Issue Position: Fracking

Issue Position

The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania says "The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania's public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people."

The water we rely on across the state is under threat from hydraulic fracturing or fracking, which Propublica reports is "a process used in nine out of 10 natural gas wells in the United States, where millions of gallons of water, sand and chemicals are pumped underground to break apart the rock and release the gas. Scientists are worried that the chemicals used in fracturing may pose a threat either underground or when waste fluids are handled and sometimes spilled on the surface."

Because the citizens of Pennsylvania have a constitutional right to pure water and fracking poses such a threat to our water supply, there should be a moratorium on fracking until there's enough research to legislate a safe regulatory regime for it. Governor Corbett's Act 13 fracking law needs to be repealed. Under it, doctors can only find out what chemicals their patients may have been exposed to because of fracking if they agree to a gag order.

Part of it was so extreme it was struck down by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court for violating local zoning rights determining where fracking can happen. It costs the state millions of dollars by tying the impact fee corporations must pay for drilling to the price of natural gas instead of charging a regular extraction tax.

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