North America
Environmental concerns about fracking began to take hold in the United States when Josh Fox released Gasland in 2010, a documentary on the social and environmental impacts of fracking. Gasland, depicting the effect of hydraulic fracking on American homeowners near these sites, sparked an increased interest in the anti-fracking movement through the news coverage, social media content, and environmental activism that followed the film’s release. [9] In 2011, the town of Dryden, New York became one of the first communities in the state to ban fracking in their community. This ban was initiated by grass roots activists of the Dryden Resource Awareness Coalition who began collecting signatures for a ballot measure in 2010. [10] By 2014, 400 communities across the country had taken similar actions in their own towns. [10] Notably, in 2014, New York City’s anti-fracking movement won a significant victory, managing to get Governor Cuomo to ban fracking in the state. [11] This victory is due to the large number of environmental groups present and active in New York. In 2020, the New York state legislature codified a ban on fracking permanently into its 2021 budget, constituting a more substantial commitment to end fracking than the executive action taken by Governor Cuomo in 2014. [12] This ban is due to years of grassroots organizing across the state of New York in which activists obtained tens of thousands of petition signatures and convinced 200 municipalities to pioneer their own anti-fracking initiatives. [11]
Celebrity support has also been a notable part of the Anti-Fracking Movement. Actor Mark Ruffalo, who lives in New York City, became a major opponent to fracking. Ruffalo laid out his full case against fracking in a piece co-authored with Phil Radford on CNN.com, where he argued solar and wind sources of power are available now, and using fracked natural gas instead of cleaner sources of energy will result in more faucets on fire, methane leaks that cause global warming, groundwater contamination, and cancer causing chemicals in communities. [13] In New York, more than 180 entertainment, music, film artists (including Lady Gaga, Robert de Niro, Mark Ruffalo, Paul McCartney, and Susan Sarandon) are recognized as members of Artists Against Fracking, a group that opposes fracking in the Marcellus shale. [14] [15]
Balcombe is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It lies 31 miles (50 km) south of London, 16 miles (26 km) north of Brighton, and 32 miles (51 km) east-northeast of the county town of Chichester. Nearby towns include Crawley to the northwest and Haywards Heath to the south-southeast.
Fracking in the United States began in 1949. According to the Department of Energy (DOE), by 2013 at least two million oil and gas wells in the US had been hydraulically fractured, and that of new wells being drilled, up to 95% are hydraulically fractured. The output from these wells makes up 43% of the oil production and 67% of the natural gas production in the United States. Environmental safety and health concerns about hydraulic fracturing emerged in the 1980s, and are still being debated at the state and federal levels.
Shale gas is an unconventional natural gas that is found trapped within shale formations. Since the 1990s a combination of horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing has made large volumes of shale gas more economical to produce, and some analysts expect that shale gas will greatly expand worldwide energy supply.
New York energy law is the statutory, regulatory, and common law of the state of New York concerning the policy, conservation, taxation, and utilities involved in energy. Secondary sources have also influenced energy law in New York.
Gasland is a 2010 American documentary film written and directed by Josh Fox. It focuses on communities in the United States where natural gas drilling activity was a concern and, specifically, on hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), a method of stimulating production in otherwise impermeable rock. The film was a key mobilizer for the anti-fracking movement, and "brought the term 'hydraulic fracturing' into the nation's living rooms" according to The New York Times.
Josh Fox is an American film director, playwright and environmental activist, best known for his Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning 2010 documentary, Gasland. He is the founder and artistic director of a film and theater company in New York City, International WOW, and has contributed as a journalist to Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, NowThis, AJ+ and Huffington Post.
Fracking is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of formations in bedrock by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "fracking fluid" into a wellbore to create cracks in the deep-rock formations through which natural gas, petroleum, and brine will flow more freely. When the hydraulic pressure is removed from the well, small grains of hydraulic fracturing proppants hold the fractures open.
Frack Off is a grassroots direct action campaign aimed at stopping the extraction of unconventional resources in the UK, specifically concentrating on unconventional gas extraction.
Fracking in the United Kingdom started in the late 1970s with fracturing of the conventional oil and gas fields near the North Sea. It was used in about 200 British onshore oil and gas wells from the early 1980s. The technique attracted attention after licences use were awarded for onshore shale gas exploration in 2008. The topic received considerable public debate on environmental grounds, with a 2019 high court ruling ultimately banning the process. The two remaining high-volume fracturing wells were supposed to be plugged and decommissioned in 2022.
FrackNation is a feature documentary created by Phelim McAleer, Ann McElhinnery, and Magdalena Segieda. The film, released in 2013, claims to address alleged misinformation from environmentalists about the process of hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking.
Fracking has become a contentious environmental and health issue with Tunisia and France banning the practice and a de facto moratorium in place in Quebec (Canada), and some of the states of the US.
The environmental impact of fracking is related to land use and water consumption, air emissions, including methane emissions, brine and fracturing fluid leakage, water contamination, noise pollution, and health. Water and air pollution are the biggest risks to human health from fracking. Research has determined that fracking negatively affects human health and drives climate change.
Cuadrilla Resources is an oil and gas exploration and production company founded in 2007. It is headquartered in Bamber Bridge, Lancashire, and has operations in the United Kingdom. The company intend to develop shale gas in the UK by using hydraulic fracturing. Its chairman is Roy Franklin, who is also deputy chairman of Equinor. Its chief executive is Francis Egan.
Shale gas in the United Kingdom has attracted increasing attention since 2007, when unconventional onshore shale gas production was proposed. The first shale gas well in England was drilled in 1875. As of 2013 a number of wells had been drilled, and favourable tax treatment had been offered to shale gas producers.
The Balcombe drilling protest occurred when test drilling and possible fracking for petroleum were proposed in 2012 near Balcombe, a village in West Sussex England. Local residents protested and anti-fracking environmentalists in the UK made it a focus of attention. The drill pad is located in a wooded area known as Lower Stumble Wood.
The 2012–2014 Romanian protests against shale gas were a series of protests in major Romanian cities against exploitation of shale gas through controversial method of hydraulic fracturing. The main causes of these protests were the pollution of groundwater and environment, but also the threat of generating earthquakes. The protesters claimed the resignation of Prime Minister Victor Ponta, because he suddenly changed his position on the project. Before the electoral campaign of 2012, he opposed shale drilling, but after he supported it with any risks, on the grounds that Romania's energy independence is a national project.
The Solutions Project is an organization first conceived in 2011 by prominent figures in science, business and the entertainment media with the goal of utilizing the combined efforts of individuals in the fields of science, business and culture to accelerate the transition to 100% renewable energy use in the United States. Based on the results of academic research, the organization maintains that America is capable of meeting its entire energy needs through renewable energy sources, and that this goal can be achieved by the year 2050. Furthermore, the organization claims that the solutions that will be needed to achieve this goal are primarily social and political, not technical, in nature, as most of the technology necessary to bring about the transition already exists.
Countries using or considering to use fracking have implemented different regulations, including developing federal and regional legislation, and local zoning limitations. In 2011, after public pressure France became the first nation to ban hydraulic fracturing, based on the precautionary principle as well as the principal of preventive and corrective action of environmental hazards. The ban was upheld by an October 2013 ruling of the Constitutional Council. Some other countries have placed a temporary moratorium on the practice. Countries like the United Kingdom and South Africa, have lifted their bans, choosing to focus on regulation instead of outright prohibition. Germany has announced draft regulations that would allow using hydraulic fracturing for the exploitation of shale gas deposits with the exception of wetland areas.
Dayne Pratzky is an Australian anti-fracking activist known colloquially as the Frackman. He is also the subject of a 2015 feature-length documentary film of the same name produced by Smith & Nasht.
Artists Against Fracking is an association of artists started by Yoko Ono and her son, Sean Lennon, also including Mark Ruffalo, Robert de Niro, Paul McCartney, Lady Gaga and Deepak Chopra.
