There should be no fracking along that path.
Fracking is the process of injecting water at high pressure into rock formations in the earth to create cracks so as to get at the oil or gas beneath.
In the recently released movie Promised Land, Matt Damon portrays a corporate representative who buys up property in a small Pennsylvania town to begin gas and oil drilling. It’s 10 minutes into the movie before an elderly resident challenges Damon that what he really wants to do is called “fracking.”
“Sir,” Damon shoots back, “that’s a scare word used by environmentalists.” But fracking is a health and safety hazard — scary indeed.
Fracking endangers local water supplies and ecosystems by propelling millions of gallons of water, containing many toxic chemicals, into the earth. Fracking can lead to mercury, lead and methane pollution and increase risks of cancer.
The pictures of dead farm animals featured in Promised Land are not exaggerations. Farmers have reported strange illnesses and deaths among domestic animals where fracking has occurred.
Fracking is poorly regulated, both at the federal and the state levels. And at the local level, it can be difficult to put fracking to a vote, despite the depiction in Promised Land. Only by a lengthy and rigorous process of organizing and petitioning have local municipalities passed fracking bans or moratoriums.
But it can be done, even statewide. Look at Vermont. Last May, the governor of Vermont, Peter Shumlin, with popular backing, signed a state law banning fracking.
We should follow Vermont’s example and petition for statewide fracking bans.
That will help put us on the sustainable path.
Darryl Lorenzo Wellington, of Santa Fe, N.M., is a writer for Progressive Media Project. Web site: www.progressive.org.
