Common Dreams, By: Jon Queally, 08/22/2013

'From California, to Colorado, Pennsylvania to New York, and everywhere in between, the public understands that fracking poses an immediate threat to our water, air, health and climate, and they’re fighting back.' A day before the peroid of public comment ends on the US government's proposed plan to open public lands to industrial hydraulic gas fracturing, a coalition of anti-fracking and public interest groups descended on Washington, DC Thursday calling for a commitment from President Obama to reject the proposal and ban the practice.

Anti-fracking campaigners hold signs in front of the White House on Thursday. "Yes We Can... Ban Fracking," the collection of environmental, conservation, and health advocacy groups told the president, borrowing the famous phrase from Obama's 2008 campaign. The petition, which attracted nearly 650,000 signatures, argues that the dangerous practice—which would contaminate vital water resources, threaten public health, and add to the planetary crisis of climate change—should not be allowed and banned outright.