On Friday, May 29, a two and half year moratorium on the practice known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, became law in the state of Maryland – making Maryland the first state with significant gas reserves to put a legislative moratorium on fracking (under a pro-fracking Governor no less).
This victory was inspiring not just because of what it means for staving off the impacts of drilling to Marylanders’ health, air and water, and not just because of what it means for keeping two years’ worth of harmful greenhouse gas emissions from fracking out of our atmosphere. It was inspiring because of HOW it was won: this was a true grassroots victory.
Marylanders from the mountains to the shore have fought for years to protect our air, water, economy, and climate from the gas industry, and this year was no different: the grassroots movement behind this two and half year moratorium was unrelenting.

• Nearly 200 groups signed on in support of the campaign, launching a brand new website in January, and together flooding legislator’s offices with phone calls and emails, and organizing huge rallies in Annapolis month after month after month.
• Nearly 50 students descended on Annapolis in February, meeting with dozens of legislators to show them that future generations of Marylanders don’t want to live with the toxic legacy of fracking.
• More than 120 small businesses signed on in support of the campaign in less than two weeks in March, begging the question: is fracking really the right move for Western Maryland’s growing tourism and agriculture economy?
• Over 50 farmers and food artisans joined together to bring their message against fracking to lawmakers, hosting a first-ever Farmers Against Fracking reception in Annapolis.
• And, finally, when we passed the bill through both Maryland’s House and Senate with bipartisan, veto-proof majorities in April, sending it to Governor Hogan’s desk, his office received thousands of emails and hundreds of calls urging him to let it become law.

This victory belongs to the Marylanders who pushed every step of the way. And we won’t let up now.
The grassroots movement that flooded the General Assembly and Governor Hogan’s office with calls and emails this spring will only grow and get louder over the next two and a half years, building the movement it will take to make sure fracking never comes to Maryland.
We hope you’ll join us! Because we know that the gas industry isn’t giving up, as long as there are profits to be made. In fact, industry lobbyists are already maneuvering to put fracking on the fast-track as soon as the moratorium lifts in October 2017.
We can’t let that happen, so CCAN is hitting the ground running THIS SUMMER to build the movement for a permanent, statewide ban on fracking. Here’s what you can do right now to help:
Sign the petition: Add your name to the call for a permanent ban on fracking in Maryland, and then spread the word to your friends to build our movement.
Get involved with city and county-level efforts to ban fracking by emailing CCAN’s Maryland Campaign Coordinator Shilpa Joshi at shilpa@chesapeakeclimate.org. We’re building the momentum from the ground up by getting local municipalities to go on the record for banning fracking in Maryland!