Myth-busting the Oil & Gas Industry
Successfully Shifting Public Opinion When we began the campaign in 2012, just 35% of Americans who knew about fracking opposed it. In 2014, the percentage of Americans opposed to fracking reached 47%, and just two years later this became a majority. At the same time, grassroots groups were achieving major wins close to home. By the time we won a statewide ban, local governments had passed 200 bans and moratoria across the state. By 2014, more than 60% of New York’s land atop the Marcellus Shale was off-limits to fracking. The tide was turning, in great part thanks to the statewide movement to ban fracking. “More than a decade ago, the science was clear: fracking is a major threat to our climate because of emissions of unburned methane. Claims by Big Oil and Gas that fracked gas could be a bridge fuel were completely disingenuous. The U.S. has now grown to be the biggest pro- ducer of gas globally, by far, leading to globally significant increases in methane. The U.S. and the world must move away from all fossil fuels ASAP, including fracked gas.” Dr. Robert Howarth Professor at Cornell University and Food & Water Watch board member
Fracking isn’t a bridge fuel — it’s a gangplank toward climate chaos. In 2011, Drs. Robert Howarth, Renee Santoro, and Tony Ingraffea published a groundbreaking study that showed fracking shale gas has a worse climate im- pact than conventional gas, oil, or coal.
Regulations could not fix the fracking industry’s issues, which already included explosions, toxic chemical spills, livestock killings, and more. Fracking chemicals and methane pose a huge threat to human health, and thanks to policy, the fracking in- dustry can keep what toxic chemicals it uses a secret.
State and industry numbers were highly inflated, and fracking jobs are incredibly dangerous. FWW research found that fracking posed economic risks to many of New York’s farms and tourist towns by endangering the state’s water, food sources, and beautiful land- scapes.
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