Green Party of New York Denounces DEC Report, Calls for Ban on Hydrofracking

GREEN PARTY OF NEW YORK STATE
http://www.gpny.org

Media release
September 8, 2011

Contact:
Howie Hawkins, chair@gpny.org, 315-425-1019
Peter LaVenia, chair2@gpny.org, 518-495-8001


The Green Party of New York State is outraged in the latest Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) release on hydrofracking and calls for a total ban on the practice.

The DEC's report makes it clear that the state's primary focus is clearing the way for the petro-chemical industry to reap enormous profits, cloaked in the language of the potential economic benefit to workers.

While the DEC claims its "number one priority is to protect the state's drinking water and environment in concert with exploring options to safely and efficiently extract the state's natural gas," there is no way to safely protect drinking water and frack for natural gas. This report greases the skids for hydrofracking to start as soon as possible in New York. This is a terrible blow against the environment and the communities in the Marcellus Shale region, which will be negatively impacted by the damage done to their water supply, land, and the natural beauty of that area. It does nothing to lead us to a post-fossil fuel future and towards renewables in this era where we are on the tipping point of catastrophic climate change; fracking and natural gas are a bridge to nowhere, not economic prosperity.

It doesn't matter how long the SGEIS is, it isn't regulation: it's a study," said Mike Bernhard, GPNYS upstate Fracking Coordinator, referring to the Supplementary Generic Environmental Impact Study, to which a socio-economic impact study was appended today. "The original 1992 GEIS on gas and oil mining was never codified as law or regulation, but the DEC issued permits nonetheless. It is state policy to begin issuing permits as soon as the comment period on the current study ends, without first codifying regulations."

"If the state intended the Department of Environmental Conservation to conserve the environment, it wouldn't have preempted municipalities from controlling drilling," notes Cecile Lawrence, GP candidate for Tioga County legislature. "It wouldn't have gifted Gascorp with the Compulsory Integration law that allows drillers to horizontally drill unleased land. And it wouldn't have kept quiet when tens of thousands of leases – with no environmental or landowner protections – were being signed. The SGEIS won't change those facts."

"And it doesn't matter how complete or otherwise the study is," said Howie Hawkins, party co-chair. "Its content, and the public reaction to it, is largely invisible and irrelevant: It is simply a political football that Andrew Cuomo has to carry across the finish line, so that his corporate clients can begin to drill the Marcellus shale."

"The Green Party of New York State is opposed to the fracking process, and calls for and supports a total ban. Greens from around the state have been actively involved from the beginning in resisting and fighting the gas and oil industry, promoting the Avella/Colton ban legislation and educating the public about this very ungreen process," said Hawkins. "Further fossil-fuel development – with its demands for new and dangerous infrastructure - will starve conservation-led approaches to a renewable energy future of the capital and intelligence they need now," concluded Hawkins.

Videoclips of Presentations at Green Party's 2011 Annual National Meeting in Alfred, NY, archived on the Green Party's Livestream Channel, including discussion of hydrofracking: http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus

GreenStream Live show on hydrofracking, April 13, 2011: http://www.livestream.com/greenpartyus/video?clipId=pla_0e3da0c2-3fe4-41ad-9a8b-30cb5b0a1bf3


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