UPDATE (12/10/12): Read on to take action and to download and view featured presentations from the conference.

On Saturday, nearly 300 Marylanders from across the state are gathering in Baltimore to discuss a big emerging threat to our communities: fracking.

Fracking is a dangerous method of drilling for natural gas linked to widespread environmental and health impacts in neighboring states. The conference is the first to bring activists from across Maryland together with state lawmakers, national climate and health experts, and people on the front lines of fracking in western Maryland and Pennsylvania to discuss the risks of fracking and how our state should respond.

To join us on Saturday and for more details, go to: http://mdfrackingconference.eventbrite.com.

Whether you join us Saturday or not, we need your help in the upcoming session of the state General Assembly to pass a moratorium on fracking in Maryland. While fracking is not yet happening here, companies have already leased large areas of land in western Maryland for drilling, and we have no formal laws on the books to safeguard our communities.

It’s no wonder why. For the past two years in Annapolis, oil and gas industry lobbyists, led by the American Petroleum Institute, have blocked any and all attempts to address fracking, including common-sense legislation to fund scientific studies of the potential impacts to Maryland. We need the protection of a moratorium that ensures we get all the facts on fracking and have an open, democratic debate about whether the risks to our air, water and climate are acceptable — before any drilling occurs.

With the gas industry once again beefing up its lobbying team in Annapolis for 2013, we know we’ll have a tough fight on our hands to win a moratorium. But that’s where you — and the statewide grassroots movement we’ll kick into high gear on Saturday — come in.

Please check out the following resources to learn more and to sign up to volunteer and take action.

1. Volunteer: Fill out CCAN’s Fracking Moratorium Now volunteer survey to let us know how you can help.

2. Sign the petition: If you haven’t already, urge your state delegates and senator to support a fracking moratorium.

3. Help gather petitions: Download this moratorium petition form (PDF), print copies, and start gathering signatures in your community. Then, mail them back to us at CCAN to build toward our goal of delivering 5,000 petitions to state legislators.

4. Build statewide support: Ask your local group or faith community to sign on to a resolution calling for a fracking moratorium now.

5. Spread the word online: Click to LIKE and then SHARE the Maryland Fracking Moratorium Now Facebook page.

6. Check out presentations and resources from panelists at Drilling Down:

• “Debunking Fracking Myths: Natural Gas Drilling Regulation,” by Diana Dascalu-Joffe, Senior General Counsel at CCAN
• “Debunking Fracking Health Myths,” by Pouné Saberi, MD, MPH, Philadelphia Physicians for Social Responsibility
• Handout: Sources and Impacts of Air Emissions from Natural Gas Activities, by Pouné Saberi, MD, MPH, Philadelphia Physicians for Social Responsibility
• “Hydrofracking in Maryland: Is it an environmental and public health concern?,” by Suzanne Jacobson, RN, BSN
• WATCH: Video documenting gas well flaring in Pennsylvania, from presentation by Veronica Coptis, Community Organizer, Mountain Watershed Association
• Go to MarcellusProtest.org to connect with groups and individuals organizing in Western Pennsylvania to address destruction caused by gas drilling.
• Follow Joe Romm’s coverage and analysis of climate change and fracking risks at ClimateProgress.org. For tips on communication on climate and more, check out Joe’s new book, Language Intelligence: Lessons on persuasion from Jesus, Shakespeare, Lincoln, and Lady Gaga.

7. Learn more about fracking and the need for a moratorium:

• Read more on the risks of fracking in Maryland and why we need a moratorium.
• Read more about how the proposed fracking moratorium would work.
• See answers to frequently asked questions.
• Read Maryland Delegate Heather Mizeur’s Baltimore Sun op-ed, “No studies, No fracking.”
• See polling that shows 71 percent of Marylanders want careful studies of fracking before any drilling is permitted.