While reading more about the fracking in our state’s Macellus Shale I came across two articles that highlight fracking’s penchant for creating societal friction.

Here is a an excerpt from a Lancaster Online article, where a panel of Pennsylvania Quakers shared their perspective of fracking and its toll on their community.

“First they frack the community, then then they frack the land,” she said, at one point tearfully. “If you’re familiar with the tragedy of the commons, that is what happened to us. We could not hold together as a community.

“They set neighbor against neighbor. Families break up, family farms break up, fights happen. The greed and outrage machines begin on both sides. Bullying arrives.”

Another article from thinkprogress.org is reporting that the, “oil and gas company, Hilcorp,  is trying to use a 1961 Pennsylvania law that would allow the company to bundle properties of people who don’t sign drilling leases with their neighbors who do, meaning that even landowners who don’t sign leases will be forced to allow drilling under their land if enough of their neighbors sign leases.”