The MoveOn.org Fracking Fighter petition to ban fracking in Illinois got off to a fast start! It's just shy of the first 500 signatures. The comments people add are fun to read so here are some of my favorites, with each signer's town instead of their name because internet trolls.

Fracking will not help our local economy. Don't believe the lies. Ban fracking everywhere. Don't believe me. Ask every small town in Pennsylvania that has allowed fracking. Ask anyone who has ever lit there tap water on fire. Ban fracking! – Glen Carbon, IL

Allowing fracking may create new jobs in the short run, but in the long run fracking will cost health and lives and lots of money to clean up after the fracking company goes bankrupt. Protect Illinois citizens by not allowing fracking in Illinois. -Carbondale, IL

Yep. The fracking boom won't last but the economic destruction will linger once water is poisoned and rural areas are industrialized. A number of comments focus on the reality of an extraction-based economy.

Fracking is detrimental to people, the planet's vital biodiversity, and the economy. Please reconsider doing huge environmental damage and instead invest money into actual renewable energy such as solar and wind that pays off in the long run. – Skokie, IL

Fracking poses too great a threat to public health to be allowed in Southern Illinois. Please protect our drinking water and other natural resources by banning the destructive practice of hydraulic fracturing in Illinois. Our need for clean ground water far outweighs our need for industrial jobs or cheap gas, regardless of what uninformed people may say. Don't allow yourselves to be tempted by the promise of big money by the oil and gas industry. Rest assured that the privatized profits from fracking can never equal the public's costs. We are depending on you to represent us. Please don't betray our trust. You have the power to protect the Earth for future generations. Use that power to preserve our most precious resources. We can live without money. We can live without gas and oil. We cannot live without clean water. – Makanda, IL

Governor Quinn, I beg you to outlaw fracking in Illinois. The evidence is overwhelming that it pollutes the groundwater, which is one of our most valuable resources. Please, sir — you've always forged your own path; please keep doing so by banning fracking. Thank you. – Springfield, IL

“A region’s economic and environmental strength is based on the availability of clean water.”
– Pat Quinn

 Woops! How did that get there? Governor Quinn didn't sign the petition but that's a real quote from the dedication of a wastewater treatment plant. Do you think he sees the contradiction between his words and his push to launch fracking in Illinois?

I like to drink water. safe water. so leave it alone. – Harrisburg, IL

The current legislation and its interpretation and enforcement will do little to actually PREVENT the contamination of MY water and the water of most of rural Illinoisians. For the life of me, i do not understand the selling our or rural agriculture to the extractive corporations that seem intent on destroying it. By unleashing wide-scale fracking upon us, our elected officials have failed as guardians of the people. Why have our officials not gone to Pennsylvania or Colorado or North Dakota to see for themselves. Why have they not spoken with the people adversely affected? They have had the opportunity. Why, is intent on bringing a so called “safe” industry, have they not set up small scale pilot projects that could be monitored and reported on transparently? I fear the answer is… they really don't want to know. – Taylorville, IL

I like how many signatures are from small towns that are supposedly too conservative to be against fracking.

Our legislators need to stop allowing industries to destroy Illinois and put all of Illinois citizens at risk to pollution and destruction. Where are your brains? Get your hands out of the corporations' pockets and serve the people that you were elected to serve and not your corporate campaign contributors. – Canton, IL

I am expecting my first child this summer and rely on well water, I want to be certain it will stay safe for my little one. – Pamona, IL

 There is no such thing as safe fracking. Governor Quinn, ban it from our state immediately! – Goreville, IL

It is completely ridiculous that we have no voice in this, no representation from the areas that will actually be fracked. BAN IT. – Carbondale, IL

I grew up in Illinois and want to retire there. I hope to return to a environmentally sound place. Ban all fracking. It's not wise to mess with the water table. – Oswego, NY

What? Doesn't everyone want to open a business or retire somewhere with poisoned water an noxious fumes making them sick?

It's bad enough there's a new proposed room and pillar mine in East Central Illinois that state reps don't seem to care about. Add fracking into the mix in other parts of the state, and watch as our precious farmland and resources such as water (fracking uses LOTS of water) are wasted. There's nothing safe about fracking, and nothing good will come to Illinois because of it. – Homer, IL

As a West Virginian experiencing first hand the devastating impacts of fracking and the recent spill of MCHM ( also a fracking chemical), Illinios would do well to ban fracking and look to Pennsylvania and WV as cautionary tales. Salem, WV

The only truly protective fracking regulation is a ban. – Mossville, IL

The regulations are absurdly and irresponsibly mediocre. The people of Southern Illinois are insulted. – Carbondale, IL

I am a high school student and did a research paper on fracking, It does not sound good for any place. Most of all a state that is covered in 700 million acres of FARMLAND! This is my future home, please stop poisoning it. Invest in Green Enegry! – Crest Hill, IL

Fracking uses millions of gallons of fresh water, permanently poisons it, leaves some underground while the rest must be dumped somewhere, opens unknown cracks in the earth for chemicals to seep unseen into groundwater, releases radioactivity from underground, and causes earthquakes. Is that enough reason? Oh yeah, and it uses enormous quantities of energy to do so, burning much more fuel than would possibly be recovered. What a fiasco! – Chicago, IL

We need very urgently to move away from fossil fuels and the greenhouse gases they produce, not find more environmentally destructive ways to extract them. We need to protect what remains of our natural heritage, not hand it over to an industry that already has far too much money and influence. – Glenwood, IL

And my favorite of them all gets right to the point:

Don't be a douche bag!! – Galesburg, IL

You can sign and share the petition here, with or without a comment.