8/28/14 - Dozens of residents attended a talk by the Sierra Club at the Brighton Library last night focused on the impacts of fracking in Michigan. Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a process used by the oil industry to extract oil and by breaking apart the underground rocks containing the minerals. This is most often done by cracking them with a high-pressure slurry of water, sand, and chemicals, but in some cases, like in Conway Township, it can be done using powerful acids to perforate the limestone underground. The main speaker for the event was Education Coordinator Craig Brainard, who works for the Michigan Sierra Clubâs Beyond Natural Gas campaign. He explained the reasons the Sierra Club opposes fracking, including its impact on the environment, local water supplies, and the health of workers and nearby residents. Brainard encouraged residents to support political candidates identified on the Sierra Club as being willing to help ban or better regulate fracking. He says the industry and the Department of Environmental Quality have been pointing to small-scale Antrim Shale fracking to say the process is safe and reliable, but the Sierra Club is opposed to the high-volume fracking of Utica shale, which is orders of magnitude more intensive. Brainard says the Department of Environmental Quality cannot be completely trusted to regulate the oil industry, since in 2006 its mission statement was changed from protecting natural resources to promoting the industry of extracting resources. Brainard also took time during the presentation to explain the alternatives to fossil fuel energy, including advances being made in clean transportation and energy storage. (TD)
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