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Cuomo unlikely to reveal fracking plans in State of the State address
ALBANY — On Wednesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo will lay out his vision for the third year of his term during his annual State of the State address.
Several topics are sure to be discussed — gun control, reforming the state’s education system and rebuilding after Superstorm Sandy, among them.
Far less likely to be discussed, however, is one of the highest-profile issues facing the first-term governor in 2013: hydraulic fracturing for natural gas.
With a state health review of the technique still ongoing, Cuomo is not expected to make any substantive mention of fracking in his Wednesday address. He has stressed he would wait to take a position until the review is completed.
But that doesn’t mean the controversy around the issue will subside.
Opponents of hydrofracking say they hope to fill the hallways outside the Empire State Plaza Convention Center, rallying against shale-gas drilling as Cuomo lays out his agenda. Supporters hold out hope that Cuomo may for the first time show his hand when it comes to fracking, calling on him to back the technique in either his State of the State or his Jan. 22 budget address as New York’s lengthy review winds down.
“My expectation is that if drilling is a go, we will at least hear something in his budget address,” said Yvonne Hennessey, an Albany-based oil-and-gas attorney for Hiscock & Barclay LLP.
Cuomo has long kept from taking sides in New York’s four-year-long battle over fracking in the Southern Tier. He has frequently called for “facts and science” to guide the state’s decision-making process, but hasn’t said whether he thinks shale-gas drilling should move forward in New York as it has in Pennsylvania and several other states.
A Feb. 27 deadline looms for the state to either finalize its proposed regulations for the technique or let them expire, putting pressure on Cuomo to publicly unveil a position by the end of next month. So he could sidestep the issue in both the address and his budget and then revisit it after the review is complete.
Walter Hang, owner of Ithaca-based environmental database firm Toxics Targeting and a key organizer of fracking critics, said it would take “chutzpah” for Cuomo to express support for fracking in his State of the State.
“Andrew Cuomo is just going to get (linked) to hydrofracking and when problems occur, he’s going to be held accountable,” Hang said. “Anyone in his position would be very wary about making that kind of close connection with an issue that’s getting more and more controversial.”
Hang and other critics will rally outside of Cuomo’s speech Wednesday, urging the state to be more transparent in its decision making. Several anti-fracking and environmental groups have called on Cuomo to reveal data currently under review by three outside health consultants, who were retained by the state for assistance. Their review has been closely guarded by the Cuomo administration.
At the same time, patience has long worn thin for the natural-gas industry and the state’s business community, who are hopeful Cuomo may be supportive of their cause -- either by outlining a plan in his Wednesday address, or by including funds for additional regulators in his budget proposal.
“It would be nice to hear the governor hint in his State of the State that he wants to move forward with the development of the Marcellus Shale,” said Brian Sampson, executive director of Rochester-based business group Unshackle Upstate. “It’s what we would expect, it’s what we hope and we’d be disappointed if we didn’t hear it.”
A Democrat, Cuomo gave a passing reference to hydrofracking in his formal, written message to the Legislature last year. The Department of Environmental Conservation, he wrote, would finalize its environmental impact statement on fracking in 2012 before a decision is made.
The environmental review remains unfinished in 2013 and must be completed before any large-scale fracking permits are issued.
For his part, Cuomo has said he will lay out a wide-ranging policy agenda in his speech Wednesday. Among the issues he will cover include the education system and increasing the state’s minimum wage, Cuomo said.
“I think you will see a very robust State of the State,” he told reporters Thursday.
Even if Cuomo doesn’t address fracking on Wednesday, the topic will be front and center come Thursday when the state Assembly will host a hearing on the DEC’s latest proposals, which would allow shale-gas drilling on a limited basis in the Southern Tier.
William Cooke, director of government relations for Citizens Campaign for the Environment, said he would like to hear Cuomo “respond to the concerns of the people of this state and say (fracking) is not moving forward.”
“I will continue to hold out that hope until it is dashed by his State of the State,” Cooke said.
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Movie brings fracking to Hollywood
This weekend, the movie Promised Land hits theatres, opening up the debate about hydrofracking to the entire country. Here in the Southern Tier, opponents of the practice came together for a special showing Friday. Our Elyse Mickalonis tells us what they thought of the film, and why they were inspired to speak out afterward.
“Wouldn’t it be great if everyone put their honest cards on the table and told us what’s really going on with this industry? That’s what I got out of the movie,” said Matt Ryan, (D) Binghamton Mayor.
The movie Promised Land hit theaters this weekend. The Matt Damon flick focuses on the issue of introducing natural gas drilling to a struggling rural community, but not everyone is on board.
It's an issue Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan has been very outspoken about. He joined an anti-fracking rally after he watched the movie on Friday.
"We're fighting hard to bring our economy back, Governor Cuomo should also, along with all the farmers and people, and get together and learn how to make farming profitable let farmers do what they do, we can grow biodiesel fuels, do a lot of things,” said Ryan.
Walter Hang, Toxics Targeting President, added, “This movie is a tribute to the growing nation recognition that fracking poses potential health threats to the environment.”
Binghamton’s hydrofracking ban was overturned in October when a judge ruled it was illegal. And while many feel fracking is safe and is needed to bring business to an area hit hard by flooding, Ryan says there are more options.
"We're at a crossroads in this country, we need to make sure that we go for with positive energy, non-carbon-based energy economy. Many countries across the globe are doing it now. We're losing out to those countries. We can do it,” said Ryan.
The mayor says he hopes more people will watch the movie and discuss the issue with their neighbors.
New Yorkers will have to wait a bit longer to find out whether or not fracking will be allowed in the state. More than a month ago, the DEC filed a 90-day extension on a rule making deadline.
Panel: Important deadlines loom in New York fracking debate
This article also appeared in the Press & Sun-Bulletin.
JOHNSON CITY — After more than four years of watching lawmakers and regulators progress toward a decision on whether to permit hydraulic fracturing in New York, area leaders on both sides of the debate are bracing for the endgame that many expect will unfold in 2013.
During a two-hour panel discussion Thursday morning, four experts on the controversial natural gas drilling technique, commonly known as hydrofracking, explained that important deadlines are looming in coming weeks and should provide a much clearer picture on the industry’s fate in New York.
By late February, the state Department of Environmental Conservation will likely clear some of the final hurdles left before completing its environmental review of hydrofracking, which started in 2008.
Along with the outcome of several other key factors involved, the DEC findings will define the hydrofracking regulations that are expected to guide the decision by state lawmakers, who have already identified the Southern Tier as among the regions where drilling may be allowed.
But even if all the pieces fall into place, the experts on the panel discussion in Johnson City warned that everything from legal challenges to legislative actions could delay issuing permits.
“It’s going to be really interesting between now and Feb. 27,” said panelist Walter Hang, president of an Ithaca-based environmental database firm, Toxics Targeting.
Hang said that results of the DEC environmental impact review — along with a health review that was added amid mounting pressures from groups opposed to hydrofracking — will determine whether permits get issued. He believes, however, that more work is needed and called for the DEC to begin the review process anew.
Attorney Yvonne Hennessey, a partner at the Hiscock & Barclay firm in Albany representing clients in the natural gas industry, agreed that vital decisions on allowing hydrofracking are likely to be made by late February, though she believes this will just mark the beginning of “legal battles” filed by parties on both sides of the debate.
Hennessey added that even if lawmakers begin to issue permits to gas companies, many of which already hold drilling leases with property owners in the Southern Tier, that 2013 would likely only see a couple of operations get underway, primarily drilling wells to test the conditions in the gas-rich Marcellus Shale in the region.
The panel discussion was moderated by Press & Sun-Bulletin reporter Steve Reilly and Gannett Albany Bureau correspondent Jon Campbell.
The other panelists included: Attorney Robert Wedlake, a partner at Hinman, Howard & Kattell firm in Binghamton representing six area landowner coalitions; and Tom Wilbur, a former Press & Sun-Bulletin reporter and author of Under the Surface, a narrative about the shale gas rush in New York and Pennsylvania.
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Fracking's Lure, Trap and Endless Damage
Say what you will about Yoko Ono’s art, there is no denying that she is unique. Who else will put several $100,000 full-page notices in The New York Times displaying only the word “Peace” or “Imagine Peace” in small type with the rest of the page blank? No elaboration, no examples of the ravages of war or mention of people “waging peace” around the country and world. Inscrutable, yes. Effective, who knows, except maybe Yoko Ono?
Well, in the December 10th issue of the Times there appeared a most un-Yoko type message. And this one wasted no space with the headline “Governor Cuomo: Imagine there’s no fracking.” The ad, commissioned by her and her son Sean Lennon, contained a graphic case against fracking designed to get New Yorkers to urge the governor to ban fracking and make permanent the moratorium first established by former N.Y. Governor David Paterson. The moratorium was in place pending further scientific studies regarding the environmental and health impact of drilling deep into the Marcellus Shale deposits underneath a large portion of the state.
The gas companies are putting heavy pressure on Gov. Cuomo to join Pennsylvania, which is already suffering the ravages of fracking. Landowners in Pennsylvania and in other permitted states now realize that their water was contaminated by chemicals used in the fracking process and leaked natural gas from fractured shale deposits.
There also exists a formidable coalition of government officials, physicians, scientists at Cornell, civic groups, farmers and other diverse opponents fighting against this hydrofracking. The relentlessly-factual Walter Hang, President of Toxics Targeting in Ithaca, New York, is one of the most effective environmentalists opposing fracking.
Of course, on the other side are the oil and gas industries pursuing profits, landowners seeking royalties (though the fine print contracts may rise up to bite them), and upstate laborers hoping for employment. The gas industry publicists, who exaggerate the benefits to the local economies, ignore the short-term nature of most of the jobs and the costly toxic air, water and land destruction fracking leaves behind.
The fight against fracking in New York is like the recurrent struggle put on by the taxpayer-subsidized fossil fuel and nuclear industries that want to dominate energy policies in government and push the safer alternatives out of the way because energy efficiency and renewable energy don’t make profits for them. As Yoko and Sean point out, through their new group Artists Against Fracking (www.artistsagainstfracking.com), by insulating buildings, for example, they could “save far more energy and create far more jobs than fracking can produce, plus save consumers money forever.”
Industry engineering manuals portray the immense complexity of fracturing technology, the huge amount of water used per well, the pipelines and compressor stations, the congested truck traffic, the dozens of chemicals needed in the water to draw out the gas vertically and horizontally under the surface of the land. These materials leave out the emerging, grim reality which is memorably portrayed in the documentary “Gasland” by Josh Fox (gaslandthemovie.com).
Hydrofracking, whose side effects haven’t been fully vetted, is a new industrial way of obtaining natural gas. Instead of seeking these deposits, alternative energy sources should be pursued. Think of solar energy, dutifully, naturally providing most of the energy needed, from absolute zero, to make the Earth habitable. The rest is up to Homo sapiens – a species that must be giving Mother Sun the fits over not adapting its energy for efficient, safe daily uses.
We need to remember Ben Franklin, our frugal forebear who coined the phrase “a penny saved is a penny earned.” Today he would say “a trillion BTUs saved is a trillion BTUs earned.” The problem is that reducing waste – and despite progress, we are far less energy efficient than Western Europe or Japan – is not encouraged by present perverse market and regulatory incentives.
Germany is way ahead of us in both energy conservation and renewable energy. There, nuclear power is being phased out. And, price is used to discourage use of fossil fuels. There is also growing support for a carbon tax in this country including some leading corporate chieftains, but the message hasn’t reached the lawmakers in Congress. Too many of them are marinated in oil.
Your tax dollars helped develop fracturing technology which, if not stopped, will unleash its furies all over the world. There are hydrocarbons everywhere. Methane, among other gases, will be released in excess, which is many times worse a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. The regulators are not keeping up.
But the sun is everywhere in many forms – solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, passive solar architecture, wind power, wave power, non-corn biomass that doesn’t compete with food supplies and raise food prices. As I said years ago, “If Exxon owned the sun, we’d have solar energy very quickly.”
Therein is the rub. What is best for a planet with a decentralized, job-producing, safe, efficient, inexhaustible form of energy (at least for 3 billion more years) does not yet have the political muscle to go to the top of the U.S.’s energy priority ladder. The concentrated profits and the limited energy infrastructure are in the grip of the Chevrons and the Peabody Coals.
But history is not on their side. Countries with minimal fossils fuels are leading the way with renewables. Post the Fukushima disaster, Japan is upping the ante on conservation and renewables. Climate changes and natural disasters will wake up the rest of the world. Let’s act to make it sooner rather than later.
The latest bulletin (toxicstargeting.com/Marcellus_Shale) from the indefatigable Walter Hang alerts people to protest that the State Department of Health review is now “being conducted in total secrecy without any public participation.” He believes Mr. Cuomo will make his decision within three months and urges you to call the Governor’s office at 518.474.8390 or 212.681.4580.
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Is Public Comment Period End of Fracking Review?
The 30-day public comment period which began today is part of the 90-day extension the state DEC is using to finish it's fracking review. That 90-day period ends February 27th - a date pro-gas supporters say will be the finish line in the battle to bring fracking to New York.
"For many this means the process of implementing regulations to proceed with the SGEIS and drilling in New York is almost done," said Scott Kurkowski, attorney for the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York.
Not surprisingly, those in favor of keeping the moratorium on fracking disagree.
"That's wishful thinking on a level that's unsupported by the facts," said Walter Hang of Toxics Targeting.
Hang says three things have to happen for the state's fracking review to end: it needs to finish it's health review, complete the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, and complete the rule making for fracking.
"So it's an extraordinarily challenging scenario where all three of those bureaucratic hurdles would be surmounted," said Hang.
Fracking opponents criticize what they call the private nature of the state's fracking health review.
"We're not going to stop fighting until we get this Dr. Shah and three panelists to be able to face the public and answer questions," said Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan.
"There have been health studies done in other parts of our country and other parts of the world and so there are no glaring health impacts that are popping out to anybody else in the world and we suspect that will be true when the Health Department completes its review," said Kurkoski.
The public can mail or e-mail comment to the DEC until January 11th.
****In Binghamton, Jason Weinstein, Fox 40 HD News****
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