Fracktivists to Descend on Columbus, OH in June

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WoodstockWith dire claims that Ohio is “poised to become a sacrifice zone” and will experience “dead creeks” like those “in Pennsylvania and West Virginia” and “wells poisoned to the point where residents can’t drink from their faucets” if widespread hydraulic fracturing is allowed to happen in the state, the group 350.org is convening a hippie-fest meeting in Columbus June 14th-17th, called “Don’t Frack Ohio.” Luminaries like Josh Fox will attend—no doubt pedaling his latest propaganda efforts (Gasland Deux) to what will be a receptive (if not mind-altered) crowd. Here’s your personal invite:

Dear friends–

The fracking industry has been causing earthquakes in Ohio. So it’s 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 Year’s Eve. Instead, we need to aim for an 8.0 on the political scale–we 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 we’ll be taking over the Ohio statehouse for a people’s assembly that will ‘pass’ legislation that Ohioans need to stop this destructive practice. You can sign up here, but we need you to do more–please spread the word to friends and colleagues. And get ready for the caravan that will cross the state in mid-May to raise awareness – we’ll have much more on that front soon.

Fracking is a great mistake for many local reasons. By now we’ve seen its effects on local water supplies: the dead creeks in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, the wells poisoned to the point where residents can’t drink from their faucets. We’ve watched fracking cause the worst air pollution in the U.S., even in Wyoming counties so remote and unpopulated that they lack stoplights. We’ve seen enough to know that communities are as easy to fracture as rocks–that 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 Ohio–and 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 there’s been a de facto four-year moratorium.

Ohio is just the latest of many states poised to become a sacrifice zone. But as the nation’s 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 won’t 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.

It’s hard to overstate what’s at stake here. We used to think that natural gas might be a help in the fight against climate change–but 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 in slowing down fracking operations across the northeast region and beyond.

Ohio used to be one of the country’s leaders in renewable power–the 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 don’t have to pay for the environmental damage their drilling does, they can undercut everyone else’s price. “It’s kind of taken the wind out of wind,” one businessman explained.

We can’t let that happen–we can’t 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 guarantee–the fossil fuel industry is awfully rich. But we’re 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*

Funny how the same people keep trying to re-create Woodstock over and over again. It seems, as MDN said nearly two years ago, that fracking has become the new cause célèbre for hippies and hippie wannabes.

*350.org Action Fund (accessed Apr 13, 2012) – Don’t Frack Ohio Invitation

5 Comments

  1. Personal attacks and strawman arguments while avoiding all real concerns and facts, hiding behind “having an opinion”. This site has reached a new low.

  2. Spaceman,
    Your comments actually apply to that letter. Baseless claims to alarm the masses, irresponsible that these so called leaders could write this propaganda.
    Dave

  3. Reminds me of the “occupy” movement. Let’s hope this one is short lived too. If these people had a job, they wouldn’t have all the free time to hate things they don’t understand.

  4. The last time I offered my comment, it was not posted by the censor. I used to come here to keep up with the latest natgas news. But every article is a political spin job. Bye bye. Not coming back.

  5. Could you point out where the “Personal attacks and strawman arguments” are in that letter?