Environmentalists are turning to Twitter to kill off energy legislation that they say will increase fracking and harm the climate.
The pressure campaign comes as House and Senate lawmakers begin preliminary conference meetings this week on a comprehenisve energy bill, ironing out differences between the two chambers, to send it to President Obama’s desk.
The Senate and House passed versions of the bill earlier in the spring. Environmental groups want provisions in the bill removed that would expedite the Energy Department’s review process for liquified natural gas export facilities.
Environmentalists argue that the facilities act as an incentive for increased shale oil and gas drilling using hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. They say the fossil fuels should be left in the ground because of the harm they cause to the climate by warming the Earth’s atmosphere. Many scientists blame greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels for raising the Earth’s temperature, resulting in sea-level rise and increased drought.
The Center for Biological Diversity is leading the hash-tag campaign to get lawmakers to scrap the measures.
“Senate Energy Bill S.2012 makes it easier for companies to dig more dirty fossil fuels from the ground and ship them overseas, inflicting fracking pollution on our communities and worsening the climate crisis,” in an email to supporters, providing them with an list of pre-fabricated tweets to cut and paste.
“We need everyone to raise a voice against this bill. Send these tweets right now calling on our senators to stand up for our climate future by saying ‘Frack No!’ to Senate Energy Bill S2012,” the email reads. The tweets target top Senate Democrats, including Maria Cantwell of Washington, who is the top Democrat on the energy committee, Chuck Schumer of New York, Elizabeth Warren of New Hampshire, Ben Cardin of Maryland and Barbara Boxer of California.
