SHOCK CLAIM: Eco-Activists Say Fracking Is ‘Rape’

04.06.2015 | Surge Wire |

After years of failing to stem the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the U.S., some environmentalists have resorted to another tactic: claiming that fracking is tantamount to rape.

Environmental activist Sharon Wilson of Earthworks seems to have started a new rallying call against the oil and gas industry by claiming that a recently passed bill in the Texas state legislature was allowing “Texas fracking rape.”

“Fracking victims I have worked with describe it as a rape,” Wilson wrote in a blog post protesting a Texas bill that had passed out of committee called HB 40. “It is a violation of justice and it is despoiling the land. Victims usually suffer PTSD.”

“The oil & gas industry THROUGH our elected officials are shoving fracking down the throats of Texans,” Wilson said. “They are left dehumanized and completely helpless against the powerful oil & gas industry because they are in the way of profits. If feeling helpless to protect yourself against power is not a form of rape, what is?”

Wilson’s image of an oil rig burning a hole through the middle of Texas became a sort of rallying cry for Texas environmentalists angry that the state legislature passed a law to invalidate local fracking bans in towns like Denton.

Anti-fracking activists across Texas echoed Wilson’s claims that fracking was raping Texas. Earthworks, where Wilson works, retweeted the blog post, saying, “Our previous RT of @TXsharon was done advisedly. The Texas legislature is trying to pass bill to force city to be fracked against its will.”

Scream rape http://t.co/7zNM1HKVCt
@GarrettGraham1

— frackfreedenton (@frackfreedenton) March 30, 2015

One of the leaders of the Mansfield Gas Well Awareness, an environmental group that tried to get Mansfield to ban fracking, jumped on the bandwagon as well.

@drewdarby4Tx #Fracking Rape in #Texas pic.twitter.com/WAP5xBYyzM

— Q (@quijibo999) March 30, 2015

Tim Ruggiero, who heads up the group ShaleTest, tweeted, “Having Industry even at the table is like asking rapists/robbers their opinion on criminal law statutes.” ShaleTest’s research played a role in New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s decision to ban fracking last year.

@davequast @lachlan Prop destroyed by fracking,, threats, intimidation, lost 40% of prop, and 75% of value. Wife called it RAPE. She wrong?

— Tim Ruggiero (@TimRuggiero) April 2, 2015

But while Wilson and a handful of other activists have endorsed the idea that fracking is rape, other environmental groups have not joined in.

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