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2010 Peoples Oil and Gas Summit Co-sponsors

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40 organizations from across the country have co-sponsored the 2010 National People's Oil and Gas Summit. These groups include:

Find out more about some of the Summit co-sponsors and their work on oil and gas issues

Some of our co-sponsors provided us with a few more details about their work. You can read about them below.

Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition

BRSC's work on the gas issue focuses on education & policy. Board chair Chris Burger serves on the Broome County Legislatures Gas Task Force as well as New York State Sierra Club Gas Drilling Task Force. Chris is founding member of the Coalition to Protect New York. He gives frequent public presentations throughout the state. Both Chris and Vice-chair Adam Flint make frequent appearances in the regional media on this issue. Both are founding members of the New York Gas Coordination Group. Adam advises student and community groups in the greater Binghamton area on organizing and media strategy. He also works with OGAP's Cleanwaternotdirtydrilling.org campaign. Our partner organization, New York Residents Against Drilling (NYRAD.org), spun off from BRSC to focus on grassroots organizing, advocacy and education in the region.

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Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy

is an all volunteer grassroots organization intended to give residents a voice regarding unconventional shale gas extraction . At catskillcitizens.org we provide a current Newsroom, a comprehensive Learn More section and advocacy campaigns. We also engage in educational outreach and lobbying.

New York State and the DRBC heading in the wrong direction

In September, the Delaware River Basin Commission made it clear that it would go ahead and issue draft regulations for drilling in the Basin without conducting a cumulative impact study and without waiting for the results of the ongoing EPA study on hydraulic fracturing and drinking water safety. (Draft regulations are now expected as early as November or December.) In putting fracking ahead of public safety the DRBC is just the latest regulatory body to give precedence to special interests over public welfare.

Ten million Americans, through their elected representatives in the New York City Council and the Philadelphia City Council, have already called on the DRBC to delay drilling pending further study. Add your voice to the ten million-demand that drilling regulations in this critical watershed be based on real science, not political pressure. Take Action

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Food and Water Watch

Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainably produced. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping shared resources under public control.

Two recent efforts have worked against risky and environmentally harmful practices of the oil and gas industry. We have worked in partnership with local groups in New York, Pennsylvania and other states across the country to stop the rapid expansion of the natural gas industry. Read our report Not So Fast Natural Gas: Why Accelerating Risky Drilling Threatens America's Water.

Our Spill the Truth campaign highlights how BP's long-term, reckless disregard of safety is threatening the Gulf with a spill many times larger than Horizon at its BP Atlantis platform. Strong evidence reveals that the Atlantis platform is a disaster waiting to happen, and other platforms may be operating unsafely too. Last year, Food & Water Watch learned from a whistleblower that, as a contractor for BP, he discovered the Atlantis platform was operating without proper safety documentation. For these reasons, we are calling upon the Obama Administration to immediately close down Atlantis until it can be proven safe and to conduct a review of all deepwater platforms in operation. Offshore drilling operations must be strongly regulated to ensure the safety of our food and water resources.

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PennEnvironment

PennEnvironment is a statewide, citizen-based environmental advocacy organization. Our professional staff combines independent research, practical ideas and tough-minded advocacy to overcome the opposition of powerful special interests and win real results for Pennsylvania's environment. PennEnvironment draws on 30 years of success in tackling our state's top environmental problems.

PennEnvironment is working to preserve and protect Pennsylvania's precious waterways, open spaces, farmlands and public health from the unwanted and dangerous effects of Marcellus Shale gas drilling. We are working to educate and activate the general public, inform the media, and collaborate with groups and individuals in an effort to pass strong policies and regulations that protect our environment and public health from gas drilling.

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Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Water and Air

PACWA has been busy spreading public awareness throughout the Northcentral and Northwest regions of PA. On July 25, 2010 we had a meeting in DuBois titled "The Truth About Marcellus Gas Drilling", which featured Ben Price of CELDF and Bill Belitskus of Allegheny Defense Project, which had more than 100 attendees. On September 24, 2010 we held a public information meeting in Brookville titled "Protect and Prepare for the Natural Gas Boom", which was attended by more than 50 people. For this event we chartered an airplane and flew over the Moshannon State Forest and took aerial photos, to show at the meeting, of the destruction and deforestation taking place due to gas drilling. (Photos can be viewed on PACWA's website)

In September, Jenny Lisak met with a Radio Canada reporter for an interview to be broadcast on Canadian Public Radio. And in November she plans to meet with a British Television reporter for a story to be aired in Great Brittain. We have written many letters to the editor of local newspapers and even been published in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette.

We have members in attendence at all DuBois City Council meetings, various township and borough meeings, Jefferson County Marcellus Gas Task Force meetings, and C.A.R.E.S. public information meetings in Elk County. These members have been responsible for increased demand for local zoning ordinances to restrict drilling in these areas.

Members of PACWA attended Rally days at the Capitol Rotunda in Harrisburg in October and the Statewide Conference on Marcellus/Natural Gas Drilling in Harrisburg. We will have members in attendance at the Marcellus Protest in Pittsburgh on November 3rd as well. PACWA members have gone to great lengths to personally meet with Rep Sam Smith, Rep Bud George, Senate Candidate Sestak, and many other politicians.

Later this month PACWA members are teaming with other members of the community to present a public screening of Gasland in Dubois. We have a Facebook page with over 200 members and an website that is updated regularly with events and news stories. PACWA initiated a Google Groups forum (North Central PA Forum) for concerned citizen in the Northcentral tier of the state.

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San Juan Citizens Alliance (SJCA)

SJCA has been working on social and environmental justice issues in the San Juan Basin of southwest Colorado and northwest New Mexico since 1986. As part of that work, SJCA actively advocates for regulation of the oil and gas industry as that development impacts our communities on both public and private lands. This includes engaging with federal (BLM), state (Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission; New Mexico Oil Conservation Division), and local (county governments) regulatory agencies tasked with oversight of the industry.

In Colorado, SJCA has fought development of federal minerals in the HD Mountains and is currently involved in shaping the Supplemental EIS being written by USFS/BLM for development of the Gothic Shale; in New Mexico, our federal work has been aimed getting the BLM Farmington NM office to be accountable for the automatic sign-offs on gas development which has become its custom and culture.

In both states, SJCA has been heavily involved in the writing of state regulations aimed at increasing protections to our air, land, water and surface owners' rights.

Locally, SJCA continues to advocate for residents faced with both ongoing impacts of coal bed methane development and the increasing reluctance of county government to exercise its land use authority and enforce its oil and gas regulations.

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The Wyoming Outdoor Council

The Wyoming Outdoor Council (WOC) has worked since 1967 to protect Wyoming's environment and quality of life for future generations.

The Wyoming Outdoor Council seeks to maintain balance between protecting our state's natural heritage and developing its energy resources. The Council works to ensure that all types of energy development are regulated carefully so other values of these lands--such as critical wildlife habitat, fisheries, and recreational opportunities--are preserved for future generations.

The Outdoor Council believes some places in Wyoming must remain free from industrialization while others should be developed using the best technology available to safeguard our healthy communities.

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