大象传媒

As rural deposits of fossil fuel grow fewer and farther between, extractive industries are increasingly siting their operations over the next best location: suburban neighborhoods. According to the U.S. Energy Information Agency, the Marcellus shale formation beneath parts of the Midwest and Appalachia contains literally trillions of cubic feet of natural gas鈥攖he most accessible of which often lies beneath residential neighborhoods.

Environmental injustice has come as a shock for many of Broadview Height鈥檚 mostly white, middle-class population.

Broadview Heights, population 19,400, is just south of Cleveland. The small town seems to typify Midwestern suburbia: tree-lined streets, vaguely familiar housing developments of recent vintage, and a median household income of over $70,000鈥攕ignificantly more than the state average of $45,000. Residents include former Clevelanders seeking a more peaceful place to live, where raccoons, deer, and wild turkey can be seen in their backyards.

But Broadview Heights is in the midst of a transformation. In 2004, the Ohio legislature passed a law effectively stripping local municipalities of their right to regulate the permitting, spacing, and location of oil and gas wells. This led to a spate of small fracking operations cropping up inside neighborhoods, which in turn has led to the flight of some residents. More than 70 gas wells have been drilled here since 2005鈥攊n some instances without the notification of residents living just 600 feet away, according to .

鈥淚 think this is a bold move for these companies, to drill in suburbs, but they feel empowered to do it,鈥� says Elisa Young, founder of the anti-coal activist group MeigsCAN in Meigs County, Ohio. 鈥淭he landmen quietly come in, get all their ducks in a row, and then they tell you, 鈥楾his is a done deal. You can鈥檛 do anything about it.鈥欌��

Young notes that environmental injustice has come as a shock for many of Broadview Height鈥檚 mostly white, middle-class population. For many of them, she says, 鈥淚t鈥檚 their first experience at seeing how these industries really operate.鈥�

New shared experiences

All of this means that Broadway Heights residents are now sharing an experience with the marginalized poor and with the residents of Indian reservations, where people have been dealing with similar situations for decades.

But, not least because the people of Broadway Heights have the means to leave, there are some important limitations to that comparison. 鈥淢ost native communities really maintain a connection to their land, and there isn鈥檛 the ability or desire to just pick up and move when things change,鈥� Young says.

鈥淎ll it鈥檚 going to take is for the energy companies to pick on the wrong person.鈥�

That鈥檚 not to say that a connection to the land is unheard-of among non-native people. As a 鈥渘inth generation Appalachian,鈥� Young says she was raised with the idea that 鈥渆very nook and cranny of our family鈥檚 land is our history, our heritage. It鈥檚 not so easy to walk away from that.鈥�

It鈥檚 not just participants in Ohio鈥檚 anti-fracking movement who are talking about the new shared ground between indigenous people and middle-class whites. Anna Willow, an anthropologist at Ohio State University, is currently working on an ethnographic study that explores the social and cultural implications of fracking in suburban neighborhoods.

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Based on a series of interviews conducted in 2012, the study focuses on how fracking affects Ohio residents鈥� feelings about their livelihood and community. While compiling her research, Willow鈥攚hose previous work was with Canadian tribal people familiar with industries like mining and logging on their ancestral land鈥攏oticed an interesting trend.

鈥淎 lot of the statements coming from these interviewees,鈥� she said, 鈥渟ounded similar to what we鈥檝e been hearing from indigenous groups for hundreds of years now: expressions of fear, vulnerability, and disempowerment as the industries move in.鈥�

New alliances

The spread of fracking into suburbs might seem like a source of despair, but some are hoping that it could lead to bigger and better things by linking groups together into unusual alliances.

Geraldine Thomas-Flurer of the Yinke Dene Alliance, a coalition of tribes from British Columbia that formed in opposition to Enbridge鈥檚 proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline, says that the widespread push against exploitative resource extraction in North America鈥� such as the Tar Sands Blockade, protests against the Keystone XL Pipeline, and movements to stop fracking鈥攈as forged collaborations unlike anything that had existed before.

鈥淸The majority of] British Columbia is opposed to the pipeline鈥攊ndigenous and non-indigenous together,鈥� she said, citing a February poll by Insights West that found 61 percent of adults oppose the project. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the first time in my history that I鈥檝e seen these communities working side by side, and I鈥檓 happy about that鈥攚e鈥檙e not alone in this.鈥�

What鈥檚 happening in British Columbia is unprecedented, she says, and bodes well for other parts of the world where similar clashes are taking place. 鈥淚t鈥檚 clear that to fight these industries, everyone needs to speak up and support the movement. It鈥檚 not a First Nations issue. It鈥檚 a human issue.鈥�

Kari Matsko, director of a grassroots initiative in Ohio called the People鈥檚 Oil and Gas Collaborative, agrees. The more people who are directly affected by fracking, she says, the stronger the resistance becomes.

鈥淩egardless of status or demographic, people are experiencing firsthand the effects of this industry,鈥� Matsko says. 鈥淎ll it鈥檚 going to take is for the energy companies to pick on the wrong person.鈥�

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