Energy issues were addressed during a forum Wednesday night at Frederick Community College. One of the topics was "fracking," the process of extracting natural gas from underground rock formations, such as the Marcellus Shale, which runs through the Mid-Atlantic states, such as New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland and West Virginia.

Paul Roberts is a business owner in Garrett County, and a member of the Governor's Marcellus Shale Safe Drilling Initiative Advisory Commission. He wants the General Assembly to place a moratorium on the process. "We need a moratorium in place until the industry can prove that it can be done safely," he says. "If the industry cannot prove that it can be done safely, then we're not going to frack in Maryland."

Montgomery County Delegate Heather Mizeur tried to get such a bill passed during the 2012 session, but it failed. Roberts says Mizeur has told him she will try again in 2013.

"The biggest problem that's been occurring so far in Pennsylvania, for instance, where this has been going on, is methane contamination, contamination of water wells by methane," Roberts says. "Which basically makes the water undrinkable, and, by the way, makes it very difficult to sell the property."

And fracking might come a little closer to home, according to Mike Tidwell, Executive Director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. "A quarter of Garrett County has been lease for fracking already, and a lot of Allegheny County," he says. "And there's deeper, more shale gas under this county {Frederick} itself. And if they can get to the Marcellus Shale gas in Garrett County, sooner or later they're going to be able to get the shale gas in this county."

Tidwell says the US needs to wean itself away from fossil fuels and develop more wind power, which is forever and does not pollute. He urged the audience to educate themselves about the issues, and get involved.

Another topic was the proposed trash incinerator for Frederick and Carroll Counties, which is planned for the McKinney Industrial Park. But it looks like the Carroll County Commissioners are getting cold feet over the project. "It is a financial disaster. It was based on inaccurate data from the beginning from the {Northeast Maryland Waste Disposal} Authority. They have, within the past few months, sent a letter to Frederick County, asking Frederick County to find another partner," says Dan Andrews with the Catoctin Group of the Sierra Club.

He says the facility will generate toxic ash. "It was billed that the incinerator would be a panacea for no more landfills, or landfill issues or leachate issues. That is false," he says. "We will always need to landfill the toxic ash, and it is not good material. It's considered hazardous by the EPA." Andrews says the Montgomery County waste incinerator in Dickerson generates 150,000 tons of ash each year, which is shipped out of the area for disposal.

Andrews also says both Frederick and Carroll Counties do not generate enough trash to keep the facility running. "So they were going to have to go to Washington County, Howard County, and maybe PG County and maybe even out of state to get the required waste quantities, which is essentially turning Frederick into trash central," he says.

If Carroll County pulls out, the Frederick County Commissioners have talked about scaling back the project. Frederick County has also talked about getting other jurisdictions involved in the waste to energy plant.

Wednesday's night energy forum was sponsored by the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

Organizers say they invited  6th District Congressman Roscoe Bartlett and his Democratic  challenger, John Delaney, to attend.  Neither showed up, but Delaney sent a representative from his campaign.