Jennifer Shelton: Reinstate moratorium on fracking

Thanks for publishing the June 18 letter “Fracking dangers” enumerating the risks of fracking.

Adding to the long list of scientific studies that link fracking operations to significant threats to our health, safety and quality of life in North Carolina, the EPA released a five-year study earlier this month examining the effects of fracking on the nation’s drinking water.

The EPA found “specific incidences” of drinking water contamination throughout the fracking process, but it might have been able to successfully document “widespread impacts” on drinking water if it had completed plans to conduct essential baseline testing around fracking operations.

Instead, companies like Chesapeake Energy successfully lobbied the EPA to limit where and when testing would occur, before the EPA abandoned all efforts to persuade industry to cooperate.

With coal ash waste polluting the drinking water for hundreds of North Carolina families every day, and solar power expanding faster in our state than in any other besides California, focusing on a dirty energy source of the past just doesn’t make sense.

I urge the North Carolina legislature and Gov. Pat McCrory to reinstate the fracking moratorium and invest in a 100 percent clean energy future.

This story was originally published July 6, 2015 at 6:07 PM with the headline "Jennifer Shelton: Reinstate moratorium on fracking."