In two days, NH will be the first in the nation to vote for a Presidential candidate. The two democratic frontrunners are talking healthcare and energy issues, vying for a position as progressives.
Hillary Clinton supports fracking. Bernie Sanders does not.
Fracking is a process where fresh, potable water is combined with toxic chemicals that are known carcinogens and trade secret chemicals even the United States government does not know, and forced into the ground. The process cracks rock and releases fossil fuels for extraction. This chemical soup then has to be disposed of - that which can be removed.
Among many concerns is the impact on human and wildlife water supplies. If a community's drinking water is impacted, they go for months of years drinking poisoned, even flammable water. Their families may now live with chronic disease, cancers, learning disabilities and more.
If families with tained water are able to convince the fossil fuel companies their water is toxic (not easy) they will get a large plastic water container called a water buffalo. It is installed at their home and water is brought in for use in cooking, drinking and bathing. This water gift may stop once the fossil fuel company has decided the water is safe to drink, regardless of testing proving otherwise.
While the granite state won't be fracked anytime soon (there is shale in MA), we are still at risk from the drilling process, extreme excavating and the fracked gas pipeline that would travel through our state.
The fossil fuel industry is a massive monopolistic bully. Families who own homes, farms, small businesses and are living their lives in bucolic PA or rural OH are preyed upon and cannot compete with the resources these companies have at the ready. To put children at risk and then dangle a carrot to pay for damage no amount of money can repair is unimaginable. These are hard choices to families to make.
While I want to call them sellouts, I know that they have to make choices to survive. Who among us wouldn't do what we had to and save our loved ones? After health risks, lawsuits and life upheavals, in the end, children are left with a lifetime gag order. Nothing about fracking is worth this.
Before heading to the polls on Tuesday, carefully investigate and consider your candidate's position on fracking. Fracked gas not only threatens the people of New Hampshire, but also those in nearby states fighting for their lives, their homes, their children and their future.
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