In May 2012, Vermont became the first state in the nation to ban fracking for fossil fuels. Since then, the news on fracking has only gotten worse. Evidence is accumulating of its devastating impact on the climate, horror stories of its effects on communities continue to mount, and in at least one case the industry has even tried to impose a gag order to keep children impacted by fracking from speaking out – for the rest of their lives.1
Despite all this, Vermont Gas wants to expand Vermonters’ reliance on fracked gas. Its plan to build a pipeline to Middlebury is in front of state regulators right now. There are a couple opportunities to weigh in with them:
Click here to tell the Public Service Board that more fracked gas is not in the public good, and is not what Vermonters want!
Click here to join us at the PSB hearing in Middlebury on Tuesday, September 10th!
Vermont has a goal, put forward by Governor Shumlin and backed by the legislature, of getting 90% of our energy from renewable sources by 2050. Allowing this pipeline to be built would lock Vermonters into dirty fossil fuels for decades to come. That’s incompatible with our state’s goals, and incompatible with a healthy, livable climate.
It’s been suggested that gas is a “bridge” to a renewable future, but we know better. Vermont Gas is clear it expects this pipeline to last a century or more.2 This pipeline is a bridge to just one thing – long term dependence on dirty fossil fuels.
We need a clean energy future, not one built on fracked gas. That’s why VPIRG is teaming up with local activists and partners to expand the campaign to stop Vermont Gas’s fracked gas pipeline in the weeks to come.
1. http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/local/item/57996-gag-order-imposed-on-two-kids-in-marcellus-fracking-case
2. http://addisonnaturalgas.com/frequently-asked-questions/