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Further Reflections on the Nov 30 NYC DEC Hearings

As I reported yesterday, I attended the Nov. 30 New York City hearing convened by the Department of Environmental Conservation on proposed new draft drilling regulations called the SGEIS, or Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (see MDN story here). I arrived at the TriBeCa Performing Arts Theater about 10:30 am to wait in line. Upon arriving, there were maybe 75 people in line. I immediately spotted my friend Bill desRosiers, field director with Energy in Depth – Northeast Marcellus Initiative who invited me to stand with him and his colleagues in line. Normally I don’t jump lines, but since there were perhaps 20 people between Bill and the end of the line, and the theater holds 1,000, I decided to stay and hang out.

Little did I know that our little group of pro-drillers was about the only group of pro-drillers that would attend the morning session. A few more showed up to be sure, but almost all of those who attended the morning, and according to accounts I’ve read for the evening session too, were against Marcellus Shale drilling. As I joined Bill (and later friends Tom Shepstone and Rachael Colley, also from EID-NMI), we were surrounded by anti-drillers. In fact, this gentleman was standing immediately in front of us, pointing his sign toward the street:

Fracking protest sign

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