Stephen Cleghorn, a Pennsylvania farmer, knows the ins and outs of the natural gas extraction process called hydraulic fracturing. He’s studied the risks and dangers. He’s witnessed the damage it’s wreaked on the environment. He’s commiserated with fellow Pennsylvanians who have gotten sick from contaminated water and whose animals have died from toxic fracking fluids.
Soon after hearing about a geological formation known as the Marcellus Shale about six years ago, Cleghorn immersed himself in the topic. Eventually, through a self-education process, Cleghorn concluded that that the method used to extract natural gas from the shale rock and the associated industrialization of communities across Pennsylvania posed serious risks to air, water, public health and the welfare of animals.
It was through these discoveries that Cleghorn realized it was his duty to prevent gas companies from ever operating on his 50-acre farm in Jefferson County, Pa., or anywhere near his property.
“I need them to understand that they don’t dare come here. They don’t actually know what I’m capable of. Because I’ll fight them to the death if I have to,” Cleghorn told Press Action in a Feb. 21 interview. “They’ll stay off of this place. And I’ll use methods they won’t understand because they’ll be nonviolent, they’ll be loving, they’ll be embracing of them as human beings but telling them you can’t do this and if you do it, you’re going to suffer the consequences of being exposed for what you are.”
After watching with dismay the workings of a corrupt regulatory system, Cleghorn realized that government officials at the state and federal levels had no intention of slowing down or stopping the gas drilling boom in Pennsylvania—what the gas industry fondly calls the “shale gas revolution.”
TVNL Comment: Watch this important video of Stephen Cleghorn at a Don't Drill the Delaware rally.