Rebutting Pro-Fracking Arguments

Whether you’re a volunteer calling neighbors for petition signatures or a candidate answering questions at a debate, it’s vital to be able to refute common pro-fracking arguments in concise, powerful, and easy-to-understand statements.

In brief contacts like these, there’s no time to cite statistics or give detailed lists of the toxic chemicals found in fracking fluids. You must make your point quickly and in a way that evokes powerful images, or "frames", in the minds of those listening to you.

This document began with some arguments in support of fracking which came up in a debate Bo Lipari took part in, and how he responded (response time was limited to 2 minutes). Hopefully you can use them yourself and create your own using these as models.

= General =

Safe Drilling Now!
That's like saying, "I support safe rape". Guess what? There ain't no such thing.

Every instance of rape causes injury, and every instance of fracking kills life.

Fracking and rape both are inherently unsafe. Both should be civilly banned. One IS banned! Why not the other?

Our community has been divided by people opposed to fracking.
Response – It’s not citizens telling our elected representatives about our deep concerns for our businesses, homes and families that divide our communities, it’s the gas companies who want to radically alter our quality of life. Fracking will fundamentally change the nature of our community and have huge impacts on our health and well being – it must be talked about now, because fracking is about to start here. Time is of the essence.

We are citizens exercising the free speech rights guaranteed us by the US Constitution at a critical moment in our Town’s history. If that isn’t a time when our elected officials must hear from us, when is? In New York State, we are calling on our local governments to exercise the Home Rule rights guaranteed us by the New York State Constitution.

How do you heat your home? / You Anti's are all hypocrites!
It is true that we all need to examine our own energy usage, and switch to sustainable. We did not create the current system. It is not hypocritical to advocate for a better tomorrow and for PROPER transitions.

Natural Gas is clean burning, Coal is dirty, Nukes unsafe
It's true about nuclear power and coal. But there is nothing "natural" about blasting apart solid rock 1 mile down, and recent science shows that methane is actually dirtier than coal when the whole picture is examined.

Bunch of NIMBYS!
No. We don't want unsafe activity in ANYONE's back yard!

= Property Rights =

We can’t violate a person’s right to make money from extracting minerals from their land.
Response – While it’s true that landowners do have a right to make a profit from their land, they do not have a right to harm a neighbor’s property, health, or life in the course of doing so.

For example, Let’s say I’ve found a way to make a lot of money by dumping cyanide into a stream that runs through my property. This stream also runs from my land through your land, and your cows drink from it. Since drinking from a poisoned stream will cause your cows to die, I don’t have the right to make a profit in that particular way – I can’t poison a water source that we both share. So one neighbor’s right to use their land as they see fit supersedes another’s right to make a profit by poisoning a common stream they share.

= Municipal Bans =

The Town cannot afford to be sued by the gas companies.
Response – First of all, it’ s unlikely that the gas companies will sue every single one of the many local governments passing ordinances concerning fracking. The more likely legal approach is the one they have now taken – target a few selected communities like Dryden NY, and wait to see how the Courts rule. With more than 20 Cities, Towns and Villages acting and that number growing, any individual Town’s chance of being sued is reduced because they won’t sue them all. This also means that every additional Town that acts reduces the likelihood of any single town being sued.

Second, there are going to be huge costs to the Town if fracking proceeds, so one way or another there are going to be costs to the Town. If we don’t act to protect our Town now, just the costs of repairing damaged infrastructure alone will exceed any legal costs incurred to prevent such damage before it happens, not to mention the unbearable financial and human costs of a large industrial accident.

We should wait and see what happens in the Dryden lawsuit before taking action.
Response – There is no time to wait! Once the gas companies start putting shovels into the ground, they begin acquiring legal rights that make it much harder for the Town to exercise our own Home Rule rights. The Dryden case could take several years to work its way through the Courts, so delaying now and letting drilling begin is simply not an option.

= Energy Policy =

We need this gas for energy independence
Methane prices domestically are at a decades-low price. Untrue abroad. Do the math. Also, why are they building these pipelines to port cities? Why are foreign companies investing in the Marcellus?

= Patriotism =

Drill a well, bring a soldier home!
Drill a well, sell all the gas to China, India, Norway. Bring the soldiers home and put them to work making solar cells and wind turbines!

= Credit =


 * This document was originally authored by Bo Lipari: http://www.bolipari.com/boblog/?p=472