Hundereds of New Yorkers rallied against fracking outside of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s birthday fundraiser at the Waldorf Astoria on Monday night. They greeted the Cuomo donors arriving at the event, providing them with information on the dangers of fracking and urging them to persuade the governor to protect New York from the hazardous gas extraction process.
“As Governor Cuomo celebrates his birthday, we believe the greatest gift he could give he could give to New Yorkers and to his political future is to protect our stat’s water, air and food by banning fracking,” said Eric Weltmen,
Senior Organizer with Food and Water Watch.
Protestors highlighted the environmental and health dangers that allowing fracking would pose to the state, as well as the economic dangers. In emphasizing the economic consequences of the state permitting fracking, the exaggerated economic benefits touted by the gas industry were exposed along with the faulty economic analysis of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
“The evidence is already in from every state where fracking is done – no type or amount of regulations can adequately address the risks it poses for our water, food, air and health,” said Daniele Gerard, President of Three Parks Independent Democrats. “An outright ban in New York State is the only environmentally safe fiscally responsible action for Governor Cuomo to take.”
The gas industry has poured millions of dollars uinto New York to influence state
government through campaign contributions to elected officials and lobbying. In July, a Freedom of Information Act request by the Environmental Working Group revealed gas industry lobbyists were given preferential access to draft regulations by DEC, allowing them to lobby for changes before the regulations were released to the public. A few weeks ago, Common Cause released an analysis of campaign contributions from the 2012 election cycle showing pro-fracking interests contributed nearly $400,000 to candidates for state legislature and county executive in New York’s Southern Tier. In some races, contributions from pro-fracking interests were more than 20% of a candidate’s total fundraising.
Governor Cuomo is weighing whether or not to allow fracking in New York State. With or without regulations in place, fracking is a menace to public health. Since frackin began in states outside of New York, there have been numerous reports of water contamination. New studies link fracking related activities to contaminated ground water, air pollution, illness, death and reproductive problems in cows, horses and wildlife, and human health problems. Recent data also shows fracking and other natural gas drilling emits greenhouse gasses at disturbing levels that undermine its credentials as beneficial for the environment to avoid climate change.
Governor Cuomo has insisted that his decision would be guided by science, but his administration’s actions thus far have indicated politics is guiding the process. Rather than undertake a comprehensive health impact assessment of fracking, the Cuomo administration instead hired outside experts to review its own internal health evaluation but released fracking regulations before the health review’s completion. The admininistration has also refused to release any substantial information on the review and placed gag-orders on the outside health experts.
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For More Information Visit:
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http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org
http://www.nyagainstfracking.org
http://www.unitedforaction.org
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Dear HIM
Great article! From my understanding, several of the big environmental groups are still only calling for a moratorium on Fracking. But I want to point out that in New York state it was THE GREEN PARTY who first demanded a complete BAN on fracking. It is important to “out” those groups that are still only calling for a moratorium because they are also in the pocket of big corporations!
Dani Liebling