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say no, Obama
Flaming water, poisoned air and destroyed lives — that’s what I found when I traveled to Dimock, Pa., in 2009 to see the impacts of fracking firsthand. Six years later, this tragic story is one shared by countless Americans, too many of them with no choice in the matter.
Ten years after the Bush-Cheney administration exempted fracking from key parts of some of our nation’s most important environmental and public health laws, including the Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act, the science is finally catching up to the process — and the results are damning. The oil and gas industry is now fracking in 34 states, bringing with it water contamination, rampant air pollution, swarms of earthquakes, poisoned farmland and animals, and sick residents. Early on-the-ground reports of harm have now been confirmed by more than 450 peer-reviewed scientific studies.
This Earth Day, I’m proud to live in a state where our governor, Andrew Cuomo, stood by his promise to listen to the science on fracking. He didn’t cave to the oil and gas industry; he put New Yorkers first. Based on the science, New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation and Department of Health concluded that high-volume hydraulic fracking isn’t safe and should be banned.
Frequent reports of harm from across the border in Pennsylvania demonstrate the wisdom of that decision. Just this week, new state data there show air pollution from natural gas sites has increased significantly. Two weeks ago, a study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found alarming increases in levels of indoor radon — a dangerous gas linked to lung cancer — coinciding with fracking. Lead author Joan A. Casey warned: “By drilling 7,000 holes in the ground, the fracking industry may have changed the geology and created new pathways for radon to rise to the surface.” In 2014, state data confirmed at least 243 cases of water contamination and well failure from drilling and fracking.
Past the health and environmental damage, fracking is also breaking apart communities. Outside workers fill the vast majority of the temporary jobs created by fracking, and then pack up and leave once-beautiful communities with an economic bust and a legacy of toxic contamination after the oil or gas is gone or the price drops.
But despite overwhelming evidence that fracking is a disaster, and despite rapidly growing opposition among Americans, President Obama continues to tout fracking as a solution to our energy needs. Instead of taking the opportunity to protect our federal lands and parks, his administration recently set forth regulations to facilitate fracking in our public lands and even our national parks.
Obama’s policy not only destines our public lands to environmental degradation, but also contradicts his promises on climate change.
We know that we must leave the vast majority of fossil fuels in the ground to avoid climate catastrophe. We know that fracking for oil and natural gas leaks large amounts of methane, an especially potent greenhouse gas that threatens to exacerbate the climate crisis in the crucial near-term.
Obama rightfully says there is no greater threat to our planet than climate change, and that we have to reduce carbon emissions. Stopping fracking on our public lands would do just that. It’s a significant action that the President could and most certainly should take now.
To change the course we are on, Obama and Congress should follow the Empire State’s lead in banning fracking and advancing renewable energy. Aggressively moving toward a goal of 100% clean, renewable energy will create a vibrant economy with hundreds of thousands of jobs.
That’s the legacy we should leave for our children, and for their children to inherit. That’s a future worth fighting for on Earth Day and every day.
Ruffalo, an actor and director, serves on the advisory boards of New Yorkers Against Fracking and Americans Against Fracking.
