To: Sally Jewell and President Donald Trump

Ban Hydraulic Fracturing on All Public Lands, President Obama

Victory! The creator of this petition declared the campaign a success. You can still sign the petition to show support.

I am calling for an immediate ban on oil and gas fracking on all federal lands. The Bureau of Land Management's draft rules for fracking on public lands fail to protect the water we drink, the air we breathe, the climate we depend on, and the land many of us call home. This land is our land and should be managed for the good of the people, not corporate profits for the oil and gas industry.

Why is this important?

I recently sold my house in Glenwood Springs because it sits on the edge of the lower Roaring Fork River, threatened by possible hydraulic fracturing in the Thompson Divide. My property value plummeted since the doubling of oil and gas development around my home in the past ten years. Spills of "hydrocarbons" around Parachute Creek are still producing measures of benzene in that creek. I'm calling on President Obama to halt the industry's practice of hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas, until it can be done WITHOUT toxic chemicals.

Since moving to Colorado in 1991, I've seen the public lands I used to swim, bike, hike, and backcountry ski closed to me. No longer can I hike in areas off Grand Mesa or bike outside of Paonia due to gates erected to keep me out of the public lands my taxes support. I don't swim in the North Fork of the Gunnison for fear of water contamination from hydraulic fracturing in areas whose creeks feed this river. I used to lead my students through the back roads and trails of Grand Mesa, on skis, bikes, and on foot. The vistas were spectacular as we hiked the Crag Crest Trail or rode our bikes out to Lands End. Now, the industry's heavy equipemnt and haul trucks create bottle-necks along I-70 and county roads.

As a DJ on my community public radio station, KDNK, in Carbondale, Colorado, I played Woodie Guthrie's song, "This Land is Your Land" on the 4th of July this year. I dedicated the song to all my listeners, and to all the politicians who have lost sight of what democracy means. It inspired me to start this petition.

President Obama is about to issue his first major policy on fracking. The Bureau of Land Management has issued draft rules for fracking on 600 million acres of public and Indian lands, like those near me in Colorado. Unfortunately, these rules are straight out of the oil and gas industry's playbook. The provisions on disclosure of the toxic chemicals used in fracking were written by ExxonMobil and taken straight from model bills peddled by ALEC, the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council. And the draft rules do nothing to protect watersheds that provide drinking water to millions of people.

Close to 1,000,000 comments were submitted on August 23 to the Bureau of Land Management, and on August 22, anti-fracking leaders hand-delivered our comments to the BLM in Washington, D.C.

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