North Carolina’s Republican Governor and a nearly unanimous majority of Republican lawmakers have recklessly dashed ahead to allow hydraulic fracking for production of natural gas. They have ignored the growing body of evidence that fracking imperils our health and the safety of our air and water. They missed the “look before you leap” lesson and took all of us along when they jumped into fracking.

SEE THE VOTE:

House roll call vote   Senate roll call vote

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Senator Jerry Tillman    Representative Pat Hurley    Representative Allen McNeill

Other NC Legislators

After passage of the “Energy Modernization Act”   home and property owners are not allowed to decide whether energy companies may drill under their land. If they frack your land, the state will regulate how you will be paid.  Your county or city government is not allowed to prohibit fracking. There is no local option like we have with the sale of alcohol.

Energy companies can keep the list of chemicals that they pump into your land secret. If you are exposed, local disaster officials or your physician can ask for a list of the chemicals but they can be prosecuted or sued for sharing the information – even with you.

There will be special tax breaks for giant corporations. After they acquire the rights to millions of dollars worth of gas, the law specifically says that the value of the gas must not add to the property tax collections of local governments.  Our tax dollars will be used to study how to create an ocean port and pipelines for shipping gas; and state universities are required to assist in that effort. The law requires planning immense infrastructure without mentioning how energy companies would pay for it.

Meanwhile evidence that fracking is dangerous continues to mount. Here are three examples that were published in 2014. A study from the National Institutes of Health demonstrates a positive association between birth defects and the proximity of a pregnant woman’s residence to natural gas wells. Another, published by Yale University, showed that respiratory and skin complaints are more common among those living close to fracked gas wells. Researchers from five major universities collaborated on a study which proves that leaks from fracked well casings are polluting drinking water.     (click here for the full study)

It seems that the wishes of energy companies are more important than our health. Republicans refused 100% federally funded expansion of Medicaid, saying that it contributes to the federal debt.  Concern about the debt was not evident when they instructed the state Mining Commission to go for as much federal money as possible in the form of “grants-in-aid for mining resource purposes”.  They are the same legislators who could not find tax money for our schools, our mentally ill or unemployment insurance but they have enough to subsidize energy companies.

Natural gas is a cleaner burning fuel than coal or petroleum, and it is abundant so I am in favor of developing it. It must be done safely however, even if that raises the cost of production. Our elected representatives have disregarded our safety, taken away our property rights and plan to use our tax dollars to subsidize wealthy corporations. Those plans should be stopped immediately and safer ones that don’t require taxpayer subsidy should be developed.

There might be a way to force a change in the law.  Just as they disregarded science, Republicans may also have missed reading the North Carolina Constitution. Article XIV Sec. 5 seems to specifically give authority for local governments to regulate or prohibit fracking. It says in part “It shall be the policy of this State to conserve and protect its lands and waters for the benefit of all its citizenry, and to this end it shall be a proper function of the State of North Carolina and its political subdivisions…to control and limit the pollution of our air and water…”

Certainly cities and counties are among the state’s “political subdivisions”. And the constitution seems to give them authority to protect the environment. None of us know how the North Carolina Supreme Court might rule if a local government bans or regulates fracking. I hope that one or more communities will try it because I like air and water that won’t make me sick; and I like the idea of local governments making decisions based on the will of their own citizens to protect their own health, safety and environment. I also like the idea of a state government that respects cities, counties and taxpayers rather than running roughshod over them in favor of big energy companies.