To: The Massachusetts State House, The Massachusetts State Senate, and Governor Charlie Baker
Ban fracking in Massachusetts
We ask the Massachusetts legislature to ban fracking (hydraulic fracturing) in Massachusetts, and our Governor to sign the legislation when it is passed.
Why is this important?
Fracking (hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas) is bad for Massachusetts in at least these ways:
- It uses a complex mix of chemicals that can get into the water table and escape into the environment - chemicals that fracking companies want to keep as trade secrets so we don't even know how dangerous they might be.
- It disturbs the surface at the point of extraction.
- The process may encourage earthquakes and other instability. You may not think of Massachusetts as a high earthquake zone, but in fact there was a large earthquake in colonial times that did a lot of damage (see http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/massachusetts/history.php), and the activity of fault systems under Massachusetts is not well understood.
- The fuel extracted will be burned, contributing to global warming. This is a time when we should be switching to renewable energy sources, not maximizing extraction of fossil fuels.
- The fuel must be transported, most likely by pipelines, which are themselves destructive of the environment. They also risk leaks and thus contamination from unintentional release into the environment.
Massachusetts aims to be a leader in solar and other renewable and clean energy sources. Fracking is not consistent with that aim. We should ban fracking now.
- It uses a complex mix of chemicals that can get into the water table and escape into the environment - chemicals that fracking companies want to keep as trade secrets so we don't even know how dangerous they might be.
- It disturbs the surface at the point of extraction.
- The process may encourage earthquakes and other instability. You may not think of Massachusetts as a high earthquake zone, but in fact there was a large earthquake in colonial times that did a lot of damage (see http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/states/massachusetts/history.php), and the activity of fault systems under Massachusetts is not well understood.
- The fuel extracted will be burned, contributing to global warming. This is a time when we should be switching to renewable energy sources, not maximizing extraction of fossil fuels.
- The fuel must be transported, most likely by pipelines, which are themselves destructive of the environment. They also risk leaks and thus contamination from unintentional release into the environment.
Massachusetts aims to be a leader in solar and other renewable and clean energy sources. Fracking is not consistent with that aim. We should ban fracking now.