Breaking: Cuomo Bans Fracking in New York State
In a victory for environmental, health and community activists, fracking has been banned in New York state. That was the conclusion reached at a public, livestreamed meeting of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s cabinet in Albany today. Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation Joseph Martens issued the order, following a report on his own findings and a strongly cautionary report from Dr. Howard Zucker, commissioner of the Department of Health, who compared the unknown health impacts of fracking to those of secondhand smoke, once considered benign.
The hearing opened unpromisingly with Cuomo making what sounded like condescending remarks on the issue.
“I’ve been asked about 46,000 times at various decibel levels,” he said as he introduced the subject. “The dialogue on fracking is an emotional one, both pro and con. You talk to anti-frackers for 30 seconds and they’re yelling and they’re passionate and emotional and scared and they’re not listening and they’re not hearing and they’re yelling. You listen to pro-frackers and same thing. This is probably the most emotionally charged issue I’ve experienced, more emotionally charged than marriage equality, more emotionally charged than the gun issue, more emotionally charged than the death penalty.”
Commissioner of Environmental Conservation Joseph Martens issues decision banning fracking in New York. Photo credit: State of New York
But he added, “I’m not a scientist. I’m not a health expert. I’m not a doctor. I’m not an environmentalist. So let’s bring the emotion down and ask qualified experts what their opinions is. My two cents on the matter is I will defer to these two gentlemen.”
“Those two gentlemen” he referred to were Martens and Zucker. They spoke following Cuomo’s remarks and their conclusion was clear: no fracking in New York.
Martens addressed some of the aspects that made fracking impractical and economically unattractive in the state, including the large areas that would be off limits to fracking due to endangering water supplies or local bans on drilling, which were ruled legal in the state by a court decision in June, finding in favor of the town of Dryden which enacted a ban. He also presented evidence that the highly touted evidence of the economic benefits of fracking to the region was questionable at best.
But it was Zucker who made the most powerful case against letting fracking go forward.
“The questions one would want answered are, is my water safe enough to drink, is my air safe to breath, can I grow vegetables in my garden, the effects on reservoirs that provide drinking water to 9 million people in New York City,” he said.
He referred to numerous studies, saying that they raised concerns about water and air contamination, health impacts on those living near wells and the increase in noise, odors, traffic and traffic fatalities.
“There are many red flags, questions that remain unanswered,” he said. “Bonafide scientific literature is now emerging. Most studies have been in the last two years. The bottom line is we lack long-term comprehensive studies. They’re not yet completed or yet to be initiated. The science isn’t there. These concerns gives me reason to pause.”
“Governor, you asked me for my opinion and said, let the science decide,” Zucker concluded. “Would I live in a community with high-volume hydraulic fracking, based on facts I have now? After looking at plethora of reports, my answer is no. Until the public health red flags are answered by valid evidence, I cannot support high volume hydraulic fracking in the great state of New York.”
Too many red flags to allow fracking, says Dr. Howard Zucker, New York’s commission of the Department of Health. Photo credit: State of New York
Based on that conclusion, Martens said he would issue a legally binding statement prohibiting fracking in the state.
Following their presentations, Cuomo said, “Dr. Zucker, I found your statement especially effective. What I found most powerful in your presentation is you wouldn’t let your family live in an area with high-volume fracking. If you don’t believe your children should live there, your duty is to suggest no child should live there.”
Ever the politician, Cuomo wrapped up saying, “This is self-executing between you two gentlemen. I have nothing to do with it.”
So he can technically say he didn’t ban fracking in New York. But for the foreseeable future, there will be no fracking in New York. The ban makes permanent a moratorium put in place in 2008 that kicked the decision down the road; it was set to expire in 2017. Cuomo said earlier this week a decision would be made by the end of the year, and some activists were afraid the governor favored letting fracking proceed.
Needless to say, environmental groups were elated that they’d won their hard-fought battle.
“Our growing national movement has persevered,” said Wenonah Hauter of Food & Water Watch. “We applaud Governor Cuomo for acknowledging the overwhelming science that speaks to the inherent dangers of fracking to public health and the environment. Fracking has no place in New York or anywhere, and the governor has smartly seized a golden opportunity to be a real national leader on health, environmental protection and a future free of polluting fossil fuels.”
“By banning fracking, Governor Cuomo has set himself apart as a national political leader who stands up for people and not for the interests of the dirty fuel lobby,” said Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune. “Today’s decision will shake the foundations of our nation’s flawed energy policy, and we can only expect that it will give strength to activists nationwide who are fighting fracking in dozens of states and hundreds of cities and counties. The Sierra Club also extends heartfelt congratulations to all of the passionate anti-fracking activists in New York who were relentless in telling the truth about the dangers of fracking, persevered years of opposition from the oil and gas lobby, and ultimately prevailed.”
“This is truly a monumental day,” said Earthjustice managing attorney Deborah Goldberg, who represented Dryden in the June decision. “Governor Andrew Cuomo has earned a place in history. Never before has a state with proven gas reserves banned fracking. I believe that future generations will point to this day and say ‘This is when the tide began to turn against the dirty, dangerous and destructive fossil fuel industry.’ We hope that this determined leadership Governor Cuomo has displayed will give courage to elected leaders throughout the country and world: fracking is too dangerous and must not continue.”
Other health professionals shared Dr. Zucker’s concerns about fracking’s health effects.
“Concerned Health Professionals of NY congratulates Governor Cuomo and his administration for listening to the science on drilling and fracking and putting public health first by prohibiting fracking in New York State,” said the group’s co-founder Dr. Larysa Dyrszka. “As hundreds of peer-reviewed papers have shown, drilling and fracking threaten to have very serious public health and environmental impacts on families and communities. Governor Cuomo put the science first and acted in the best interest of all New Yorkers and future generations. We hope that Governor Cuomo’s wise decision will have ripple effects across the country and the world.”
And many praised the community activists who organized, protested, rallied and lobbied.
“This victory for health and climate belongs to the thousands of grassroots organizers who led a years long fight to defend their communities from Big Oil and Gas,” said 350.org’s fracking campaign manager Linda Capato. “They defeated millions of dollars in lobbying and paid misinformation with grassroots energy and bold organizing. This is also a huge win for the anti-fracking movement nationwide. The same health and environmental concerns that led to the ban in New York are present everywhere. Once they have the facts, people across the country will clearly agree with New Yorkers that it is more important to put the health of our children and climate over industry greed.”
350.org founder Bill McKibben added, “This is exactly what happens when people organize with enormous skill and dedication. People, especially scattered in small towns across upstate New York—with some help from the big city—showed the whole movement how it’s done. 350.org will be continuing to support the movement to stop fracking in New York and across the United States.”
http://ecowatch.com/2014/12/17/cuomo-bans-fracking-new-york/
Cuomo concludes fracking is too risky for New York ALBANY
A long-awaited study released by the Cuomo administration on Wednesday determined several “red flags” about hydraulic fracturing that could pose “significant public health risks,” officials said at a public meeting of Governor Andrew Cuomo and his cabinet.
The governor’s announcement, articulated by his acting Department of Health commissioner Howard Zucker and Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner Joe Martens, delays any potential gas drilling in New York State for at least several more years as more data becomes available. “The evidence in the studies we reviewed raised public health concerns,” Zucker said. “There are many red flags because there are questions that remain unanswered from lack of scientific analysis, specifically longitudinal studies of [fracking].” “The science isn’t here,” Zucker continued.
“But the cumulative concerns based on the information I have read … gives me reason to pause.” Winding toward the conclusion of his presentation, Zucker said, “Would I live in a community with [fracking] based on the facts that I have now? Would I let my child play in a school field nearby? After looking at the plethora of reports behind me … my answer is no.” He yielded to Cuomo, who thanked him for his “powerful” remarks.
The health study, requested two years ago by state environmental officials, provided the basis for an open-ended stall by the governor, who was loath to anger environmentalist opponents or pro-business supporters of fracking before his re-election. For the past six years the state has vexed both constituencies, without provoking an outright revolt by either, by observing a moratorium on fracking without actually banning it. Zucker said the health review involved 4,500 staff hours reviewing anecdotal reports and a stack of existing studies.
He spent 15 minutes offering his analysis of several peer-reviewed reports and making an analogy to earlier scientific thinking on second-hand smoking. Martens, when he spokes, said that restrictions already on hydrofracking in the New York City watershed as well as local towns that have banned its development mean that “the prospects for [hydrofracking] development in New York State are uncertain at best.” At numerous points during his first term, and especially during his campaign this year, Cuomo cited the ongoing study as of the health impacts of fracking in lieu of articulating a position on it. In the meantime, a moratorium put in place by then-Governor David Paterson in 2008 remained in place.
(The health study placed the political onus on the Cuomo administration’s health department for its never-ending timeline; respected former health commissioner Nirav Shah, placed in the awkward position of giving a series of non-answers to questions about the department’s progress on its fracking study, left without saying much at all.) In September 2012, after years of study, Martens and the Department of Environmental Conservation formally asked the state Department of Health to review the human health risks of fracking, leading to further delays.
The state sits on one of the nation’s richest shale deposits, the Marcellus, and is the last state in the nation with a major shale play to authorize fracking. Proponents say drilling will create tens of thousands of jobs in the most economically depressed parts of the state, where industry and jobs departed generations ago. Environmental groups have cautioned that drilling for natural gas in New York will pollute water sources, increase reliance on fossil fuels and harm human health. In June, the state Court of Appeals upheld local bans on fracking, which Cuomo said would limit drilling to areas that support the industry.
More than 120 communities have banned fracking, while about 60 have passed resolutions that will allow the industry to expand. For years, anti-fracking activists have been Cuomo’s most outspoken opponents, protesting nearly all his public appearances and rallying thousands in Albany for the annual State of the State address. Cuomo lost a number of upstate communities in his primary to Democratic challenger Zephyr Teachout in September, a showing she attributed in large part to the turnout among anti-fracking activists. Following Martens and Zucker at the cabinet meeting, Cuomo said,
“I get very few people who say to me, I love the idea of fracking.” Referring to the economically depressed areas of upstate that were candidates for fracking activity, Cuomo said the question now is, “What can we do in these areas to generate jobs, generate wealth … as an alternative to fracking?” Answering a reporter’s question after the presentation, Cuomo predicted “a ton of lawsuits” in response to the decision.
http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/albany/2014/12/8558732/cuomo-concludes-fracking-too-risky
3. NYT
ALBANY — The Cuomo administration announced Wednesday that it would ban hydraulic fracturing in New York State, ending years of uncertainty by concluding that the controversial method of extracting gas from deep underground could contaminate the state’s air and water and pose inestimable public-health risks.
“I cannot support high volume hydraulic fracturing in the great state of New York,” said Howard Zucker, the acting commissioner of health.
That conclusion was delivered publicly during a year-end cabinet meeting called by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo in Albany. It came amid increased calls by environmentalists to ban fracking, which uses water and chemicals to release natural gas trapped in deeply buried shale deposits.
The state has had a de facto ban on the procedure for more than five years, predating Mr. Cuomo’s first term. The decision also came as oil and gas prices continued to fall, in part because of surging American oil production, as fracking boosted output.
The decision has been fraught for Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat.
In June 2012, he flirted with approving a limited program in several struggling Southern Tier counties along New York’s border with Pennsylvania. But later that year, Mr. Cuomo bowed to entreaties from environmental advocates, announcing instead that his administration would start the regulatory process over by beginning a new study to evaluate the health risks.
As months and years passed, the governor repeatedly suggested that the Health Department’s report was near completion, but its findings did not surface until Wednesday.
The delays angered environmentalists and oil companies alike. Advocates for fracking have argued that it could bring jobs to economically depressed areas atop the Marcellus Shale, a gigantic subterranean deposit of trapped gas that extends across much of New York State, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
But the governor has also faced strong opposition from groups worried about the effects of fracking on the state’s watersheds and aquifers, as well as on tourism and the quality of life in small upstate communities.
Dozens of towns and cities across New York have passed moratoriums and bans on fracking, and in June, the state’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, ruled that towns could use zoning ordinances to ban fracking. Opponents have also consistently protested at the governor’s public events and during his successful re-election campaign, where his Republican opponent, Rob Astorino, called for legalizing fracking.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/nyregion/cuomo-to-ban-fracking-in-new-york-state-citing-health-risks.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0