Join Steingraber's Protest and Demand Gov Quinn Veto Illinois Fracking Bill

We, the undersigned, have more faith in Dr. Sandra Steingraber’s assessment of the environmental risks of fracking than the Illinois legislature’s promises or ability to regulate the industry.

Steingraber’s Manifesto, in part, states the following:

We know that high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracking, or HVHF, is an accident-prone, inherently dangerous industrial process with risks that include catastrophic and irremediable damage to our health and environment. 

We know that HVHF and its attendant technologies: 

contribute to groundwater contamination, including 219 cases in Pennsylvania alone; 

turn massive amounts of fresh, drinkable water into massive amounts of briny, poisonous flowback fluid for which there is no failsafe disposal solution; 

vent hazardous air pollutants that are associated with cancer, asthma, heart attack, stroke, and preterm birth; 

release radioactive substances—including radon, which is the number two cause of lung cancer—and benzene, which is a proven cause of leukemia—from deep geological strata; 

fragment forests in ways that decimate birds and wildlife, sabotage natural flood control systems, and pour sediment into rivers and streams; 

industrialize communities in ways that vastly increase truck traffic, noise pollution, light pollution, stress, crime, and the need for emergency services; 

offer jobs that are dangerous, toxic, and temporary, with a fatality rate seven times that of other industries; and 

leak prodigious amounts of methane, a potent heat-trapping gas. 

We know these problems cannot be prevented by any set of rules or government office, let alone state agencies like those in Illinois, which have been cut to the bone by budget cuts and cannot be counted on for regulatory enforcement. 

Knowing that our own government has abdicated its responsibility to protect the safety and well-being of the citizenry, knowing that no one is coming to save us, we declare our intent to save ourselves from the ravages of shale gas and oil extraction via HVHF. We declare our intent to join together in a fracking abolitionist movement. 

We hereby commit ourselves to building a powerful movement that will protect Illinois’ children—and safeguard the living ecosystem on which their lives depend—for generations to come. In short, we declare our intent to take the future into our hands. And that future is unfractured. 

We join Steingraber and the many other protectors of our planet and environment in this protest, and we demand that Governor Quinlan veto this fracking bill.

Thanks for your time.