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Cuomo Says NY Doing a Good Job on Frack Health Review (LOL)

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. Oh, sorry, but we just could not stop laughing when we saw a quote made by Gov. Andy “he without a spine” Cuomo yesterday. With respect to the now year-long health review of proposed fracking regulations in New York–a review that was supposed to be done “within the next few weeks” back in February–Cuomo actually, incredulously said (please, try not to roll on the ground laughing like we just did): “I think we’re doing a good job on it.”

Andy must have a REALLY low opinion about the intelligence of the average NY voter…

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New Study: No Increase in Childhood Cancer Rates Near PA Fracking

More bad news for anti-drillers. A recently published study in the peer-reviewed Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (July 2013 issue) looks at incidences of childhood cancers in Pennsylvania–in areas with hydraulic fracturing. The study, titled “Childhood Cancer Incidence in Pennsylvania Counties in Relation to Living in Counties With Hydraulic Fracturing Sites” (full copy embedded below) looks at the rates of cancer both before fracking begins, and then again after fracking has been going on.

And what did this scientific study find? Statistically, there are no increases in childhood cancers in areas where there is fracking. Bad news for anti-drillers–good news for everyone else, including “the children”…
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NY Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo’s Anti-Drilling Snit Fit

New York Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo is a Democrat from the Binghamton, NY area, a member of the Assembly Committee on Environmental Conservation and a member of the governor’s High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel–appointed to the panel by Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens. Her opinion on fracking matters—she carries influence in Albany. She’s also anti-drilling, as MDN pointed out in March (see NY Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo: Fracking Friend or Foe?). She coyly attempts to straddle the fence with her language, but her actions speak so loudly we no longer hear her political double-speak.

Once again Lupardo proves her anti-drilling creds. She has just sent (yet another) letter to DEC Commissioner Martens (full copy embedded below). This time Lupardo wants to let Martens know she’s miffed that he won’t assemble the fracking advisory panel per her previous request earlier this year, and to let him know she thinks the never-ending health review of fracking regulations by State Health Dept. Commissioner Nirav Shah should be put on immediate hold. To which we say, really? The health review is already on hold! More on Lupardo’s anti-drilling snit fit to Martens…
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HalenHardy Wins Ben Franklin EHS Award for Silica Air Shower

Congratulations to HalenHardy, a company that makes a mobile air shower to quickly remove silica dust from workers’ uniforms. HalenHardy is the recipient (yesterday) of the Ben Franklin’s Shale Gas Innovation & Commercialization Center’ first annual Shale Gas Environmental, Health, & Safety Award. MDN editor Jim Willis was in the audience at the Shale Insight conference to witness the award.

Jim later spotted and congratulated co-founder and CEO Donnie Beaver as he sat on the exhibit hall floor up to his neck in booth paraphernalia. The company is building a fully operational demo unit for the exhibition hall available starting Wednesday. (Jim plans to take a turn.) The official announcement from the Ben Franklin Center:

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NY Eco Group Sues Health Dept/Shah to Release Frack Health Study

pinnochio marionetteMDN has made it plain we believe New York State Dept. of Health Commissioner Nirav Shah, who in February of this year said he was just “weeks away” from releasing the results of his research on the potential public health impacts of proposed new fracking rules from the NY Dept. of Environmental Conservation, is covering for his boss, Gov. Andrew “Ditherer” Cuomo (see Cuomo Underling Shah: “No Timetable” on Fracking Decision). We on the pro-drilling side of the debate are not the only ones unhappy with the Cuomo/Shah marionette show.

This week an anti-drilling group from the Finger Lakes area–the Seneca Lake Pure Waters Association–sued Shah and the Dept. of Health in an attempt to get the research documents finally released. The Association previously filed Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) requests in an effort to obtain the documents but Shah refused. Now the courts may finally force Andrew the Great Ditherer to finally get off his rear-end and make a decision by requiring Shah to release his findings…
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Is Cuomo Buying Off Health Commissioner to Delay Fracking Report?

It’s now apparent to everyone that NY Gov. Andrew “Ditherer” Cuomo is using State Health Commissioner Nirav Shah as his excuse to delay making a decision about whether or not to allow fracking in the state. What’s Shah been up to? Going on junkets–trips where he supposedly confers with people knowledgeable about fracking in other states (and countries). For what? He can’t pick up the phone and call? Doesn’t he have email (or a physical mailing address) so people can send him information? Does he need to be face-to-face so he can look in their eyes to be double-dog sure they’re telling him the truth?

Sure sounds to us like Shah is being bought off with all-expenses paid vacations (averaging about one a month) from Prince Andrew in return for being the whipping boy. Here’s the timeline of Shah’s junkets…
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Health “Study” of Whopping 27 People Blames Drilling for Symptoms

A very small, statistically invalid and anecdotal set of 27 people in Washington County, PA who claim the ill health symptoms they have are caused by activities related to shale gas drilling is reason enough for the AP to trumpet a story that shale drilling causes negative health impacts. The symptoms include skin rashes, eye irritation, breathing problems and headaches–i.e., just an average day at the local walk-in clinic. But because there are shale wells, a gas processing plant and compressor stations nearby, the drilling industry is blamed for the symptoms.

Hmm, there’s roads nearby. Are the roads to blame? There’s railroads nearby–are they to blame? There’s a Girl Scout troupe nearby….you get the picture. Nope. Drilling is squarely to blame for this “array of symptoms” because these people claim they didn’t have the symptoms prior to drilling but they do now. We wonder, are any of them members of the Sierra Club?…
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SW PA Well Water Testing Project Needs Volunteers

The Washington County Watershed Alliance (WCWA) and Southwest PA Environmental Health Project (SWPA-EHP), with an assist from Carnegie Mellon University’s (CMU) CREATE lab, are conducting a large-scale project in Washington County, PA to see if Marcellus Shale drilling is affecting water wells in the county. MCWA wants both landowners who live near drilling, and landowners who do not live near drilling, to participate. The program is free and volunteers get a neat little device created by the CMU CREATE lab called a CATTFish that inserts in the back of your toilet–simple and quick.

Here’s more information about how (and why) to participate in the program, along with a flier from WCWA about the program:
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PA Marcellus Health Study Still No Pulse – Needs Extra $24M

The much-ballyhooed “first ever” study of the health impacts of Marcellus Shale drilling announced in August 2012 by Geisinger Health System and Guthrie Health (later joined by Susquehanna Health) still does not have a pulse (see Health Care Systems Partner to Study Marcellus Impacts). After the study was announced with great fanfare, the organizations performing it (Geisinger et al) stuck their hands out and said “we need money to do it.” Finally, six months later, the Degenstein Foundation of Sunbury, PA stepped up and gave the group $1 million to get the ball rolling.

Problem is, according to a Geisinger spokesperson, the study is still $24 million short…
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New Study Debunks Public Health Impacts from Fracking Fluids

NY State Health Commissioner and Gov. Cuomo should pay attention to a comprehensive new 169-page report/study commissioned by the (hated) Halliburton but performed by the independent Gradient Corporation titled, “National Human Health Risk Evaluation for Hydraulic Fracturing Fluid Additives” (full copy embedded below). The report takes a detailed, scientific look at the potential effects of fracking fluids on human health. Specifically, the report considers possible chemical migration from underground target formations as well as situations where chemicals spill on the surface.

The conclusion? Neither underground migration nor surface spills pose an “adverse risk” to human health. Even in worst case scenarios where chemicals are spilled on the surface (the only practical way for fracking chemicals to contaminate water supplies), the amount of chemicals used in fracking fluid becomes so diluted so quickly it’s an non-issue.
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PA Senator Proposes Panel to Study Health Impacts from Drilling

The main architect of Pennsylvania’s Act 13 legislation that was passed last year was Republican state Senator Joe Scarnati. Act 13 was PA’s most sweeping revision of oil and natural gas drilling in decades, providing for (among other things) the collection of an “impact fee” (or tax) that resulted in $204 million in revenue in 2012.

Scarnati is back with a proposal for more legislation that will impact the Marcellus Shale–this time, he wants to create an advisory panel to investigate public health issues related to Marcellus drilling…

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Pittsburgh Newspapers Not Ready to Concede Defeat in Range Case

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Washington, PA Observer-Reporter are not quite ready to throw in the towel on what increasingly looks like a vendetta against Range Resources. The two newspapers sued in May 2012 to have court documents unsealed in a settlement between Range and the Hallowich family in Washington County, PA (see Pittsburgh Newspapers Sue to Unseal Drilling Court Case). The newspapers were hoping to find evidence that Range had covered up a case where their drilling (fracking) had led to contamination of the Hallowich’s water well, or perhaps had adversely affected their health. A judge recently unsealed the court documents and guess what? No evidence of water contamination (see Judge Orders Range/Landowner Settlement in PA Made Public).

Not only was there no water contamination, the Hallowich’s signed an affidavit stating there has been no ill health effects as well (see Affidavit in Range PA Settlement Shows No Drilling Health Impacts). Oops. Major egg on the face of the newspapers. Or using a different metaphor, they went fishing and didn’t even get a bite. What to do? We know! Gin up a false controversy that there’s still a missing document from the the mountains of documents the court released. Yeah, that’ll be worth a few more headlines and copies sold. After all, we have to somehow help pay for the lawyers and time we burned on this effort…

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NY Anti-Drillers Send Letter to Cuomo: Stop the Health Review Now

In yet another public relations stunt, Walter Hang from the Ithaca-based Toxics Targeting group, along with several of his anti-drilling, eco-nut buddies (like failed Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan), sent Gov. Andrew “Ditherer” Cuomo a rambling 4-page letter on Tuesday requesting that he instruct NY State Health Commissioner Nirav Shah to abandon his current review of fracking rules with an eye on health impacts. Why? Because the current review is “fatally flawed” and “an exercise in futility.”

Instead of the current review, Hang & Co. “request” the Dept. of Health perform a full, years-long public health impact study…

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NY Health Com. Nirav Shah Says Fracking Health Review Almost Done

burst bubble An interesting development in the “As Cuomo Dithers” fracking soap opera. Freshly back from a road trip to confer with researchers studying the health effects of fracking, New York State Commissioner of Health Nirav Shah appeared at a press conference yesterday with Gov. Cuomo. In a surprise announcement, Shah said he will render his judgment on the question of frack/no frack “in weeks.” Cuomo himself made some encouraging remarks at the presser too, including his belief that the two-year moratorium bill passed by the NY Assembly last Wednesday is going nowhere fast.

You may recall we are currently waiting for Shah’s review and official opinion on whether or not fracking as done under the rules proposed by the Dept. of Environmental Conservation would negatively impact “public health.” Shah and his assistants went on a road trip to find out what they could from fracking health studies now under way (see Deadline for NY Fracking Regs Slips Again…Or Does It?). One of those studies, being performed by Geisinger Health Systems, has only just received $1 million in funding and preliminary results won’t be available for at least a year. Anti-drillers celebrated and took that to mean fracking in New York will be on hold for several more years. Shah and Cuomo’s comments from yesterday may have burst their bubble…

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The Andy & Junior Show: Why NY Fracking is Delayed Yet Again

narcissist The truth came out over the weekend from, of all places, the Associated Press (see below). New York Gov. Andrew (“Andy”) Cuomo’s former brother-in-law, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (we’ll call him “Junior”), couldn’t resist his “the whole world revolves around me” narcissistic tendencies to let the media know that he, Junior, is the real reason fracking in New York is now dead.

Andy was all set to approve up to 40 test wells for fracking just last month, then Andy (a 1-percenter) talked with Junior (another 1-percenter) and that sealed the fate of 77,000 New York landowners (99-percenters) who want to lease their land for drilling.

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PA Marcellus Health Impact Study Finally Gets Funding

finally In August 2012, Geisinger Health System along with a second health system, Guthrie Health, announced they would jointly conduct the first ever study of the health impacts of Marcellus Shale drilling (see Health Care Systems Partner to Study Marcellus Impacts). They were later joined by a third organization: Susquehanna Health (see Third Group Joins Unfunded Marcellus Health Impact Study). Problem was, they didn’t have funding to begin the study (see Much-Ballyhooed Marcellus Health Impact Study Not Funded).

Six months later funding has finally arrived in the form of a $1 million grant from the Degenstein Foundation of Sunbury, PA. Geisinger Health announced the grant yesterday on their website:

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