People standing on either side of the debate on Hydrofracking are speaking out about the State D-E-C’s final report that bans the natural gas drilling practice in New York.
In the Southern Tier, the gas industry was very interested to get to work in the Marcellus Shale region. President of the Joint Land Coalition of New York, Dan Fitzsimmons calls the report Governor Cuomo’s “political idea.”
“The federal government has more than once said this can be done safely. Their EPA report that just came out on water showing there was no widespread impacts form hydrofracking, which we already knew, kind of proves it. This is purely a political move by Governor Cuomo and he’s playing politics with the lives of people upstate and our futures.”
Environmental groups have been anxious to read the fine print. Sarah Eckel is the Legislative and Policy Director forCitizen’s Campaign for the Environment. She is finally resting a little easier ever since Monday’s D-E-C announcement.
“After years of public discussion, we really think the public spoke out clearly and loudly. The science was clear, and that’s why Governor Cuomo said he was committed and we think he followed through with that.”
Eckel thinks the State won’t likely ever debate legalizing hydrofracking again, unless there was a scientific reason to do so.
