50 signatures reached
To: Governors and State Congresses
Ban Fracking and fracked gas pipelines in New England Now
Petition Text
it is time to ban fracking and to stop the expansion of gas pipelines through our communities, states, regions and nation.
Why is this important?
Governor Cuomo of New York has declared a statewide ban on fracking. Local citizen-led initiatives have helped ban fracking in Mendocino and San Benito counties in California; Athens, Ohio; Mora, New Mexico; Denton, Texas and throughout Massachusetts and New York. Communities across the United States and world are saying NO to this environmentally disastrous method of extracting fossil fuels from the land. Not only does fracking cause horrific damage to the water, air and ground of areas surrounding the excavations, but releases of terrible toxins and methane threaten the vast areas where the fracked gas pipelines invade adversely impacting the health and well being of all. Gas is in no way a clean energy source and growth of its infrastructure would be wasteful for our economy and ridiculously damaging to our nation. In fact, it requires releases of methane along the pipelines, for a variety of reasons, one of which is to release the pressure so that it doesn't explode. Nevertheless, explosions happen frequently, usually due human error. Massachusetts Senator Edward J. Markey, has been quoted to say.... "Gas distribution companies in 2011 reported releasing 69 billion cubic feet of natural gas to the atmosphere, almost enough to meet the state of Maine’s gas needs for a year and equal to the annual carbon dioxide emissions of about 6 million cars." Natural gas itself consists primarily of methane, a greenhouse gas over 86 times more powerful than CO2 in the first 20 years that it hits the atmosphere, 24 times more over a 100 year period. Please refer to information for some more specifics about the dangers to our health and environment by searching the websites of citizen.org/TPP, exposethetpp.org, connecticut.sierraclub.org/home/gaspipelines, foodandwaterwatch.org/water/fracking/why-fracking-is-dangerous/
including documents.foodandwaterwatch.org/doc/NatGasPipelines.
It is time for to take action and ban fracking in now throughout New England and our nation.