Opinions
Hydraulic fracturing, more commonly known as hydrofracking, is the process of extracting natural gas from underground rock formations. And, it’s increasingly becoming a topic for debate in New York State. Where do New Yorkers stand on the issue?
©istockphoto.com/HHakim
Click Here for Complete May 17, 2011 NYS NY1/YNN-Marist Poll Release and Tables
No Consensus
Photo by Neil Zusman
According to this NY1/YNN-Marist Poll, New Yorkers divide on the issue. 41% oppose hydrofracking while 38% support it. A notable 21% are unsure. Similar proportions of registered voters statewide share these views.
Regionally, there’s no majority on either side of the ledger. 47% of those upstate are against hydrofracking while 37% support it. 39% in New York City oppose the process while 35% favor it. However, in the suburbs of New York City, 46% are for hydrofracking while 36% are against it.
There are partisan differences on this question. While pluralities of Democrats — 47% — and non-enrolled voters — 46% — oppose the process, nearly half of Republicans — 49%– support it.
“Many New Yorkers have yet to weigh in on this issue,” says Dr. Lee M. Miringoff, Director of The Marist College Institute for Public Opinion. ”The question is what will happen to the public’s opinion about hydrofracking as both sides make their case.”
See:Table: Support for Hydrofracking in NYS
See: Environmental Advocates New York
See: Action Center | Republicans for Environmental Protection (REP America)
See: New York State Assembly Passes Moratorium on Hydrofracking | Governor Vetoes Bill
See: Regulation Is Lax for Water From Gas Wells
See: Catskill Citizens | More Damning Evidence About Fracking
Organization web site features a widget that shows how you are connected to mountaintop removal where you live.
You Can End Mountaintop Removal.
Mountaintop removal is a radical form of coal mining in which entire mountains are literally blown up -- and it is happening here in America on a scale that is almost unimaginable.
Please take a moment to learn more about mountaintop removal mining -- and then join us by taking action to stop it.
See: Welcome to Rogers Neighborhood | House Passes Dangerous Budget in the Dark of Night
See: GOP Budget Amendments Would Destroy Health, Economy, Planet.
See: Michael Cusack O'Connell. (film). Mountaintop Removal.
Ted Williams. Audubon. Jan/Feb. 2010. "Incite".
"...So deficient is the draft that it drew sharp criticism even from the laconic U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA says the draft ignores or glosses over: cumulative impacts, threats to the Catskill reservoirs that supply nine million people in and around New York City with untreated drinking water, maintenance of wastewater pits, threats to air quality, health risks of frack-water flowback, impacts on aquatic ecosystems from water withdrawals, and dangers to Important Bird Areas, which sustain all the forest-interior birds threatened by ongoing fragmentation in Pennsylvania."
WHAT YOU CAN DO
To follow Marcellus gas development and learn how to help control it, go to these websites: PennFUTURE, ConserveLand.org, Pinchot Institute for Conservation, and Penn State College of Agricultural Science’s Cooperative Extension.
Amy is the Pennsylvania campus and community organizer with Energy Justice Network. She helps coordinate PA's KEY Coalition youth network.
I think we need to take a look at the economic justice implications of gas drilling.
Website by Lisa Bracken. (2007-2010). Journey of the Forsaken. Personal account of her family's experience with the gas drilling by Encana on and around their land in Colorado.
"Walk for two years with the forsaken and embark on a journey with my family as we track, via web entries and posted photos/video, the development of 60 new natural gas wells within an approximate mile radius of our home. Currently, there are eleven in production.
This region is a former “moratorium” area created as the result of a toxic leak into Divide Creek which occurred – and continues to be mitigated - in early 2004. The leak was found by the state of Colorado to have been caused by an improperly drilled well which was located approximately a quarter mile from our home. This resulted in an estimated (and acknowledged) 115 million cubic feet of natural gas saturating the sub and surface environment and led to the largest fine issued by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission in Colorado's history. The well, which was the focus of that investigation, was the one shut in when this website began tracking developments - 9 new wells are to be drilled successively on this site.
Can industry be blamed for proceeding with 60 wells in this area - uniquely prone to geologic disturbance? Hardly. Industry operates to turn a profit - and, without moral discretion, can be expected to stop at nothing within allowable bounds to achieve it. Allowable bounds. This is what we must consider. To what limits should industry be allowed to pollute, endanger and destroy for the benefit of profit? Though America benefits from the new economy of catastrophe and environmental degradation, how readily can we recover precious lost resources of air, water, land and a functioning food chain... all of which are necessary to healthy, bio-diverse populations and sustainable contiguous habitat. Simply because we can do something, doesn't mean we should. But today we grapple and hope to survive what is allowed.
Prudence in the permitting process has failed the people, once again."
See also: Lisa Bracken. "fracpage". (2007-2009). Video: EnCana Buries Hydraulic Fracturing Pit Sludge in Unlined Pit May 14, 2009.
You saw it on 'Earth To America!', now see it here. The Blue Man Group really gets the message across loud and clear with this great video. Can you hear? From: stopglobalwarming.org
Earth to America!
Larry David standup: "Rich Pricks and Poor Schmucks." Live at The Colosseum at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, November 17, 2005.
Blog by LOVECANAL 2020.
SEE: April 6, 2010. "Never a Single Case? How about 15!"
The Natural Resources Defense Council has complied a list of incidents where drinking water has been contaminated and hydraulic fracturing is a suspected cause. There are many, many, other cases around the country, but these 15 represent a group where the evidence was provided by a homeowner with knowledge that a nearby well was recently fractured and specifically included that information in reports, according to the NRDC.
See also: April 11, 2010. "See What's Coming to NY! Gas Drilling's Rural Impact."
Informational site produced by Bill and Sandy Podulka and an all-volunteer group of local citizens "concerned about the effects of gas drilling on our health, safety, and quality of life." Background:Gas Drilling Information from a scientist's perspective covering issues such as Water Contamination, Waste Disposal, Private Water Testing Reccommendations, Noise, Economic and Social Impacts, Pending Legislation, What People Can Do, and more...
Click the map... to see a map of Tompkins County showing all the tax parcels with recent gas leases. You can zoom in on parts of the map and print a customized version. The data was gathered by volunteers concerned about the effects of gas drilling moving rapidly into our area.
Updated frequently. Links to Take Action; News and Upcoming Events in Tompkins County and surrounding areas including Chemung and Cortland County, Buffalo, New York; Archives, , Resources, Gas Drilling Primer, Map Data Details, View Map of Gas Leases, To Find More lease Info, and others.
Contact form on website.
PROTEST SHALE GAS CONFERENCE
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2010
On November 3, 2010, the gas industry gathered at the Developing Unconventional Gas (DUG) East Conference at the David Lawrence Convention Center in Pittsburgh. Karl Rove was its keynote speaker.
As Pennsylvania citizens concerned about the health of our communities and the environment on which we depend, we attended the conference in the streets...
"No Fracking Way!" was the thunderous statement made by over 500 protestors in Pittsburgh today, marching from Allegheny Landing to the David Lawrence Convention Center.
Residents from West Virginia, Western Maryland, New York, and Pennsylvania were joined by activists and artists from all over the country to oppose the dangerous and destructive hydro-fracking gas drilling. The impassioned rally circled David Lawrence Convention Center, where inside gas industry executives were meeting to discuss the "future" of hydro-fracking gas drilling and planning to use heavy explosives to blast apart the Marcellus Shale formation to get the gas beneath.
"This is a revolution!" said Loretta Weir of Lincoln Place, Pittsburgh. Loretta said that a revolution was needed since the gas companies operate "outside the law." Weir took the podium to encourage city residents to support a moratorium on drilling in Pittsburgh, and to attend a public hearing tomorrow to discuss the matter.
Josh Fox, maker of the film Gasland, remarked that the movement to stop hydro-fracking gas drilling is growing, prompting huge cheers from the crowd. Telling the story of a father in a hydro-fracking region whose two sons got frequent nose bleeds from hydro-fracking-associated toxins.
"We are here for that family!" said Fox.
Marcellus Protest is an alliance of western PA groups & individuals building a broad movement to stop the destruction of our environment and communities caused by Marcellus Shale gas drilling as well as to support other directly affected communities.
Includes upcoming events, blogs, listing of groups and network meetings.
MarcellusProtest.org is an information clearing house about Marcellus Shale gas drilling and activism and related issues. It is a project of The Center for Coalfield Justice.
Although this website's primary geographic focus is Western Pennsylvania, MarcellusProtest.org also includes content pertaining to the fives states in which the Marcellus Shale is located - as well as other Shale gas formations across the U.S. A new social movement is in the making, and it's going national.
See: Marcellus protest YouTube Channel
See: Pictures from Allegheny Defense Project
See: Poison Fire
Primary documentation of the effects of strip-mining for coal on a West Virginia community. Gas Drilling and Strip-Mining affect communities health. This website is an outstanding example of the human aspect of sacrifices for energy and power production that may not be necessary.
Aurora Lights supports locally-based projects that strengthen the connections within and between human communities and their natural environment by promoting environmental and social action. See also: Aurora Lights Home.
“What we got going on here in Rock Creek is a little school in Sundial, W.Va., called Marsh Fork Elementary and it's being surrounded by a coal mining processing plant and a toxic waste impoundment and also a mountaintop removal site,” said Rock Creek resident Ed Wiley. He used to work at the processing plant and his granddaughter, Kayla, attended Marsh Fork Elementary.
The toxic waste impoundment and processing plant are all operated by the Goals Coal Co., a subsidiary of Massey Energy. The 1849-acre mountaintop removal mine that surrounds the school and dam is operated by two other Massey subsidiaries, Independence Coal and Alex Energy.
See: Code Black: Coal’s Assault on America’s Health Campaign | PSR (Physicians for Social Responsibility)
