Fracking is coming unless we pull together to stop it

To the Editor:
If the stakes weren’t so high, the way that New York State is conducting its review of fracking's environmental and health impacts would be laughable. Again and again the governor and the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) have put the cart before the horse and turned what should be a straightforward, science-based process into a convoluted debacle.

It’s hard to explain how the DEC could issue the regulations that would govern fracking before they finished their Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, the in-depth document they have been working on for the last several years.

Or how they could issue those same fracking regulations before the panel of three medical experts they hired to study the health impacts of fracking submitted their report.

And all of this is coming on the heels of the devastating report this week by researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that has reconfirmed earlier findings of high rates of methane leakage from natural gas fields and in fact found that levels can be much higher than previously anticipated. These findings utterly vitiate the climate benefit of natural gas, even when used as an alternative to coal.

This week The New York Times released a copy of a year-old closely guarded report from the state’s Health Department that concluded that fracking could be done safely within the regulatory system that the state has been developing for several years. It is inexplicable how the state could come to that conclusion with no original research and no independent assessment of the public health risks.

Unfortunately this is not a laughing matter, and the fiasco that has become the regulatory process is moving us toward the implementation of fracking in New York State.

But there are still things that we can do to fight this outrage:

Help flood the DEC with comments on proposed fracking regulations

We have until just Jan. 11, 2013, to make comments on the DEC’s proposed fracking regulations. We are trying to replicate the staggering 66,000 comments that were submitted to the DEC on the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement and we need your help to do it. We want the Governor and the DEC to understand the depth of public sentiment against fracking New York State. Please go to Thirty Days of Fracking Regs (www.thirtydaysoffrackingregs.com) to learn more about the flaws in the regulations and submit your comments.

This is a critical time in the fight we have been waging against fracking and now more than ever we need your help.

We are in the trenches in our fight against fracking, and we now need to pull out all of the stops to make sure that New York State is not fracked. Please donate to our Fracking War Chest. We very much appreciate your support. Or send a check to: Catskill Mountainkeeper, Box 381 Youngsville, NY 12791

Catskill Mountainkeeper
Youngsville, N.Y.

www.catskillmountainkeeper.org