To the Editor:

I applaud the initiative of Princeton Council to implement a ban on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) within the boundaries of Princeton. Adoption of this ordinance would send a resounding signal to other communities in New Jersey and elsewhere and fortify efforts in the state legislature to pass a more comprehensive moratorium.

However, as presently conceived, this proposal is only a partial answer to the problem. The residents of Princeton remain deeply reliant — as are people throughout other parts of the country — on natural gas supplies. Under such circumstances, a localized ban on fracking simply displaces the social and environmental costs of extraction onto other jurisdictions that provide the energy resources on which we rely. This is an unambiguous case of the notorious NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) syndrome. While presumably not its intention, the Council is in effect relegating the adverse impacts of the Princeton’s energy use to other locales that lack similar inclination or capability to resist. We are moving to other places the hazards that we are not disposed to tolerate in our own community. This is not sustainability, but rather cost-shifting.

If the Council ultimately contends that hydraulic fracturing is precarious and incompatible with our values (as the practice arguably is), it should not only shut down opportunities for natural gas extraction within Princeton, but commit itself as well to development of a complementary transition plan to reduce our dependency on fracked natural gas coming from distant production sites. This plan would in the first instance entail the adoption of more stringent energy-efficiency standards for new construction as a way to reduce aggregate demand for wintertime heating.

Success on this front could conceivably inspire confidence to confront the poisoned chalice of fossil fuels by redesigning public infrastructure to facilitate non-motorized modes of mobility and by creating more extensive options for the proximate sourcing of food.

The local fracking ban marks an important first step, but it is only when comprehensive measures are enacted that the Council will have fully discharged its obligations as a leader on this issue.

Maurie J. Cohen

Morgan Place

Editor’s Note: The author is director of the Program in Science, Technology, and Society at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and editor of the journal Sustainability: Science, Practice, and Policy.