Mark Ruffalo fights natural gas drilling in New York

Actor urges lawmakers to close environmental loopholes and increase oversight of industry.

Wed, Aug 04 2010 at 2:27 PM

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Celebs, Shale Gas, Fracking

Photo: ZUMA Press

In a new article on The Huffington Post, Mark Ruffalo explains how allowing gas companies to drill in New York state could lead to easy money — and terrible environmental consequences.

"A few weeks ago, I drove about an hour from my home in Upstate New York to Dimock, Pennsylvania," the actor writes. "Dimock is a tiny town in the midst of green fields and sloping ridgelines — the kind of bucolic countryside that drew me to this region over a decade ago. But now Dimock represents a future I dread."

Ruffalo goes on to mention such consequences as contaminated water, radioactive holding ponds, loud machinery, and an industrial site where once was a quiet farm. At fault is a loophole in the Safe Drinking Water Act that exempts the chemically heavy process of hydraulic fracking — which companies use to extract the gas — from regulation.

"This isn't even a case like the Deepwater Horizon disaster in which BP disregarded the rules," he adds. "There simply aren't any fracking rules for companies to follow. The results speak for themselves."

While Pennsylvania currently allows drilling, New York state has a moratorium in place for new permits to allow more time to review the environmental impacts of fracking — something Ruffalo would like to extend.

"I have traveled to Albany to talk to elected officials. It has taken many trips, many conversations, many citizen activists, but I have seen the tide slowly turning. Some politicians are starting to realize that letting industry run roughshod over the state may not be good for New York. There is increasing support from both political parties for a bill pending in the statehouse that would place a moratorium on natural gas drilling in New York until May 15, 2011."

Ruffalo, who will play the new Incredible Hulk for Joss Whedon's upcoming "The Avengers," lives on a small farm in Sullivan County in New York.

You can learn more about the harmful effects of natural gas fracking here.

via The Huffington Post

Also on MNN: Understanding the fracking process and its environmental impact

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Comments: 2

Bill Nov 10 2010 at 11:05 AM

Mar Ruffalo may not like development but the fraccing is not causing the problem. Fraccing affects deep zones where drinking water does not exist. Poor drilling and cementing practices can cause migration from deep oil and gas zones upwards into shallow drinking water zones. I believe this is the problem in most cases. That said we need gas and other natural resources and in fact people actually make money and a living out of doing this. So who is Mark to say how people make a living. The car

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he used to drive to PA used gasoline produced from someones backyard...not his God forbid. The gas or oil he will use to heat his house in NY had to come from somewhere...so it is OK to get gas and oil from some faraway "crappy" area so he can enjoy it in a "kind of bucolic countryside that drew me to this region over a decade ago". Stop shooting your mouth off and shutting down all development without thinking about the facts. Total hypocrisy and self-centered article. What about the people who own the land and want a little extra income from drilling,do they not count? After drilling a very small footprint is left and the industrial sounds go away.

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Luis Sep 05 2010 at 10:21 PM

The state of Wyoming has the best drinking water you can find and they drill for gas and oil for the past 50 years and MARK RUFFALO make 450,000 a SHOW you make your choice please don't listed to a Mark Ruffalo