People opposed to a natural gas drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing protested outside a state office building in Lansing this morning.
The state is auctioning off oil and gas mineral rights leases for more 100 thousand acres of public land.
The protesters chanted as energy industry and state government officials entered the building where the auction of oil and gas mineral rights leases was taking place.
The protesters worry drillers will use horizontal hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to extract natural gas in Michigan, potentially contaminating drinking water and causing other environmental problems.
LuAnne Cozma is an anti-fracking activist. She says state regulations are geared to help the industry, not to protect the people of Michigan.
“The gas is drilled…the more gas flows…the more money flows into the (state government) coffers…and that is why we don’t trust the whole process," says Cozma.
The protesters are circulating petitions to put an Anti-fracking question on the November ballot.
