I was glad to see how much attention my last piece at EcoWatch and HuffingtonPost received, even if some of it was negative.
CapitolFax engaged in the tsk tsk finger wagging the statehouse old guard always do against any group that gets too aggressive with actions. A Forbes blogger didn't care for my use of the Hunger Games to explain what people mean when they talk about southern Illinois being an extraction sacrifice zone. CapitolFax also called that "over the top."
The comparison obviously struck a chord, but neither writer offered any argument as to why I'm wrong. I suspect the concept of how extraction-based economies breed poverty is too far outside the usual talking points about coal, oil and gas creating jobs. But it's pretty simple. No region that bases its economy on coal mining has ever had lasting prosperity. West Virginia, eastern Kentucky, and southern Illinois have all remained poor for a reason.
But, getting to the title of this blog post, I responded in an Illinois Times article to some arguments pro-fracking lobbyists have been using lately.
Denzler called Illinois’ proposed regulations the “strongest environmental regulations in the country.”Unfortunately, the four green groups who supported the regulatory law, which helps companies finance large scale fracking operations in Illinois, are repeating the same talking points about how tough it is. So far, I have yet to see any of those organizations publicly correct the politicians and industry lobbyists who use big green support for the law to greenwash fracking and marginalize the fracktivist movement enviro groups claim to represent.
Reynolds is not impressed.
“Claiming to have the toughest fracking law is like being the fastest turtle,” he said. “It doesn’t mean much given the competition. No one has shown that regulation can make fracking safe.”
This has been a problem in southern Illinois, where politicians claim Sierra Club support for the law means regulation will protect the environment, and in the legislature, where attempts to fix the fracking law were contradicted and undermined this year by four groups bragging about how strong it is. Defending their decision to back a weak law and their respectability with the statehouse establishment appear to be bigger priorities for pro-fracking greens.