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Related: About this forumBig anti-fracking action June 14-17 Columbus, OH
http://www.dontfrackoh.org/invitation/Dear friends
The fracking industry has been causing earthquakes in Ohio. So its time we caused one of our own.
No, not a 4.0-on-the-Richter-scale temblor like the one that shook Youngstown on New Years Eve. Instead, we need to aim for an 8.0 on the political scalewe need to shake Columbus with the biggest anti-fracking gathering yet seen in the U.S.
Save these dates: June 14-17, in Columbus. The 14-16th will be dedicated to training and movement building, and on the 17th well be taking over the Ohio statehouse for a peoples assembly that will pass legislation that Ohioans need to stop this destructive practice. You can sign up here, but we need you to do moreplease spread the word to friends and colleagues. And get ready for the caravan that will cross the state in mid-May to raise awareness well have much more on that front soon.
Fracking is a great mistake for many local reasons. By now weve seen its effects on local water supplies: the dead creeks in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, the wells poisoned to the point where residents cant drink from their faucets. Weve watched fracking cause the worst air pollution in the U.S., even in Wyoming counties so remote and unpopulated that they lack stoplights. Weve seen enough to know that communities are as easy to fracture as rocksthat neighbors have been turned against neighbors, and towns blighted as they turn into industrial zones crisscrossed by endless tanker trucks.
Gov. Kasich wants to bring all this to Ohioand why not, since the industry donated $213,000 to his last campaign? His legislation would put only the slightest and most token reins on the industry. Foreign countries (France, say) have banned fracking, and several states including New Jersey and Vermont are poised to prevent the practice; in New York theres been a de facto four-year moratorium.
Ohio is just the latest of many states poised to become a sacrifice zone. But as the nations attention turns to Ohio for the election this fall, it is a fitting place to make a stand and say that this process must stop once and for all. Of course we wont stop here either: other governors, from New York, to Colorado, to even California should be on notice that a powerful movement against fracking is brewing in their backyards.
Its hard to overstate whats at stake here. We used to think that natural gas might be a help n the fight against climate changebut new studies have demonstrated that so much heat- trapping methane leaks from fracking fields that it may be just as dirty as coal.
Ohio is also the dumping ground for fracking wastewater from many other states, and untold thousands of barrels of toxic and radioactive poison is injected underground into dozens wells in Ohio every day. This pollution is an inevitable result of any form of fracking, and if we stop the gas industry from treating Ohio as its personal dump, we may very well succeed n slowing down fracking operations across the northeast region and beyond.
Ohio used to be one of the countrys leaders in renewable powerthe solar and wind industries were sparking a manufacturing renaissance. But the 18-story gas-drilling rigs along the Ohio River are starting to make life hard for renewable energy: because they dont have to pay for the environmental damage their drilling does, they can undercut everyone elses price. Its kind of taken the wind out of wind, one businessman explained.
We cant let that happenwe cant let Ohio turn into a pincushion, pricked with drill rigs and shaken by earthquakes. If we stay silent, special interests will win; if we speak out together we have a chance. Not a guaranteethe fossil fuel industry is awfully rich. But were going to give it a try.
Please join us June 14-17 in Columbus!
Bill McKibben 350.org
Josh Fox - Director, Gasland
Michael Kieschnick President, CREDO Action
Energy Action Coalition
Alison Auciello Food and Water Watch
Katie McChesney Ohio Student Environmental Coalition
Teresa Mills Center for Health, Environment and Justice
Vanessa Pesec NEOGAP, Network for Oil and Gas Accountability and Protection
Ellie Rauh Fracking Coordinator Buckeye Forest Council
Mary Clare Rietz - Coordinator, Ohio Alliance for People & Environment
Molly Shea
Ohio Fracktion
Athens County Fracking Action Group
Frack Free Ohio
http://www.dontfrackoh.org/invitation/
Link to sign up: http://www.dontfrackoh.org/sign-up/
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Big anti-fracking action June 14-17 Columbus, OH (Original Post)
limpyhobbler
Apr 2012
OP
freshwest
(53,661 posts)1. Thanks... Kicking this.