Sierra Club Spurns $30 Million Gift After Fracking Turns Toxic - Bloomberg

Environmental and health groups are calling for tougher U.S. regulation of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, turning on a one-time donor to their causes: Chesapeake Energy Corp. (CHK)
The Sierra Club, the largest U.S. environmental group, is rethinking early support of natural-gas development after activists and scientists linked the drilling to tainted water and increased air emissions, Executive Director Michael Brune said yesterday in an interview. The group turned down $30 million from Chesapeake after he took over in 2010, he said.

Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, disclosed last month that his organization received $26 million in donations from individuals or subsidiaries of Chesapeake Energy, the second-largest U.S. natural gas supplier. Photo: Rich Clement/Bloomberg

“Five years ago most environmental groups thought of gas as a clean but flawed alternative” to coal, Brune said at a Bloomberg Government breakfast with reporters and editors in Washington. “The more we heard from people” with water issues “the more we realized that there were more problems with gas than we thought.”