September, 06 2016, 01:00pm EDT
Proposed Enbridge-Spectra Energy Merger is Bad News for Consumers and a Clean Energy Future
Statement of Wenonah Hauter, Executive Director, Food & Water Watch and Author of Frackopoly
WASHINGTON
"The proposed merger of Enbridge and Spectra Energy, two fossil fuel pipeline giants that already control much of the oil and gas flow throughout the country, would be bad news for energy consumers and terrible news for the clean energy revolution on which the future of our planet depends. The consolidation of these companies would only enhance the power of the oil and gas industry to manipulate the energy marketplace and encourage the continued use of fracking, the widely used fossil fuel extraction method that is inherently hazardous to human health and our environment.
"For more than 100 years, political influence peddling has facilitated the consolidation and control of our energy system by a handful of corporations and financial institutions. The proposed Enbridge-Spectra Energy merger is just the latest example of an evolving corporate energy monopoly - call it the Frackopoly - that is working to bind our society to a long future of dirty, dangerous fossil fuel extraction and consumption by aggressively developing an extensive network of pipelines and infrastructure projects that the oil and gas industry requires to survive and profit."
Wenonah Hauter is the author of Frackopoly: The Battle for the Future of Energy and the Environment. A history of the fracking industry, Frackopoly provides the public policy backstory and the history of deregulation that has turned our communities into fossil fuel sacrifice zones. The book also examines the powerful interests that have supported fracking, including leading environmental groups, and looks at the growing movement to ban fracking and keep fossil fuels in the ground.
Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.
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