Fracking opponents turn up the heat on Maryland lawmakers (Annapolis: living, bill)

[Mr Beco]

Fracking opponents turn up the heat on Maryland lawmakers

Opponents of hydraulic fracturing will rally in Annapolis today to press lawmakers for a moratorium on the controversial drilling practice in the state.

They’re bringing out Lois Gibbs, one of the big names of the environmental movement, for an 11 a.m. rally on Lawyer’s Mall. Gibbs, executive director of the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, led a grass roots effort to have the state of New York relocate residents living near the toxic Love Canal outside Buffalo in the late 1970s.

The rally comes a week after the fracking opponents almost got a fracking moratorium bill passed in the Senate Education, Health and Environmental Matters committee.

Senate Bill 601 failed by a 6-5 margin. It would have kept the Maryland Department of the Environment from issuing drilling permits for 18 months — after the state studies are completed into the possible health and environmental effects of fracking.

Environmental groups, emboldened by the bill’s near passage in the Senate committee, say they want to keep the heat on lawmakers to pass a moratorium on the practice.

While fracking has drawn criticism from environmentalists, supporters say it would produce a steady supply of homegrown natural gas that would make the U.S. less dependent on foreign energy sources. They also say it could be an economic boon for western Maryland. Natural gas supplies are plentiful in the Marcellus Shale range, which runs through Garrett and Allegany counties.