Elections

MoveOn.Org Petitions To Ban Fracking In Democratic Party Platform

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Chris White Tech Reporter
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A petition recently filed by environmentalist Brad Johnson on MoveOn.org seeks to “ban fracking in the Democratic platform.”

The petition suggests scientific evidence now shows the benefits of switching from traditional fuels like coal to natural gas “were a total mirage” and only accelerate global warming.

It went on to say the massive Porter Ranch methane blowout, which started in October and was capped in February, was a result of the supposedly ill-conceived natural gas policies pushed by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Fracking has led to the poisoning of air and water, Johnson writes, adding, “Oklahoma became the number one place for earthquakes on Earth this year because gas companies inject fracking fluid back into the ground.”

“That’s why communities all over the country from New York to California and Texas to Colorado have stood up to the oil and gas industry and said they don’t want fracking in their backyards,” the petition adds. “We have clean energy solutions to climate change, and fracking is not one of them.”

The anti-fracking screed goes on to admonish the Democratic Party to push harder “against dirty energy and for a climate-safe future,” and the only way to do that, the petition states, is for the party to immediately call for a moratorium on fracking.

MoveOn was started in 1998 as a result of the impeachment of then-President Bill Clinton. The group officially endorsed Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders in January for president in the 2016 election.

It says the senator was supported by nearly 80 percent of its membership in an online vote of more than 340,000 members. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton received only 14.6 percent approval from the MoveOn.org community.

So far the petition has gathered 290 of the 300 signatures it needs before it can be sent to the Democratic National Committee Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, as well as the delegates of the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

Many of those who signed their name to the MoveOn.org petition offered various anti-fossil fuel comments as food for thought.

“Fracking is a blight on our planet!” one person wrote after signing the petition. Another person called natural gas extraction “a disasterous [sic] process that deserves to be abandoned like the stinking contaminated slime bomb that it is.”

“Fracking is a dangerous practice that has ramifications for years to come. We must stop it!” another wrote.

Many of the assertions made by anti-fracking campaigners in the past have been rebutted by research conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2015.

In that year, the EPA found no evidence of what it called “widespread, systemic” water poisoning caused by fracking. Scientific Advisory Board peer reviewed and upheld the EPA’s findings.

Another study done by the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory also have found no tie between hydraulic fracturing and natural gas leaching into water wells.

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