Glen Rock November 21, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 7 Environmentalists petition Garrett on fracking by John Koster Constituents of New Jersey’s 5th Congressional District gathered at U.S. Congressman Scott Garrett’s Glen Rock office last week to deliver a new report from Food & Water Watch, a consumer advocacy organization that takes aim at the oil and gas industry’s claim that fracking and drilling for natural gas and tight oil will deliver U.S. energy security. The group of community and business leaders delivered the report along with hundreds of signed petitions from constituents calling on Congressman Garrett to oppose any legislation that would allow U.S. natural gas to be extracted from public lands and exported overseas to maximize the profits of multinational oil and gas corporations. The visit was designed to encourage strong leadership from the congressman and to educate the community about the industries’ real motives behind their aggressive push to extract and export domestic energy resources. Fracking, or horizontal hydraulic fracturing, is a controversial practice of natural gas extraction. The technique is seen by many environmentalists as a danger to drinking water and the environment through contamination of ground water. The Food & Water Watch report, “U.S. Energy Inse- curity: Why Fracking for Oil and Natural Gas is a False Solution” reveals that, as of Oct. 26, 2012. the Department of Energy has received 19 proposals to export liquefied natural gas. If approved, these projects would allow the oil and gas industry to sell huge amounts of natural gas overseas—as much as 40 percent of current U.S. consumption. Even if the industry’s vision holds true, Food & Water Watch calculates that plans to create increased demand for U.S. natural gas primarily through increased exports translate to a supply of just 50 years and would require drilling hundreds of thousands of new shale gas wells, rendering the U.S. dependent on dirty fossil fuels for several more decades while sacrificing our health and communities to the industry’s thirst for profits. The full report is available at www.foodandwaterwatch.org/reports/us-energy-insecurity. “We’re not asking the congressman to change his position,” said Matt Smith, an organizer for the Food and Water (continued on page 15) Environmentalists who presented the petition to Congressman Scott Garrett’s Glen Rock office included Leslie Kameny of Glen Rock, Matt Smith of Wanaque, Naomi Gamorra of Glen Rock, Cindy Mehallow of Glen Rock, Tina Smith of Wanaque, Ed Smith of Wanaque, and Tom Von Lindern of Oakland.