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Hundreds demonstrate against natural gas drillers in Philly
Hundreds protest natural gas convention, contend that "fracking" contaminates drinking water.
Hundreds demonstrate against natural gas drillers in Philly
“I’m out here because my water is already contaminated,” said Susan Breese, who joined a protest against natural gas drilling in Center City Philadelphia. The 49-year old union carpenter from Susquehanna County contends that the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to extract natural gas ruined her well water with high levels of chemicals like barium and strontium. And, like other rural Pennsylvanians, she says that the industry has divided her community--to the point where some friends refuse to believe her story. “In my neighborhood, some people hem and haw. Especially those who are collecting money.”
The crowd, mostly from across Pennsylvania, crowded both sides of Arch Street in front of the Shale Gas Insight convention, protesting the toxic pollution of drinking water. There appeared to be about 1,000 protesters, though organizers say it was 1,500 and a police officer that a Gas Insight public relations person directed me to talk to said that it was only 300 or 400.
City Council members Blondell Reynolds-Brown and Curtis Jones called on the Delaware River Basin Commission, which is controlled by a committee with representatives of state governments and the Army Corps of Engineers, to require an environmental impact study before drilling is allowed in the Delaware River watershed--the source of Philly’s drinking water supply.
“We just need an environmental impact study,” said Brown. “Just show us that our high-quality drinking water will not be affected.”
Councilman Jones took the stage and led the crowd in chanting “No fracking way.” He explained how a “poor boy from West Philadelphia” became an environmentalist, and called for caution.
“If something can be created 348 million years ago, then we can wait to see if we can find regulations that could better govern this process,” he told the crowd. “348 million years, and we can’t wait another year?”
A few conference attendees bravely stood outside to take in the scene, but a much larger crowd gawked from inside, taking cell phone photos through the windows as protesters mockingly waved dollar bills in their direction (scroll to the end of the slide show for those pics). One protester appeared to be praying.
Inside, natural gas industry representatives denied that fracking has contaminated underground drinking water, despite evidence to the contrary.
“We know for decades and decades that people in northeast Pennsylvania have been able to light their water on fire,” Aubrey McClendon, CEO of Chesapeake Energy (who according to Forbes has a net worth of $1.2 billion) told gathered media. “It’s part of local lore.”
According to Daily News reporter Chris Brennan, McClendon called the protesters environmental “extremists” earlier in his speech (before this reporter made it inside).
Outside, one Amtrak employee and Teamsters member explained why his union was critical of natural gas drilling, flouting the stereotypical conflict between labor and environmentalists.
“Right now, there’s gonna’ be a lot of profit made,” said Al Loran, a 53-year old from Pennsauken, New Jersey. “But I’m looking out for the future, our kids and grandkids.”
The protesters then marched from the Convention Center to the office of Republican Governor Tom Corbett, a close industry ally and staunch opponent of imposing a severance tax on drilling. Former Democratic Governor Ed Rendell, who opened wide swaths of state forestland to drilling and opposed taxing the industry throughout most of his time in office, is scheduled to speak Wednesday afternoon.
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