There’s an LNG plant being built not too far from where I live. It’s up the coast about a half hour drive, and if and when the plant is online, ships carrying the fracked gas will travel down through the narrow fjord that runs past my village and several other small communities, out to the open sea.

There are many reasons people are upset about this. The ships carrying the fuel aren’t governed by any real safety regulations, and while the industry has a good safety record, a tiny leak of this colorless, odorless gas could be devastating. Several town and city councils along the waterway have signed a letter saying they don’t accept the LNG ships passing this close to our communities. The plant is costing taxpayers millions of dollars in government subsidies, but the owner of the company lives in Asia and plans to ship the LNG overseas for his own profit — so other than a hundred or so jobs, Canada won’t see any economic benefit. Marine life in the area — salmon, porpoises, orcas, humpback whales, sponge reefs — will suffer when the plant ejects its wastewater into the fjord.

A savvy grassroots organization called My Sea to Sky has led the charge in protesting for all of these reasons.

And yes, it will suck for our neighborhood. For me, though, the major reason I oppose the plant is the dominant source of the gas: fracking.

What is fracking?

Fracking, the short name for hydraulic fracturing, is a method of extracting oil and gas from shale (fine grained sedimentary rock) deep below the surface of the earth.

I’ll be honest — I don’t understand the system of lobbying, whereby oil and gas companies get what they want by influencing political parties. It doesn’t make sense to me that lawmakers could be that corrupt — or that stupid — that money could convince them to do something that science shows is crazy. But because there’s so much government support for fracking, I’m really trying to see the pros before introducing all the cons:

Pros of Fracking:

1. Energy Independence: Fracking has significantly boosted domestic oil and natural gas production in North America, contributing to energy independence and reducing reliance on foreign imports.
2. Lower Energy Prices: Because we can produce it domestically, energy prices have stabilized. (Wait — really? Is anyone paying less at the gas pump these days? I’ll leave this one in the pro column though — it does make sense that domestic oil would cost less than importing it.)
3. Job Creation: The fracking industry has created many jobs, particularly in regions with rich shale reserves. From engineers to construction workers, the demand for skilled labor has surged due to the expansion of fracking operations. That said, clean tech also creates jobs, from scientists to construction workers to skilled laborers — but we’ll give this point to the pro column too, because it needs it.

Maybes of Fracking:

1. (Alleged) Reduced Carbon Emissions: Natural gas is cleaner to burn than coal, which has people touting it as a valuable transitional energy source as the world moves towards renewable alternatives. But cleaner to burn does not make it clean to extract. Fracking releases large amounts of methane, with leakage rates at shale gas wells estimated at between 3.6% and 7.9%. Many scientists say that natural gas has a dirtier carbon footprint than coal. This article from the University of Massachusetts goes into depth about why.

Cons of Fracking:

Residents of Aztec, New Mexico, call their local hydraulic fracturing sites “a toxic tour of hell.” Here are all the reasons why:

1. Water Contamination: The disposal of wastewater from fracking has been shown to contaminate water sources for miles around. Tap water should be our best friend — but in these places, it isn’t safe to drink.
2. Volatile Organic Compounds: Drill sites release volatile organic compounds (VOCs), including benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, and xylenes. These VOCs can cause headaches, loss of coordination, and damage to the liver and kidneys. Benzene is also a carcinogen. Several studies have found high levels of VOCs in tap water, indoor air, and (as follows logically) inside people living close to fracking sites.
3. Reproductive Damage: 40% of the chemicals used in fracking are known endocrine disruptors, and can cause both male and female infertility — as well as other birth defects when a pregnant woman is exposed.
4. Air Pollution: Fracking increases ground-level ozone levels, which increases the risk of asthma and other respiratory illnesses.
5. Global Warming: Methane gas is released from drill sites. It’s a greenhouse gas, which means it absorbs heat from the sun, lingers in the atmosphere, and increases the rate of climate change through rising temperatures.
6. Earthquakes: The injection of wastewater into underground wells can trigger seismic events, leading to concerns about induced earthquakes in fracking areas. A 2021 study by the Journal of Geophysical Research showed that most seismic activity in one area of Texas likely resulted from the wastewater disposal that occurs at the end of fracking. The drilling itself also fractures the rock deep beneath the earth’s surface, and if it accidentally runs into a fault line, it can trigger an earthquake. The University of Waterloo has developed this map of where they predict new fracking-induced earthquakes are likely to occur.
7. Farming Suffers: It’s not just the drinking water that’s contaminated. When farmers’ irrigation water is contaminated by a cocktail of chemicals, including radioactive material, it can not only make them lose their organic certification, but it can make land unproductive for decades. Farm animals also suffer the same fertility issues as humans when exposed to the endocrine disruptors. This Cornell study examines the effect of fracking on pets and farm animals.
8. Workers in Danger: On-site exposure to toxic chemicals and other airborne materials, including silica, can lead to lung disease and cancer when inhaled.
9. Habitat Disruption: For all the same reasons it’s harmful to humans, wild animals in the area suffer, flee, or both — affecting biodiversity.

Where is fracking practiced most?

The U.S., Canada, Russia, Venezuela, Australia, and China all have booming fracking industries.

What can we do?

This is a hard one. All the usual methods — voting with your wallet, writing letters to your local politicians — are a drop in the bucket compared with the powerful lobbyists and oil barons who keep the industry alive and thriving.

I think this is where getting political matters most.

You can join forces with a group like My Sea to Sky (an organization in my area whose work I admire).

You can scour the platforms of every politician — including the party they’re representing, because a local candidate might say they oppose a project, but if their party supports it, there’s not much a lone candidate can do unless they’re willing to compromise their seat. In Canada, three of our four major parties still support subsidizing the fossil fuel industry. (I hope this changes soon. I feel like it has to.)

We also need to offer solutions. One of the key solutions is for the government to stop subsidizing fracking and other fossil fuel infrastructure, and put our tax dollars instead into clean tech development. If we pump those public billions into infrastructure for renewable energy, and let the fossil fuel industry stand on its own economic feet, we’d be making a wise investment in our economic and ecological future, and without the subsidies, many of these LNG projects would close up shop and go away.

The only way we can be more powerful than the lobbies is to be bigger, better, stronger, and noisier than they are. This is a challenge that requires numbers, a growing movement of citizens who put the environment first with our voting power.