“An America Built to Last” Needs Clean Water!

By Emily Wurth

As I watched President Obama’s State of the Union address this week, I thought he had some good ideas about how to address some of our country’s serious problems, but I think he really got it wrong on energy policy.

In his speech, President Obama lauded natural gas from shale as a key part of his clean energy plan, but the truth is there is nothing clean about it. Fracking shale for natural gas is an intensive extractive process that has polluted the water and air of communities across the country.

Unfortunately, the energy portion of President Obama’s speech sounded like it could have been written by the oil and gas industry. He cited the industry’s deceptive claims and grossly inflated the jobs numbers, rather than actual labor statistics. President Obama needs to hear the truth about shale gas.

President Obama: “I will not walk away on the promise of clean energy.”

Tell him that fracking for shale gas is not clean; America must walk away from dirty energy.

While we agree with the President that gas companies should disclose the chemicals they use in fracking, simply telling us which chemicals gas companies use will not prevent contamination from happening in nearby communities. It falls far short of removing the oil and gas industry’s exemption from key environmental regulations like the Safe Drinking Water Act, which the President should agree would be “regulations to prevent irresponsible behavior” by the oil and gas industry.

President Obama believes we can “develop this resource without putting the health and safety of our citizens at risk,” but the research increasingly shows that it is not possible. Please ask President Obama to walk away from fracking and toward an energy efficient future powered by renewable sources.