Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Current Event 11/17 - Fracking Public Lands

According to an article by Ryan Schleeter, a writer for Greenpeace's blog, The Environmentalist, oil and gas companies are trying to acquire the rights to more than 200 million acres of public land to frack for natural gas. This is on top of the 30 million acres these companies already abuse for fracking operations. Much of the area that is being targeted is either in National Forests, State Parks, or on the surrounding area of America's National Parks. These areas are quite literally the most prized land that America has left and if it was allowed for fracking exploration, I don't believe many of these places could recover. Some of the targeted(threatened) land includes: Glacier National Park, White River National Forest, and the Arapaho National Forest. 

Glacier National Park

I really can't imagine that our political system would allow for this destructive exploration to take place, however our government hasn't failed to surprise me before. I believe there is currently a bill trying to be pushed through Congress that would ban fracking on public lands, such as national forests. I am having trouble finding out how close that bill is being voted on but it would be a huge hit for the fracking industry. Hopefully, our politicians are able to recognize not only, the dangers to public health and greenhouse gas emissions, but also the destruction of America's wild land that is already such a scarce reserve.

source
http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/not-even-national-parks-are-safe-from-fracking/ 

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