DRBC VOTE CANCELLED! 
YOU DID IT. YOU WON.
All of your calls. All of your emails. Your pledges to swarm the DRBC in Trenton on November 21st.
All of your pressure and all of your strength.
You stopped fracking in the Delaware River Basin for now. You won this round. It is not a complete victory but it is a huge victory. You brought us back from the brink of total devastation.
What cancellation means: The DRBC doesn’t hold a meeting to vote down their regulations. I’ve only ever seen them vote to approve things. Which means they cancel the meeting if they no longer have 3 out of 5 commissioners voting in favor of fracking. Which is exactly what they have done. They don’t cancel meetings often, let alone votes. Your voice made a tremendous difference. I am humbled, proud and beyond thankful.
Of course, in my wildest dreams, I would have hoped that the DRBC would outlaw fracking in the River Basin permanently and forever and we could all have an icy Thanksgiving canoeing party down the Delaware next week. This is not a complete victory by any means. We still do not know when the DRBC will reschedule their meeting. Could be ten days, could be a month, could be a year. So stay tuned and stay ready. We will let you know. We will have many more battles before we stop fracking completely in the Delaware River Basin and throughout the nation and the world.
But this will still be the best thanksgiving I’ve had in my house for years, and I am incredibly thankful for all of you. You did this. It was you and the threat of you showing up in massive numbers that did this.
You saved the Delaware, for now.
The Governor of Delaware has said he will vote no on fracking the Delaware. Read the story here. But that couldn’t have done it all. Something MUST have happened in New Jersey or with the Obama Administration. It could have been all of your calls and emails to Joe Biden. We’ll find out more in the coming days.
This was a concerted effort by so many groups, in so many places. From the local organizations Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, Delaware Riverkeeper, Catskill Mountainkeeper, NYH2O, Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, Protecting our Waters and others to the Big Greens, EWG, Earth Justice, NRDC, FOod and Water Watch, Sierra Club, to the brilliant and passionate groups working for Climate Justice350.org, Peaceful Uprising and of course, Tar Sands Action.
We will continue to fight for the Delaware River. We will continue to make our voices heard to the Governors of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware and to President Obama and Vice President Biden.
We will have another email in a few hours or tomorrow morning with details and next steps. We will still hold trainings Nov 20th. We may refocus the rally on the 21st to keep up the momentum of our campaign.
We must turn our attention now to the rest of Pennsylvania, and the rest of the nation where fracking is still running rampant and we must make sure we keep up our vigilance and focus.
Please pledge along with me that you will continue to fight, that you will continue to show up to events and that you will continue to follow the next steps of this amazing coalition that has assembled to fight fracking.
We will still be holding our 1st Amendment peaceful action trainings on November 20th. I am encouraging you to attend. I will be attending the New York training myself. We need this training and we will re-focus on a new place, perhaps even on November 21. Please stay tuned.
But for now, enjoy this. And this Thanksgiving, be just a bit more thankful for yourself and all the others who have worked so hard in this phase of our campaign to save the Delaware.
All my love and respect.
Josh Fox
and the whole GASLAND team
MESSAGE FROM JOSH FOX: WE WON ON THE KEYSTONE XL! NOW LET’S SAVE THE DELAWARE AND STOP FRACKING
IN ITS TRACKS ON NOVEMBER 21st –
Watch the video here!by braunworks
Message from Josh Fox:
Dear Fracktivists-
So many of us were working incredibly hard to stop the Keystone XL pipeline and we won this round. I got arrested in front of the White House. Almost all of my friends got arrested in front of the White House. My mom got arrested in front of the White House. And we stopped the pipeline for now. We did it. We owe a huge thanks to Bill McKibben and TarSandsAction and all of their brilliant organizers.
Now we can do the same to stop fracking in the Delaware River basin.
We’re not just going to sit back and enjoy victory are we?
We are going to keep up the momentum and get ready for November 21st!
I was on Democracy Now! today – take a moment to check out the video from that appearance:
We’ve come a long way in the fight against fracking. The flaming faucets in GASLAND has been seen by upwards of 40 million people in 20 countries. Our awareness campaign has worked. A recent study shows that 4 out of 5 Americans say that they are concerned about the effect of fracking on drinking water.
Our most important stand is less than two weeks away.
On November 21st the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) will vote to approve a plan that will allow for 20,000 or more fracked gas wells in the Delaware River Basin. We need you to come out and protest the vote in huge numbers.
Because this moment is so important, I made a new video, my first video addressing fracking since GASLAND. You can watch it here:
The crucial decision to frack or not to frack the Delaware is in the hands of President Obama and the Governors of Delaware and New York. We need you to take charge and push them to do the right thing.
I have travelled all over this world, in over 30 states in the USA, to Africa, to Europe, Asia and Australia and one thing is clear: Fracking is not only one of the most destructive forms of extreme energy development, creating water contamination, horrific and hazardous air pollution and a health crisis, it is a world wide scourge that pushes us farther away from the renewable energy future that we need.
Now the fight comes back to my home, the Delaware River Basin, where it started for me. But this fight isn’t about me. It’s about the drinking water for 16 million people that the Delaware River provides.
THE CRUCIAL VOTE:
The Delaware River Basin Commission is an interstate body with five voting members, the Governors of New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware and New Jersey and the Obama Administration as represented by the Army Corps of Engineers. Three out of five votes will either pass or reject the plan to frack the Delaware River.
It seems clear that the Governors of New Jersey and Pennsylvania will vote to allow fracking on a huge scale in the River Basin, which is why we need all three remaining votes in order to prevail.
Like the massive actions these past few months against Tar Sands development and the Keystone XL pipeline, this decision will be a “watershed” moment for President Obama and a must win for us fighting against extreme energy development.
Not only is the Delaware River the source of drinking water for 16 million people (or 5% of Americans), it is a designated Wild and Scenic river, a tourist destination for 5.4 million people a year and a national treasure. The proposed plan to frack the Delaware would forever industrialize and contaminate this precious and currently pristine watershed. 20,000 fracked gas wells would be an industrialization that the fragile river basin would never recover from.
We are asking you to do two things:
1) Make calls. 2) Come join us in an amazing protest effort on November 21st.
MAKE CALLS RIGHT NOW:
Call the Army Corps of Engineers to urge them to vote no fracking in the Delaware River Basin. Tell them you will hold President Obama accountable for the vote and make it clear that you know that it is his decision.
703 697 4672 Leave a message for Jo Ellen Darcy, Obama’s rep on the DRBC
Call Governor Jack Markell of Delaware. Delaware has been sitting on the fence on fracking. We need them clearly and unequivocally voting no. Tell him to vote no fracking on the upcoming DRBC vote.
518-474-8390PROTEST on NOVEMBER 21st in Trenton, N.J.
When: November 21, 8 am
Where: Patriots Theater at the War Memorial, 1 Memorial Drive Trenton, N.J.
Coming from another location? Bus sign up HERE.
PRE ACTION TRAINING: November 2oth, New York City and Trenton. Delaware Riverkeeper Network will host a training session in lawful, peaceful, first amendment activity.
For more information and to sign up for Trenton, Click HERE. For NYC, Click HERE.
AND just for a shot in the arm, here is a special statement from Bill McKibben sent to me just two days ago:
“We’re obviously deep in the trenches in Keystone XL pipeline fight, which has galvanized the whole country. But it’s not just the pipe we’re fighting, it’s the carbon it carries. And that carbon–that extreme energy, the second round of fossil fuels now that the easy stuff is gone–doesn’t just come from tarsands. It also comes from removing mountaintops for coal, and from drilling deep under the ocean–and, urgently, from fracking. We’ve simply got to somehow slow the rush to this new and dangerous technology, which promises to overwhelm the atmosphere with global warming gases. As once before in American history, the Delaware will play a crucial role.. “
WE CAN AND WILL CONTINUE TO MAKE HISTORY!
See you Monday the 21st!
All my love, support and respect,
Josh Fox
Leave a Reply