November 25, 2013
At this moment in time when almost every major player in Illinois has capitulated to intimidation from the oil and gas industry, SAFE and other grassroots groups will hold the line against fracking. We won’t waffle, change our position, or be ambiguous, because we have known from the start that industry, and government, cannot be trusted to keep families in Illinois safe from the dangers of fracking. We know that “regulation” is another word for “allowing” and that the Illinois state government has a wretched history of not keeping its promises to families in the line of extraction technologies.
The proposed fracking rules are only the latest installment of this pattern, showing how blatantly biased the agency is against fulfilling its duty to protect people and the planet, not industry.
In the milieu of fracking frenzy, SAFE and other grassroots groups have the opportunity to be true leaders, because we know who we are and what we stand for. We stand for the health and dignity of the families of Illinois, and for our planet, and we will not waiver from this point. While larger, well-paid environmental groups struggle to find themselves in the midst of this storm, the ordinary, unpaid volunteers of SAFE don’t need to find a compass. Our compass already points toward Earth, and most importantly, toward the residents of Illinois.