The Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan is a Ballot Question Committee registered with the State of Michigan Bureau of Elections. We are a political campaign, not a non profit organization. We formed in 2012 to start a statewide ballot initiative to prohibit the new type of horizontal fracking and frack wastes in Michigan. Ballot questions are non-partisan.
We believe that only a ban on fracking and frack wastes will protect our health and safety, our precious fresh water, communities, parks, forests, schools, businesses, farms, tourism, wildlife, and environment from the devastating harms of the massive, industrial-scale fracking planned for Michigan and the enormous amount of frack wastes inherently created in the fracking process, including wastes that come here from other states where fracking takes place.
Our current campaign:
A legislative initiative currently requires 252,523 valid signatures from Michigan voters to qualify. This is determined by our state constitution, which requires 8% of the number of votes cast for governor in the last election (2014).
We launched our current campaign in May 2015, aiming for the November 2016 election. When the first six-month deadline passed, we had 150,000 signatures collected by over 500 volunteers. At that point we continued collecting signatures to meet the June 1, 2016 deadline, with the understanding that we could prove the validity of the signatures "older" than 180 days using the Qualified Voter File.
On June 1, 2016, we did not have enough signatures yet to file for the 2016 election. (See MCL 168.472a). On that day, we filed a lawsuit to challenge the constitutionality of the 180-day law. The courts would not hear our case, but instead instructed us to continue to collect signatures in order to challenge the law. We also set our sights on the 2018 election. By the May 2018, we had reached past the 252,523 signature mark, but have not yet collected a large enough "cushion" of extra signatures to make sure we have enough.
After submitting over 271,000 signatures on November 5, 2018 in time for the 2020 election, the signatures were unlawfully rejected at the door. We pursued a legal battle for 17 months, winning on in the Court of Appeals about which election we qualified for, and that we were unlawfully rejected. But after that win, the State of Michigan delayed the counting of our signatures, and pursued an aggressive legal battle against us to keep us off the 2020 ballot, delaying enough to do exactly that. Our case is still in the courts, and we hope to be on the 2022 ballot when we win the case.
Fundraising: Please donate and help us reach our goal. Contributions to the campaign are not tax-deductible.
Legislative initiatives: Our ballot campaign is called a legislative ballot initiative, (very different from referendum or a constitutional amendment) also called a “legislative proposal.” Our proposal would change the state's oil and gas law to ban horizontal fracking and frack wastes. Our proposed law would also remove the language in the Natural Resources and Environmental Protection Act that favors the special-interests of the oil and gas industry fostering the development of the gas and oil industry and “maximum production” of oil and gas, over the protection of human health and water. Michigan's current policy promoting maximum production of natural gas adds to global warming.
Campaign finance reports are posted on the Michigan Secretary of State’s website. You may find us by searching for our committee name or committee # 515957-9.
Campaign Director:
LuAnne Kozma luanne AT letsbanfracking DOT org
Campaign Phone: 231-944-8750
Campaign Address: P.O. Box 490, Charlevoix, MI 49720