Marcellus Shale Press Coverage

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.

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.

"If it's not safe for all New Yorkers it can't possibly be safe for just the residents of the Southern Tier. The Governor has a really long row to hoe. It's fine that there's opposition in Westchester County toward the fracking wastewater, but there's never been any fracking wastewater dumped in Westchester County or anywhere downstate. It's all being dumped in Central New York, in the Finger Lakes, in the Southern Tier," Hang said.

Walter Hang of Toxics Targeting helped organize the protest and says the movement is growing in momentum. Hang says, "A couple of years ago, there'd be 5 or 10 of us here. And you can see, it's just a huge crowd. These people have not gone to work, kids have not gone to school, I'm not at work. We're here to send that message to Governor Cuomo, don't allow fracking in a demonstration project in the Southern Tier unless it's safe for all New Yorkers."