Religious leaders enter debate over hydraulic fracturing

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AP) — Bishops, nuns and rabbis have joined the environmental and social debate over natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale region.

Some are signing protest letters and using church publications to question the process of hydraulic fracturing — also known as fracking. Others have leased mineral rights and are using the money to fund their religious and charitable missions, The Associated Press found.

Aside from questions about the environmental impact of gas drilling, some religious leaders are also asking whether the bounty from the resource is benefiting a broad range of society, or just a few.

“We have people’s lives who are being blessed or adversely affected by this,” said Bishop Thomas Bickerton of Pittsburgh, who leads more than 800 United Methodist congregations and 187,000 members in western Pennsylvania, where major drilling is taking place.

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2011/07/religious_leaders_enter_debate.html