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Fracking impacted residents demand Moniz include communities in methane ’roundtables’

Chesapeake Climate Action Network * Delaware Riverkeeper Network * Lehigh Valley Gas Truth * The Shalom Center * Nature Abounds * Protecting Our Waters (PA) * Jews Against Hydrofracking * Center for Biological Diversity * Earthworks * Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy * Berks Gas Truth * Green Zionist Alliance * Citizen Shale * Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Water and Air * Food and Water Watch * Greenpeace USA * Breathe Easy Susquehanna County * Clean Water for North Carolina * Green America * Environment America * Illinois Peoples Action * Denton TX Drilling Awareness Group

Fracking impacted residents demand Energy Secretary include affected communities in methane pollution “roundtables”

First closed door “roundtable” convenes today at 4 pm

Washington, D.C., March 19 – At 4pm today Energy Secretary Moniz is responding to President Obama’s directive to develop a “coordinated interagency methane strategy” by holding a closed-door meeting without public notice that excluded communities directly impacted by methane pollution.

“Closed door meetings excluding impacted community members seem to be routine with the Obama administration, and this routine is no longer acceptable,” said Jill Wiener of Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy. She continued, “If decision makers continue to ignore realities on the ground we can expect the oil and gas industry to continue to profit at the expense of the health and welfare of ordinary Americans.”

“Having experienced the oppressive and unnatural air near flaring, and the blinding headaches caused by venting, I find it terribly unfair for impacted communities to be denied a spot at the table,” said Jenny Lisak of Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Water and Air.

“In the real world where our backyards are being fracked, it’s clear that government and industry promises don’t amount to a hill of beans,” said Cathy McMullen, President of Denton (Texas) Drilling Awareness Group. She continued, “so long as the Obama administration excludes impacted communities from its decision-making about methane pollution, our only option is to take matters into our own hands and ban fracking community by community.”

Community groups and environmental advocacy groups today will deliver a letter to Secretary Moniz stating that “it is essential that those who have been impacted by methane flaring, venting and leakage into nearby air and water at well sites and adjacent to compressor stations and other infrastructure are represented at all future meetings.”

The letter also calls for

  • Adequate representation of scientists studying the methane leakage issue, including representatives from NOAA, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and several major universities.
  • Future roundtables to address methane emissions not just from natural gas production and distribution but from “fracked oil production.”

Letter signers are all members of Stop the Frack Attack, a national network of people impacted by fracking as well as members of the non-profit community. It is a social movement hub and network for concerned citizens to come together and work together to protect communities from the impacts of fracking and spur the transition to a clean, renewable energy future.

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