Fracking In 2009, the Dryden Resource Awareness Coalition or DRAC was created by Dryden residents in response to the threat of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in their town. Dryden is a small rural city in upstate New York. In 2010, DRAC members gathered petition signatures from other residents to request that the town board establish a ban on fracking in Dryden. Eventually, their hard work paid off and the ordinance was approved. In 2011, Anschutz Exploration Corporation, a privately-owned company, sued the town of Dryden, hoping to force the town to accept industrial gas drilling. After the New York State Supreme Court ruled in favor of Dryden, the case was then heard by an appellate court but with a new plaintiff, Norse Energy. The court unanimously ruled in favor of Dryden (The Story of Dryden). What about fracking is causing such a battle between small towns and large companies? Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is a method of getting natural gas and oil from shale rock underground. In fracking, companies drill down into the earth. Then, a high pressure mixture of water, sand, and chemicals are shot at the rock to release the gas inside. The whole process gives fossil fuel companies access to previously inaccessible resources of oil and natural gas. Fracking is an important issue because companies see the value of the access to natural gas for the …show more content…
Another industry fracking affects is electricity generation. Electricity plants have somewhat switched from coal to natural gas as natural gas prices dropped—due to increased supply. Therefore, “as natural gas production has increased over the past five years, so has its consumption within the US” (Hassett). If fracking is suddenly approved in a state, land prices will raise and therefore positively influence all related landowners’