Independent Brenda Hutchinson is calling on her opponent Republican Daryl Cowles (West Virginia House of Delegates 58) to join with her in opposing plans by Democratic Governor Earl Ray Tomblin to allow hydraulic fracturing for natural gas (fracking) under the Ohio River and on public lands.
The Associated Press reported last week that Tomblin’s administration opened bids to drill under the northern section of the Ohio River, which serves as a natural border with Ohio. “Officials said that other river tracts could be next, and a wildlife management area is under consideration,” the AP reported.
“When I read the article in the paper yesterday about plans to allow for fracking under the Ohio River and on public lands, I was alarmed,” Hutchinson said. “Didn’t West Virginia’s economy just take a hit in January when the drinking water of 300,000 people in January was contaminated by a chemical spill?”
“Governor Tomblin might try and reassure the public that we have strong enough regulations and enforcement to safeguard against an accident under the Ohio River or on public lands, but after the January chemical spill and given the fossil fuel industry’s influence over our government, who will believe him? I don’t.”
“The Ohio River provides drinking water to millions of people,” Hutchinson said. “If the river is contaminated as the result of a fracking accident, the lives of millions will be adversely affected as will the economy of West Virginia.”
Hutchinson has called for a moratorium on mountaintop removal mining and fracking.
“I have visited Wetzel County and Kayford Mountain and seen first hand the devastation these practices have on West Virginia,” Hutchinson said. “We need a new deal for West Virginia that will move our state away from the destructive practices of the fossil fuel industry that threaten our beautiful mountains, our rivers and our people.”