Make Environmental History in Binghamton on Friday 8/23/13 / Oppose President Obama's Shale Gas Fracking Efforts / Get Ready to Rock

Too beleaguered to read further, use this Quick Action Guide: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/alerts/2013/08/07/quick-action

Greetings one and all,

I write to alert you about momentous events that will take place this week.  Get ready to rock with all your might.  

President Barack Obama will visit Binghamton University this coming Friday (8/23/13).  It is imperative that activists vote with their feet and get to this landmark national fracking gig.  We must show up by the hundreds, if not the thousands.  If you want to make environmental history, this is your big chance.  Get there.  

We must show up in full force to tell the President that we oppose his support for gas fracking because comprehensive safeguards have not yet been adopted.  Given the national spotlight that we will shine on this issue, Friday also will be a critical opportunity to hammer the Governor for his secret DOH Review and woefully inadequate Revised Draft SGEIS.

Presidential security will be super tight.  I will alert you where and when to show up, very likely at the last minute.  Get onto the campus at the crack of dawn if not earlier.  The main entrance via Vestal Parkway reportedly could be shut down during the President's visit.  

We need maximum turn-out.  This event will dwarf all others in importance.  We need activists from all over New York as well as other states to make Friday a national fracking event.  

Check out Karen Dewitt's incredibly wonderful NPR reporting about the President's Binghamton visit: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/news/2013-08-16/obama-be-greeted-anti-fracking-protesters-upstate-new-york

Thank you, Karen, for all your great work.   

This terrific piece: a) totally hijacks the President's education agenda and instead focuses on shale fracking; b) pinpoints the Southern Tier as the epicenter of the national fracking fight; c) pressures the President and Governor Cuomo to support a national policy requiring comprehensive study of fracking health hazards and adoption of pollution liability standards before permitting fracking to begin and d) inextricably ties the Governor and the President together on fracking.

Most importantly, Governor Cuomo is forewarned that he would be dogged by hordes of shale activists at every 2014 campaign stop if he permits shale fracking to begin despite withering criticism of the inadequate efforts of his DEC and DOH.  

If the Governor breeches political protocol and fails to show up on Friday, that will speak volumes.  

Finally, I want to commend you all for sending more than 1,900 perfectly focused communications to Governor Cuomo and the Hydrofracking Panel members to request that:

a) the pathetically inadequate and secret Department of Health (DOH) shale fracking Review be immediately halted and 

b) a comprehensive "Public Health Impact Study" be undertaken to resolve shale fracking health concerns once and for all.

These sophisticated messages pack a huge wallop because they represent an extraordinarily broad coalition of government officials, scientists, engineers, educators, artists, health care professionals, farmers, civic, environmental and cultural groups, business owners and public interest advocates of every persuasion who believe that their communities are worth fighting for.  

I invite you to read these moving missives.  Please note that many activists exert maximum pressure on Governor Cuomo by reporting that they helped elect him in 2010.  

See: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/documents/2013/04/24/emails-to-governor

See: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/documents/2013/07/02/emails-to-panel

Check out this terrific video from the last time Andrew Cuomo ran for Governor.  It is a primer about how you can be an super effective advocate in this highly complex fight: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/videos/ithaca_rally

Conclusion

Governor Cuomo still has not seen fit to green-light shale fracking in our lovely state of New York even though he evidently would like to.  See: 
http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/news/2013-08-13/cuomo-no-decision-yet-hydrofracking

I implore you to keep calling, writing and bird-dogging Andrew Cuomo.  We must bring to bear every ounce of political pressure that we possibly can to prevent him from permitting shale fracking.  Please intensify your efforts in the coming weeks.  The chips are down.  We are all in.  

Use this Quick Action Guide: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/alerts/2013/08/07/quick-action

Since our efforts first began almost four years ago to this very day, we have organized more than 40,000 signatories to various letters to withdraw DEC's draft SGEIS and halt DOH's secret Review.  Combined with massive, on-going local, statewide, national and international press coverage, your hard work has been instrumental in making sure that New York's historic shale fracking moratorium remains in full-force.  

It has been a long haul, but our efforts have been rewarded.  The fate of our campaign will very likely set a national shale fracking precedent for good or for ill.  We must not falter.  

Friday will be a red letter day.  I look forward to seeing you again on the front line as we defend America's public health and environment from the most polluting and least regulated industry in our nation.  

Onward and upward.

Cheers,

Walter

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