Ian Somerhalder Supports Anti-Fracking

Ian Somerhalder Supports Anti-Fracking Movement              

 Good to see transplants return home to fight on behalf of their city or town.  Here, ian Somerhalder does just that at his native state, Louisana, contemplates a hydrolic fracturing well. 

This issue brings a lot of emotion with it.  Supporters like domestic energy and the jobs it creates  Opponents don't trust the technology as to long-term environmental and health risks, and the drilling uses millions of gallons of water and risk, we believe, further damage--manmade--to the Earth's core.


What do you think?

                          

          

by Brianne Hogan                  
                              

Actor and activist, Ian Somerhalder, is criticizing a proposal to set up a fracking well in St. Tammany in his native state of Louisiana.



Somerhalder, who’s originally from Covington, Louisiana, attended attended a public meeting Wednesday at Lakeshore High School (he both Instagrammed and tweeted the event and his support), which allowed the permit hearing to be held on the road and open to the public (normally meetings are held in Baton Rouge). A group called the Concerned Citizens of St. Tammany had asked the state’s Office of Conservation to hold the hearing. 

For those who need a refresher, fracking — or hydraulic fracturing – is the process of extracting natural gas from shale rock layers deep within the earth. It’s controversial because the process uses huge amounts of water that must be transported to the site at a significant environmental cost. Also, there are concerns that potentially carcinogenic chemicals used may escape and contaminate groundwater around the fracking site.

“The fracking process does not lend itself to being in an environment that is considered a wetland,” Somerhalder told WGNO News.  “The aquifer that feeds this area is the same aquifer that is threatened by hydraulic fracking.”



According to Page Six, during a brief interim to fix feedback on the school’s public address system, Somerhalder even showed teens a poster about fracking. Apparently there were a lot more teens than unexpected at the meeting, thanks to Somerhalder. But, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.



“And I like the fact that these young kids are here,” Rick Franzo, president of the Concerned Citizens of St. Tammany said. “You know why?  Because St Tammany Parish will belong to them in the future.”



Somerhalder, who’s always been extremely vocal for his love of animals, didn’t mind, either.

“These young, incredible individuals are our future,” he said.