patching...
Update: Did you take pictures from the West Deptford High School prom? Upload them to our gallery. »
Welcome back, Patch Blogger!
Local Voices

Sierra Club Opposes Weak Fracking Moratorium Bill

On Monday the Senate Environment Committee is set to vote on a weak moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in New Jersey, after the Committee already approved a bill banning the practice earlier this session. 

The weaker legislation, S247 (Gordon/Beck) would enact a moratorium on fracking in New Jersey until federal EPA studies are completed. Those studies could be finalized as early as late 2014, early 2015 and environmental groups have major concerns that the results of those EPA studies will not accurately report all the dangers fracking pose to our health and environment. Some gas companies have denied the agency access to drilling sites, therefore the study will not fully investigate the likelihood of groundwater contamination. 

The Sierra Club is calling on the members of the Committee to remain committed to the stronger fracking ban bill and urging them to vote no on the moratorium bill. Over 1,300 individuals have contacted Committee members in the past 24 hours urging them to reject the bill. 

This bill does not protect the people of New Jersey from fracking or its toxic wastes. This bill is designed to prevent real legislation banning fracking in New Jersey that actually would protect our state now and forever from this dangerous practice. The moratorium bill is a sham to give politicians green cover instead of doing what is right for New Jersey and the region.

This moratorium bill is being proposed after the Legislature passed a ban bill in 2011 with bipartisan support. That ban bill was vetoed by Governor Christie into a one year moratorium which expired last month, leaving our state vulnerable to drilling and disposal of toxic wastes created in the drilling process. Last February the Senate Environment Committee passed the fracking ban bill again, but now they are considering the weaker legislation. 

The Legislature has not acted to overridde the Governor’s veto of the fracking waste ban bill yet and now they are moving away from the fracking drilling BAN to a weak two year moratorium. We are concerned the moratorium bill is about green cover in an election year, not the best policies to protect New Jersey.

Fracking is a technique of natural gas extraction that requires taking millions of gallons of clean water from our waterways, mixing that water with an unknown cocktail of over 700 toxic chemicals, and pumping it underground to crack open deep rock formations and release natural gas. 

New Jersey is home to two major shale deposits, the Utica and Newark Basin.  Development of the Utica shale is already underway in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Ontario. Continued support for a fracking ban is the only way to protect our land, water, and air.

All the moratorium does is take the issue of fracking off of people’s minds while the gas companies prepare to come in once the moratorium expires. It will be much harder for us to stop it then when the drills are coming across the border.

Fracking is exempt from portions of major environmental laws including the Clean Air Act, the Superfund Law, Safe Drinking Water Act, and Right to Know.  Mounting scientific evidence shows the dangers of fracking.   

A recent study found 25 percent of fracking chemicals could cause cancer, 37 percent could disrupt the endocrine system (controls our hormones), and 40 to 50 percent could affect the nervous, immune, and cardiovascular system.   

Banning fracking in New Jersey permanently is critical as we do not have the science or regulations in place to ensure that the practice and disposal of fracking wastes is safe and will not contaminate our drinking water and devastate the public health.

Fracking also results in dangerous greenhouse gas pollution that New Jersey should be working to reduce in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Cornell University researchers found shale gas has a greater greenhouse gas footprint than coal over a 20 year time horizon. 

Drilling in shale formations and transporting that gas releases significant amounts of methane into the atmosphere. The USEPA has found that methane traps 20 times more heat in our atmosphere than carbon dioxide, significantly contributing to climate change. Natural Gas will not fight global climate change, it will make it worse.

The New Jersey Legislature has been a national leader on addressing the threats fracking present to our environment and our public health, passing the fracking ban bill with bipartisan support in 2011. 

We need our legislators to maintain that leadership by overriding the Governor’s veto of the fracking waste ban bill and supporting the ban on fracking a second time. We cannot leave our state vulnerable to fracking a second time by passing a moratorium that will potentially cover less than 3 years.  

Resident of Lacey

10:40 am on Saturday, February 2, 2013

Sierra Club Opposes ANYTHING that will benefit progress.

Reply

bayboat

2:42 pm on Saturday, February 2, 2013

Well I can sleep easy tonight knowing Jeff Turtle is on the job opposing ... something.

Reply

I have spoken

11:26 pm on Saturday, February 2, 2013

Jeff when will you figure out the public doesn't care what you and your group of nut jobs (AKA The Sierra Club) want, especially since whatever you want costs us taxpayers dearly.

Get a REAL job and go the heck away.

Reply

Thomas Scarano

8:22 am on Monday, February 4, 2013

Surprise...the sierra club wants a ban. How can you ban it if the facts have not been presented yet. Seems like the bill is appropriate.

Reply
Comment_arrow

Tugwalla

1:19 pm on Saturday, February 9, 2013

Breaking news...Sierra Club calls for a ban on bans!

George Clark

11:15 am on Monday, February 4, 2013

What don't you uneviromental idiots get? You think your money grubbing "engineers and scientists" can drill a whole in the earth of lose rocks and untold water ways, make a containment well in your water tables and pump thousands of gallons of deadly chemicals into said water table and some how your kids and theirs won't be drinking these poisons? the earth isn't stable and neither are your tiny little brains bought for pennies on the lb cause that's about what they are worth. I hope the first ones to die a slow and miserable cancerous death are you and your children. Oops, is that uncaring or nasty or bitter of me? I don't think so. If you want to poison the ever deminishing clean drinkable water for the sake of money and gas that pollutes the air and land already then you should be the first to suffer the drink of that bitter cup of deceit you sell and buy into. enjoy. peace and god bless too.

Reply
Comment_arrow

Kurt Ebert

6:48 am on Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Hey George,learn the facts and stop drinking the cool aid.

George Clark

11:24 am on Monday, February 4, 2013

Did anybody care to hear about the deep water rig atlantis with absolutely know safe guards or engineering oversight to the under water weiding structure and the caps or plugs? did anybody also care to take notice that when not if the rig blows up and or haliburton plugs fail again it will make the other horizon spill look like a fart bubble. and then another seal will be opened as you seas die. sit and watch. take stock in your own destruction. for you all deserve it. turn on the rigged stuper bowl with it's fumbles and missed tackles to make it close. lol. you sheep are led to the slaughter watching other sheep kill themselves in the collesium for your amusement. dah. our a bunch of walking dead.

Reply

Steven A Martin

1:31 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013

Let's declare the entire Earth a superfund disaster zone and all move to Mars

Reply
Comment_arrow

George Clark

1:49 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013

that's precisely what's going to happen. the smart ones are trying to get off this planet and go fix or genesis another planet they can raid for all sorts of goodies from precious metals to much more precious water. Can you imagine anybody poisoning the water of life? that's what we are doing. from acid rain to wet brains like those who have spoken hear in support of poisoning water. good luck

DivineMomentsOfTruth

1:50 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013

There is no proof what-so-ever that fracking harms the environment..

Windmills are Hideous and Harmful to birds... The puny amount of power they generate is not worth the expense.

Reply
Comment_arrow

Joe R

2:14 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013

Airplanes are more harmful to birds. But oil wells and oil spills are things of infinite beauty. Tell the people who live near fracking areas that it doesn't harm the environment. Polluted water and even the air in their homes can become lethal and explosive.

Comment_arrow

Duck Dynasty

3:28 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013

Have a drink on me
Fracking is a technique of natural gas extraction that requires taking millions of gallons of clean water from our waterways, mixing that water with an unknown cocktail of over 700 toxic chemicals, and pumping it underground to crack open deep rock formations and release natural gas

bottoms up

Liberal Lucy

1:52 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013

Let's poison the water and make them dolla bills son son!

Reply

Joe R

1:54 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013

Talk about Jeff Tittel derangement syndrome, it's on full display any time he posts some common sense article. Ha, ha, ha, pollution?? That's just some big joke or a big myth perpetarted by the evil liberals to thwart the holy faultless corporations that always have your best interests at heart. Is this called pollution denial syndrome? Sure, let's go back to leaded gas and remove all the anti-pollution devices on cars and breathe in all that new poisonous air because pollution is just a myth and we don't need to do anything about it. Keep treating the environment like an open sewer and everything will be just fine. Jeff Tittel is the source of all evil, don't worry about polluted water, soil or air, that's all just a myth.

Reply

Waitress

1:57 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013

How come environmental supporters don't fight to clean up the cities and the pollution there? Camden is an environmental cesspool

Reply

Joe R

2:10 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013

@waitress: Nice deflection, straw man argument which is meaningless and without any merit. Environmental supporters are working to reduce and combat pollution in Camden, NJ and the nation. Why don't you anti-environmental folks support cleaning up Camden? Oh wait, you think pollution is just a myth or a big joke.

Reply

George Clark

2:12 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013

why would anybody, besides those making money off it directly, be in favor of fracking? do you naives think your gas bills will go down? lol. do you think the green clouds over nyc will turn a lovely violet? do you know they actually shut down china's major city the other day because the air was too bad to support life? you people think that cloud won't come here or destroy your fragile ozone protecting life on this planet? i know, we can't control china who owns us so let's do the same to keep up with their economy. there is only one quick and simple way to save the air, water and enviroment. guess what that is. shall i give you a hint ? yep, you guessed it. get rid of majority of world's population. do you think you or we are worth the air you breath or ruin? we'll see.

Reply

Joe R

2:27 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013

@waitress: Ah hah, so you do at least admit that there are pollution problems in the cities like Camden. I guess that's a small measure of progress. We should all be concerned about it, not just environmentalists. A major industrial power like Germany is moving towards renewable energy and is even phasing out nuclear power. In 2000, they committed the nation to weaning itself off of fossil fuels and phasing out nuclear power. There's a very strong green movement in Germany but in America the greens are mocked, ridiculed and marginalized. In the US, ignorance, know nothingism and climate denial are glorified and beatified.

Reply
Comment_arrow

George Clark

3:14 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013

because as long as americas are stupified by the powers that poison their minds for profits of all kind, we shall be on a downward spiral in all aspects. except of course the rich getting richer and the rest getting screwed to death. oh waitress, can you refill my class of koolaid that keeps americans so stupid and backward arse? what is being promoted in america now? let's see. fossil fuel treasures for the few and destruction for the many, greed, violence, drugs, apathy, sex of all kinds, every man for himself, and above all fear of everything new or worse everything true.. Oh, and the importance of education without history or a sense even of american history. we are repeating history over and over except the history of how we fought the evil powers of corruption of our very souls for money. let's turn a few pages back when we broke monopolies instead of got our share of the profits on them.

jerseyswamps

7:55 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013

Remember how environmentalist almost destroyed the logging industry in the northwest all to save the spotted owl? Thousands of families put out of work. Was that worth it? Since then the spotted owl's population has declined 40% even though logging was drastically reduced. Eco terrorist might try to blame their favorite targets but the real villain is another species of owl, the barred owl is taking over the territory. What should we call this? Greed? Climate change? How about nature, evolution? Species move. Their numbers grow and decline most often with little help from us.

Reply

mjmjr

8:33 pm on Monday, February 4, 2013

WE SHOULD GET RID OF THE SIERRA CLUB,THAT ALL THEY ARE IS A CLUB AGAINST ANY PROGRESS OR PUT PEOPLE BACK TO WORK.THEY ARE ALL TREE HUGGERS AND ENDANGER OWLS LOVERS,WHY STOP PROGRESS,THE REST OF THE COUNTRY IS FRACKING.WE SHOULD START IN NEWARK AND CAMDEN.

Reply

BN

6:41 pm on Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Sorry Jeff: You will lose. Fracking in NJ means UNION jobs. Good luck with that one! Ha-Ha. Shoe is on the other foot now, huh?

Reply
Comment_arrow

George Clark

6:52 pm on Tuesday, February 5, 2013

you really got us there. hardy har. you people that are anti union are the same dummies that are antienviroment. the sad thing is how stupid americans have become, or i guess we always were.

Comment_arrow

Project Bluebeam

3:47 pm on Saturday, February 9, 2013

Hey George...you've been eating too many GMO's!

Comment_arrow

brick strong

10:51 am on Sunday, February 10, 2013

The Union jobs are not as good as they were years ago due to ILLEGALS taking then and leaving Americans unemployed ..Cheap labor ,cheap work..and OH YEA THERE ILLEGAL..

William Marshall

8:02 am on Saturday, February 9, 2013

You know George... Your bad countenance is repellant. By calling everyone stupid and claiming all are idiots if they don't agree with your opinion, you guarantee they won't read what you are trying to say and will pass you off as some raving nutbag. Maybe you should take a few pills and try to explain your side in a calmer manner.

Reply

WMS826

10:30 am on Sunday, February 10, 2013

If you are unemployed or under employed when you see Jeff, say thank you. Thank you for lowering the standard of living, for removing opportunities for our children,...thank you for making us a welfare state.

Reply

Pundit

11:13 am on Sunday, February 10, 2013

I am very concerned for the environment but I wish Jeff Tittel would simply shut up. He is using the environment as a platform for his own political beliefs. Jeff Tittel is an advocate for the Democrat Party and he pretends to be an environmental activist.
The Asbury Park Press pointed out: “Tittel as a pure partisan who has gone so far as offering up advice to Democrats on how to deal with the governor. Specifically, Drewniak points to a June column in the New Jersey political website www.njspotlight.com in which Tittel debated the strategy employed by Democrats when it came time to negotiations on the pension and benefits reform bill passed in June.”
http://www.app.com/article/20111218/NJCOLUMNIST25/312180013/Sierra-s-Jeff-Tittel-Being-pain-my-job-

Reply

Leave a comment

The West Deptford Patch
Valentine's Shopping Guide

See the full guide!