scenery, along with many other documented cases of harm to people and the planet.

Fracking involves blasting through shale rock to release the gas trapped deep below ground. Each fracked well uses between 3 and 8 million gallons of clean water—usually trucked in from rivers, streams, ponds, lakes, and other fresh-water sources—that is then mixed with sand and a toxic stew of chemicals that drilling companies are not required to disclose. But Theo Colborn, a noted endocrinologist and water issues expert, has identified many of them as carcinogins, neurotoxins, and endocrine disruptors. They include acrylonitrite, ammonium bisulfite, benzene, boric acid, ethylbenzene, 5-chloro-2-methyl-4-isothiazotin-3-one, formaldehyde, monoethanolamine, styrene, tetrachlorethalene, toluene, and xylene.

With their air, water, land, properties, communities, and health on the line, NY residents have made the campaign a priority, often sacrificing family time, leisure time, and sleep to keep abreast of developments and share information. "The petrochemical-industrial complex is stealing our land and our health," said New York resident and architect Joe Levine. "Life as we know it will change forever if we don’t stop them."

Wes Gillingham, program director for Catskill Mountainkeeper was on the floor of the Senate all day August 3, waiting with fellow activists until the bill finally came to a vote around midnight. "One senate staffer told me the calls were 80-to-1 in favor of the moratorium”, reported Gillingham —this despite the fact that drilling companies funded a counter-campaign claiming that allowing fracking will bring riches to strapped upstate regions. Maura Stephens wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media organization that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. The article was shortened for publication in the RDA newsletter. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License

Mark your calendar!
Responsible Drilling Alliance membership meeting

7:00 PM, September 15thPajama Factory, 1307 Park Avenue, Williamsport, PA

Please join us as we map out the opportunities before us to advocate for the future of Penn’s Woods and the way of life we treasure.

Meeting place will be the first floor room used by the Uptown Music Collective. Look for signs.

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