CHARLOTTE, N.C.–Videos on Youtube of faucet fires have ignited a firestorm over fracking. The process of drilling and hydraulic fracturing to retrieve oil and natural gas trapped underground. Now, North Carolina residents could be forced into it. “It’s unbelieveable. I can’t believe it would happen in North Carolina or anywhere in our country,” said Clean Air Carolina Executive Director June Blotnick.
Recent recommendations from some members of the Mining and Energy Commission in North Carolina recommend using a 1945 law that coudl force North Carolina homeowners to sell natural
gas under their homes. “This, to me, sounds like something a communist government would do.
Forcing the people in this country to do something they don’t necessarily want to do,”
said David Robinson, Environmental Chair for the Central Piedmont Group of the Sierra Club.
Fracking requires a significant amount of water. And Robinson says Mecklenburg County might not
have enough. Robinson says there has already been a dramatic drop in water statewide over
the last forty years. “North Carolina is facing a water crisis at some point in the future.
There are some things that are going to have to be done to help deal with this,”
Robinson said.
Industry groups say natural gas produced through fracking reduces our reliance on foreign
fuel resulting in affordable energy and more jobs. Environmentalists say it’s an assault on
private property rights. “Private corporations don’t have the right to just come in and do what they want to do with your land,” Blotnick said.
The North Carolina Mining and Energy Commission is scheduled to continue discussing
their recommendation at a meeting in Raleigh on Friday.
