Natural Gas Reform
Protecting the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the communities we live in.
The natural gas industry is dirty, dangerous, and running amok. Government loopholes exempt natural gas drillers from the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Safe Drinking Water Act -- and at the same time, don't require them to disclose the frequently toxic chemicals they use in hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," the violent process they employ to dislodge gas deposits from shalerock formations. The closer we look at natural gas, the dirtier it appears; and the less of it we burn, the better off we will be.
The Sierra Club keeps natural gas companies under scrutiny and works to put in place strong national and state safeguards that protect the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the communities we live in. If we can't protect our health and treasured landscapes from the damages caused by the natural gas industry, then we should not drill for natural gas. In the meantime, we must do all we can to ensure that, by 2050, we'll no longer be dependent on any fossil fuel -- including natural gas.
Today's Take Action: Tell EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson we need need federal safeguards to keep us safe from fracking.
Natural Gas News
The Latest from Our Blog
Sierra Club's Atlantic Chapter and gas activists across New York State are still working to protect their communities from the dangers of fracking. On top of last month's protests and organizing around the states Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) we are now starting to see smaller victories.
In addition to the Atlantic Chapter's excellent work turning out thousands of comments to the Department of Conservation (DEC), the Sierra Club also joined other environmental groups in submitting expert analysis of the proposed SGEIS. These expert comments examine how the SGEIS falls short of truly protecting New Yorkers from the dangers of fracking.
But the fight doesn’t stop in Albany. Recently a central New York town blocked natural-gas drilling after a state judge, in the first test of local laws, upheld the town of Dryden's ban on hydraulic fracturing. This ruling pushes back on the industry's fight to frack in New York despite the statewide moratorium and shows communities can still defend themselves.
"Judge Rumsey's ruling in the Dryden case is a great victory for local democracy," Gusti Bogok, the co-chair of the Atlantic Chapter Gas Drilling Task Force. "It is a first step in the movement to give municipalities the right to protect their communities, their health and environment, empowering local citizens to decide for themselves what kind of energy future they want -- while diminishing the influence of entrenched state agencies and multi-national corporations which often make decisions against the interests of the people."
While this is certainly good news out of New York, this ruling only casts a darker shadow on Pennsylvania. A new pro-drilling law (HB 1950) in Pennsylvania effectively ties the hands of local governments and strips them of the right to decide what happens in their own backyards. The law prohibits local governments from deciding the appropriate locations of fracking sites and takes away local municipalities' rights to stop fracking in sensitive areas, even if public health is in danger. PA communities no longer have the right to say no to fracking as a result of this pro-drilling powerplay by the natural gas industry.
Sierra Club's Natural Gas Reform Campaign will continue to work with both the Atlantic Chapter and the Pennsylvania Chapter to protect our communities from a gas industry runamok. Join us here.
-- Deb Nardone, Director of Sierra Club's Natural Gas Reform Campaign
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