Maryland League of Conservation Voters Education Fund - Marcellus Shale

“With the valuable strategic guidance and leadership offered by MDLCVEF staff, our coalition generated the tremendous pressure necessary to encourage Governor Ehrlich to include full funding for Program Open Space in his 2006 budget.”

-Marcia Verploegen Lewis, Partners for Open Space

Marcellus Shale - Hydraulic Fracturing

Fracking is a dangerous drilling method used to extract natural gas from shale rock. Around the country, natural gas fracking has attracted widespread attention as surrounding communities have been subjected to drinking and ground water contamination, climate pollution, and land scarring. In Ohio, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, the injection of wastewater from the fracking process caused tremors and earthquakes. Due to the threat of these consequences in Maryland, it is imperative that the General Assembly place a moratorium on fracking until careful, independent analyses are completed to determine whether the risky drilling practice makes sense for Maryland.

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Environmental Challenge

Gas drilling activity related to hydraulic fracturing - or fracking - has been directly linked to a whole host of harmful effects including contaminated streams and rivers, flammable tap water, forest fragmentation, and poor air quality. Underground re-injection of fracking wastewater, meanwhile, is strongly suspected to be the cause of a large increase in earthquakes across the central United States, including in nearby Ohio. Fracking also contributes to climate change through the documented release of methane gas in the drilling process and from emissions of planet-warming gases upon combustion.

Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley issued an executive order in 2011 establishing a special commission to determine if and how fracking activity could be conducted safely in the state. But the commission does not have the dedicated funding it needs to underwrite a range of measurements, analyses, and reports required to protect natural and human communities.

Bill Framework

While some have characterized the 2011 O'Malley executive order as a de facto moratorium, the reality is that there are few real legal protections in place to prevent issuing a fracking permit if challenged by the oil and gas industries and it's time for the policy of the state of Maryland to be clarified in the law: no studies, no fracking.
This legislation will:

Impose a moratorium on fracking in the state of Maryland

Requires the moratorium to stay in place until three separate criteria have each been met: the studies listed in the Governor's 2011 executive order must be completed and presented to the appropriate committees in the General Assembly; 18 months must have passed since the completion of the studies to give the General Assembly appropriate time to consider the results of the studies; the Maryland Department of the Environment must adopt regulations that implement the recommendations of the studies from the Governor's executive order
Provide guidance to the state agencies charged with conducting the studies to render their judgment on how much risk is posed by fracking activity based on the results of the studies
Allow the General Assembly to make an informed decision about whether or not to allow fracking in the state of Maryland

Update on the bill: the Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs committee voted narrowly 6-5 against the Maryland Hydraulic Fracturing and Right to Know Act of 2013. To see how the Senators voted, click here. However, this is not the end of the movement.

If we're going to win a moratorium on fracking for natural gas in Maryland next year, one thing is certain: we need you. To come out on top, we need to take our statewide grassroots movement straight to the doorsteps of legislators in Annapolis. We need you to maintain the momentum and join us in Annapolis this Wednesday:

RSVP: Join the biggest fracking rally Annapolis has ever seen on March 13th.

For more information, please contact:

Erik DuMont, Chesapeake Climate Action Network / / 240-396-1985