In Broomfield, CO, fracking seems in its infancy. Resistance of, by, and for those humans who live there - as evidenced by http://ourbroomfield.org - seems to be growing.
The group said on Nov 10, that “This week we celebrate four cities banning fracking through citizen initiatives placed on the ballot, including the ‘birthplace of fracking’, Denton TX.”
The seasoned US Oil & Gas Lobby, however, seem well-entrenched.
Why else did Broomfield, CO City Council not hold off on signing an MOU with gas drillers this summer, to see how the moratorium referendum (put on the ballot by They The People) vote would go? Our Broomfield explains that “The City Council, knowing that the ballot measure had been approved on August 9 to be placed on the ballot with the retroactivity language back to that date, went ahead and negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Sovereign Operating Company. This MOU would immediately grant Sovereign permits to drill more than 25 oil and gas wells in Broomfield using hydraulic fracturing processes that the ballot measure would prohibit for five years.”
The answer is as obvious as pathetic, and I hope someone challenges all sitting City Council members who supported the MOUs. Here is what Broomfield folks have to look forward to if you don’t put a rigorous opposition in place now.
PA government has abandoned its responsibility to protect the people of this state. Case in point: the 3,000+ folks we pay to permit and monitor frack water pits (DEP) could not say how many they permit and monitor, so the Federal govt turned to web users, who counted them.
http://stateimpact.npr.org/...
Meanwhile, the PA House fracking watchdog Representative Jesse White was defeated by carpetbagger Jason Ortitay last week. Ortitay was funded by the Oil & Gas Lobby and by Eugene Vittone, Washington County district attorney among others. (Full disclosure, White endorsed my write-in campaign for PA House in that same election.) Despite wide coverage in alternative media, DA Vittone somehow never read the complaint against Ortitay’s candidacy until days after the election. Outgoing pro-gas Governor Tom Corbett’s administration says “there is only a single timing requirement for running for office — and it seems to have been met here.” Democratic (which means ‘slightly less pro-gas’) PA Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s office is reviewing the case.
Jesse White comments as follows: “…the new guy managed to last just shy of one week without an Attorney General investigation into possible criminal conduct.”
http://paindependent.com/...
Schools - where we force our kids to spend their day, under threat of legal consequence - are not immune. The Mars Parent Group tries to fight “a proposal for a 6 well site .52 miles from the school campus (3,200 children).”
http://www.marsparentgroup.com
Mars’ 2014 PA House election featured the “choice” between well-heeled incumbent pro-gas cheerleader Daryl Metcalfe, and sorta-kinda-pro-gas, barely visible Lisa Zucco. Group founders and member have understandably expressed feeling all alone. Just a few trouble makers against lots of so far promised, but evasive ‘great jobs’ and ‘energy independence’.
Similarly, exploration begins on lots near Logan Middle School. PA law allows drilling 500 feet from schools, so look for drilling at 501 feet or so soon:
http://triblive.com/...
All of the (actual, human) people of these United States of America would do well to heed the words of one of our Founders:
“Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add 'within the limits of the law' because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual.” ~ Thomas Jefferson