Public Opinion

Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion | Statewide NY

New Poll Finds Most Upstate NYers Favor Fracking
September 13, 2012September 13, 2012

A regular and ongoing Quinnipiac University poll of New York residents, the latest version which was released yesterday, finds that Upstate NY voters have tipped in favor of fracking. A majority of Upstaters, 45%, support fracking, while 41% oppose it. And it’s no surprise that 72% of Republicans are in favor of fracking while 54% of Democrats oppose it. Like it or not, fracking is a political issue.

The questions from the poll dealing with shale gas drilling in New York are embedded below so you can see the breakout by groups. Here’s a summary of the findings as reported by Quinnipiac:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion | Statewide NY

New York State Ad Wars Heat Up Over Fracking
August 22, 2012August 22, 2012

As we get ever closer to the New York Dept. of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) release of new rules to allow fracking—a decision expected either by or shortly after Labor Day—both sides of the debate are turning up the heat by taking to the airwaves and in print with advertisements.

For some time now, pro-drilling groups led by the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) have run radio and print ads (see below). The other side is now entering the fray with their own ads.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion | Statewide NY

Poll: New Yorkers Remain Split on Fracking, Some Surprises
August 21, 2012August 21, 2012

Each month the Siena College Research Institute conducts a statewide poll in New York to gage opinions on various political issues and politicians. For several years running they have polled on the question of whether or not New Yorkers support shale gas drilling and fracking. The unsurprising results again for this month are that statewide, New Yorkers are evenly split for and against fracking (see the results embedded below).

However, when you dig into the numbers, a surprising fact emerges about the geography people live in who favor drilling versus the geography of those who don’t.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Ohio | Public Opinion | Statewide OH

Poll: 63% of Ohioans Have Heard Little/Nothing on Fracking
August 1, 2012August 1, 2012

A new poll by University of Cincinnati researchers for the Health Foundation of Greater Cincinnati asked 834 randomly selected Ohioans their opinions about fracking. A copy of the poll results is embedded below.

Perhaps most surprising is that a combined 63% of Ohioans claim they have heard little or nothing about hydraulic fracturing. Asked about whether or not they believe fracking poses a threat to health, respondents were evenly divided.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion | Statewide NY

Poll of NYers Finds Continued Even Split on Drilling Issue
July 30, 2012July 30, 2012

Last week Quinnipiac University released the survey results for the latest New York State poll they conduct periodically. For some time they have asked the same questions regarding shale gas drilling in the state. The results from the latest survey, along with a summary of previous surveys going back one year, are embedded below.

MDN likes to give you the full, unvarnished survey results so you can see for yourself the language used in the questions, and the breakout of the responses between downstate and upstate. What does the latest survey show? What it’s shown for the past year or more: New Yorkers are divided 50/50 on the question of drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion | Statewide NY

Siena College Poll – New Yorkers Remain Split on Fracking
May 16, 2012May 16, 2012

Siena College Research Institute runs regular polls of New Yorkers to gage their opinion on a variety of topics. One of the long-running topics they poll on is whether or not New York should allow hydraulic fracturing to move forward. The latest Siena poll was just released today. The full breakout is embedded below. Here’s how Siena interpreted the results in their press announcement:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Public Opinion | Statewide PA

Western PA School Board Member Speaks Out on Anti-Drillers
May 4, 2012May 4, 2012

A school board member from a district in western Pennsylvania that recently voted to allow Marcellus Shale drilling under, but not on top, of school property wrote a must-read article that appears on the American Thinker website today. He shares with readers the process the board went through, the agonizing, researching, questioning, and public hearings on gas drilling. And the board member came to a key conclusion about anti-drillers: at their core, they are unreasonable people. To wit:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion | Statewide NY

Folk Legend Peter Yarrow Joins Anti-Fracking Protest in NY
May 4, 2012May 4, 2012

Guess who’s now on board the anti-drilling bus? Peter Yarrow, of the sixties folk singing group Peter, Paul and Mary. Or as MDN editor Jim Willis used to call them back in the 1980s, “Peter, Paul and Commie.” Yeah, the singers of Puff the Magic Dragon have always been politically active—on the far left. In the 1980s they flew to Nicaragua to show their support for the brutal Socialist/Communist dictator Daniel Ortega. Why is it liberals love the commie dictators like Ortega and Castro? But we digress.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion | Statewide NY

Jamestown Post-Journal Poll on Fracking Support in NY
April 25, 2012April 25, 2012

The Jamestown, NY Post-Journal is currently running a poll of its readership with the question: Would you support hydrofracking in New York state? MDN voted (in the affirmative of course), and here were the results as of this morning:

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Bucks County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Pennsylvania | Public Opinion | Regulation

Anti-Drillers Behave Badly at Act 13 Meeting in Nockamixon
April 13, 2012April 13, 2012

As is typical—and has been the experience of MDN many times—it is the anti-drillers at public meetings who are loud, unruly, offensive and just plain uncivil. The latest example on full display was last night at an educational forum at Palisades High School in northern Bucks County, Pennsylvania where a panel of twelve people had gathered to discuss and answer questions for residents on the new PA Marcellus drilling law called Act 13. Palisades High School is located in Nockamixon Township, one of seven PA townships that recently sued the state over Act 13 provisions that preempt local zoning laws for oil and gas drilling.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Public Opinion

Fox News Poll: Does Fracking Pollute Well Water?
April 11, 2012April 11, 2012

The Fox News website is currently running a poll which asks the question: Do you believe ‘fracking’ pollutes well water? Head on over and vote.

Here are the results so far, as of early Wednesday morning:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Public Opinion

Leftist PRWatch Claims Fracking Causes Breast Cancer
April 5, 2012April 5, 2012

Although it’s preferable to ignore (in an effort to retain one’s sanity) the lie machine that purports to warn us of the environmental holocaust hydraulic fracturing will bring, sometimes we have to respond to the truly egregious whoppers that are spun by the far, far kooky left. Like Daily Kos/Bill Maher kooky. One such organization is the innocent sounding PRWatch, a website of the equally innocent sounding Center for Media and Democracy (CMD). The CMD and PRWatch are somewhere left of Vladimir Putin and Fidel Castro, just to provide perspective.

PRWatch published a whopper yesterday that attempts to tie fracking to breast cancer. Just for good measure, the article also says fracking causes spontaneous abortions and birth defects, and is even responsible for crime against women. Who knew?

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Chesapeake Energy | Energy Companies | Industrywide Issues | Meetings | Public Opinion

Can Pro- and Anti-Drillers Ever Get Along?
March 23, 2012March 23, 2012

Both pro- and anti-drillers addressed a Wall Street Journal conference this week called ECO:nomics—and the sparks flew. Chesapeake CEO Aubrey McClendon spear-headed the pro-drilling side with his address, and Paul Gallay, president of Riverkeeper, represented the anti-drilling side. Some of Gallay’s comments illustrate the nonsensical arguments from anti-drillers. He responded to McClendon’s vision of getting off foreign oil with U.S. shale drilling this way:

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Cayuga County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion | Regulation | Wastewater

Auburn, NY Rescinds Ban on Gas Drilling Wastewater
March 9, 2012March 9, 2012

Wiser heads have prevailed in the upstate New York Finger Lakes community of Auburn—the Auburn city council has voted to once again allow the municipal sewage treatment plant to accept gas drilling wastewater.

As you may recall, MDN told you about protesters who descended on the tiny city of Auburn last year to protest not Marcellus wastewater being treated at the sewage plant, but local conventional gas drilling wastewater—something that had been going on for 15 years with no adverse effects (see this MDN story). In the rush to condemn fracking and prevent horizontal drilling in the state, ignorant protesters have fallen into the trap of protesting all gas drilling in the state—drilling that has gone on for decades.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | Public Opinion

Josh Fox Bullies Filmmaker, Decides to Make Own Documentary
March 2, 2012March 2, 2012

Move over Josh Fox and Gasland. There’s a new documentary on the way that will set the record straight and deliver the real truth about fracking. The new documentary is appropriately named FrackNation. Filmmaker and journalist Phelim McAleer is working on it now. In today’s New York Post, McAleer writes about how he was inspired by Josh Fox’s legal bullying into creating it:

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Albany County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Public Opinion

Enviro Groups Demand Fracking Ban in Albany Protest
January 24, 2012January 24, 2012

Environmentalists opposed to natural gas drilling were out in force in Albany, NY yesterday, demanding a ban on hydraulic fracturing. (MDN wonders if they know that vertical fracking has been going on in New York State for the last 40 years with no environmental apocalypse?!)

The rally, organized by Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Catskill Mountainkeeper, Earthworks, Shaleshock and other anti-drilling organizations, was designed to bring pressure on elected representatives in Albany.

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