At times, the rally had the boisterous feel of a rock concert.
"How's it going, Philadelphia?" Josh Fox, movement celebrity and maker of the film Gasland, yelled into the microphone as the crowd cheered.
As more than two dozen police officers lined Arch Street and coat-and-tie participants at a two-day Marcellus Shale industry conference looked down from Convention Center windows, hundreds of activists held a two-hour anti-fracking rally Wednesday.
"We're going to show this industry how strong we are and how unacceptable gas drilling is," said West Philadelphia resident Iris Marie Bloom, founder of the nonprofit, Protecting Our Waters, and rally organizer. She told the crowd that "we are 65 organizations strong. You look beautiful."
They cheered again, chanted slogans like "no fracking way" and waved signs that read, "Pass Gas, Go Renewable." and "Don't Frack Mother Earth."
Much of the anger and the comments were directed at the Delaware River Basin Commission, which has scheduled a special two-hour meeting on Oct. 21 to consider the adoption of regulations that would allow natural gas drilling to go forward.
Some northeastern Pennsylvania counties underlain by the Marcellus Shale are in the basin, and drilling there has been halted until the commission adopts rules. The basin provides drinking water for more than 15 million people, including Philadelphia and some of its suburbs.
At one point during his speech, Fox, took out his cellphone and dialed the number of the commission, urging the crowd to do likewise. "Let's call them and tell them what we think," he said, later adding with a shrug, "It's busy."
"Tell them you are showing up on Oct. 21," he said. "We are not going to let this happen." At one point, he said he was prepared to go to jail to fight drilling in the basin.
The former commissioner of the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, Al Appleton, said the basin fight was crucial. "However much we want to say 'ban the whole thing,' we must first ban it in the Delaware River Basin," he said. "This is actually a battle for the future . . . the future is green energy."
Apparently, participants were getting reports on what was happening inside the conference. Not long after word arrived of Chesapeake Energy CEO Aubrey K. McClendon's luncheon address, during which he downplayed the incidence of contaminated wells and accidents, New York City activist David Braun chided, "Aubrey, correction, we have people here today who were hurt."
