- Technology Report
- Health Report
- Education Report
- Economics Report
- Arts & Culture
- Ask a Teacher
- Words And Their Stories
- AS IT IS
- Everyday Grammar
- This is America
- Science in the News
- In the News
- American Stories
- Trending Today
- U.S. History
- America's National Parks
- America's Presidents
- Agriculture Report
- Explorations
- People in America
Environmental Prize Winner Opposes Fracking
Update Required
To play the media you will need to either update your browser to a recent version or update your Flash plugin.
May 03,2014
WASHINGTON — This year’s North American Goldman Environmental Prize winner used legal means to ban hydraulic fracturing in parts of central New York state. Fracking, as it is known, is a controversial method to extract natural gas and other fossil fuels. Anti-fracking activists say the technique hurts the environment, while the petroleum industry maintains fracking is safe.
Goldman award winner Helen Stottje is a lawyer in a mostly rural area of New York with small towns. She’s against fracking, which involves deep drilling through shale rock and pumping down a pressurized mix of water and chemicals to release natural gas.
Stottje volunteered to build a case against an industrial complex being constructed by a fracking company. While the company won the case, Stottje learned that local laws could stop fracking - and she used that as a weapon to help ban fracking in several towns. Today, more towns in New York state have passed local laws prohibiting fracking.
Stottje’s crusade began after attending a local meeting, where she saw photos of destruction caused by fracking in nearby Pennsylvania.
“The chemical pits, with the drill cuttings and the flowback water, cleared tree areas, swaths of forests that were just clear-cut for pipelines, for well pads,” she said.
But Steve Everley, a spokesman for the education arm of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, says, although there are risks, they are manageable.
“Everything is safely managed through the multiple layers of steel casing and cement that goes into creating a well. You’ve got anywhere between five and seven layers that protect what’s inside the pipe from what’s outside of it. I chiefly mean groundwater supplies,” he said.
But Stottje thinks fracking is harmful and says about 1/3 of the wells fail.
“These are our water supplies we’re talking about drilling through in large number. And in addition, there are methane emissions, and emitting all of this methane, such a powerful greenhouse gas into the atmosphere, is very disruptive,” she said.
But Everley points out that studies have shown that fracking actually helps reduce carbon dioxide emissions. He says fracking should also continue because it provides jobs and energy security. Stottje, however, says fracking should be stopped permanently.
Related Articles
- Separatists Hold Ukrainian Cities; Local Defense in Kyiv Stands Firm (14/5/1)
- As Congress Debates US Poverty, Relief Group Provides Services (14/5/1)
- South Africa Protector of the Powerless Is Nation's Most Powerful Person (14/5/2)
- ANC Expected to Maintain Majority in South African Elections (14/5/2)
- Polish, American Troops Train Together in Northwest Poland (14/5/2)
- Searching for Peace amid Violence (14/5/2)
- US Report: Al-Qaida Affiliates Pose Growing Threat (14/4/30)
- Report: Drug-Resistant Bacteria Pose Major Threat to Global Public Health (14/5/1)
- AU Force Pursues Elusive Enemy in Somalia (14/5/1)
- Some South Africans Voice Discontent With Ruling ANC (14/5/1)