These out of state corporations are fearful because we have made the moral choice to shift to clean and plentiful energy that we can produce here at home, like wind and solar, which create good, long-term jobs that make all our communities stronger and healthier. The fossil fuel industry is desperate to keep control, putting their profits over people as they keep pushing the dirty fossil fuels of the past. An added injustice is that low income families and communities of color are hit first and hardest by this polluted drinking water. Drilling for fracked gas pollutes water with dangerous chemicals, like benzene, that have been linked to cancer, birth defects, and infertility. In addition to being a step backward for clean energy, fracked gas pipelines, processing, and storage pose health and safety risks to local communities and waterways.
It provides no climate benefit and studies have shown it is just as polluting as coal. Methane pollutes the air at every step of the supply chain without even needing to be burned, hurting communities at fracking sites, along rail, truck, or shipping routes, and at refining locations.
This fossil fuel is mostly methane, a super potent greenhouse gas that traps 86 times more heat than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. Photo Credit: Stephen Melkisethian on Flickrįracked, not “natural,” gas is another polluting fossil fuel that harms our climate.