New York

Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

List of Upstate NY Elected Officials who Oppose Drilling
September 19, 2012September 19, 2012

Some New York State elected officials—particularly those outside of the Southern Tier where drilling may someday, possibly, perhaps, after numerous lawsuits, see a teeny tiny bit of drilling—are anti-drilling and attempting to get themselves noticed. Fortunately, they’ve given us a handy list of who they are—so you can either vote for or against them, depending on your viewpoint, in the next election (see the complete list of anti-drilling elected officials below).

Yesterday a group of elected officials held a presser in Utica, NY to announce the Utica Shale may be a “target” for fracking:

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Industrywide Issues | Litigation | New York | Statewide NY

Anti-Fracking Group Sues NY Gov. Cuomo & DEC over FOIL Request
September 19, 2012September 19, 2012

Talk about an ill-advised strategy… Even though New York Gov. Cuomo’s office and the state Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has been holding secret meetings with anti-drillers, asking for their opinions and advice on how to proceed with fracking in New York State, some of those same groups have turned around and sued Gov. Cuomo and the state claiming a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request they made earlier this year for the records about meetings between the governor, the DEC and the drilling industry have not been fully disclosed.

Hello anti-drillers! This is not how you win friends and influence people (like Andy) to your cause. The topper? The group suing isn’t even from New York.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Environmental Groups Ask Cuomo to Ban Fracking Permanently
September 19, 2012September 19, 2012

Yesterday, a group of the usual suspects of radical “environmentalist” groups, including 350.org, Catskill Mountainkeeper, Delaware Riverkeeper, et al, sent a letter to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo urging him to permanently ban fracking and instead pursue the fantasy of alternative energy for the state (letter embedded below). The signatories claim that clean-burning natural gas is not a bridge to their so-called clean energy nirvana future. Different day, same old stuff.

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Alternative Energy | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Statewide NY

Cuomo Announces Green Tech Initiative, Dithers on Fracking
September 18, 2012September 18, 2012

Throwing a little political red meat (and taxpayer money) to his leftist anti-drilling supporters, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo yesterday announced the launch of a new $30 million “green technology” initiative. One of the absurd arguments made by those who oppose drilling is that we can get by, right now, using only alternative sources of energy like wind and solar if we’d only just reduce the amount of energy we use—like by 50% (their estimates). You know, put padlocks on everyone’s thermostats so the furnace doesn’t come on for anything over 60 degrees. Rolling blackouts—“Today’s Tuesday, so we have electricity, horray!” That sort of thing.

Cuomo’s new green energy “initiative” with an emphasis on figuring out how to use energy more efficiently (sans rolling blackouts) will be music to anti-drillers’ ears. Meanwhile, Cuomo continues to dither on the one clean energy alternative that would make an immediate and profound difference for all New Yorkers: drilling for clean-burning natural gas.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Oneida County | Statewide NY

Even Without Fracking, Some NY Water Wells are Flammable
September 18, 2012September 18, 2012

A recent study released by the U.S. Geological Survey looks at water well contamination in New York State. The study sampled 239 wells, 12 of them located in the Mohawk Valley area of the state (Utica, NY area). At least one of the Mohawk Valley water wells has enough methane in it (28 milligrams per liter) to be flammable. Just like the faucet in the fictional movie Gasland! Just one thing: There’s no fracked natural gas wells anywhere close to that well (high volume fracking has never been allowed in the state—ever). It’s naturally-occurring methane.

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Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Violence

NY State Senator Receives Death Threats from Anti-Drillers
September 17, 2012September 17, 2012

New York State Senator Tom Libous, from Binghamton, a leading politician in New York who supports shale gas drilling, reports he’s received death threats by out-of-control anti-drillers. You know, those peace-loving “civil” disobedient types? Yeah, those people.

From the New York Post:

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Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York

Anti-Fracking Hippies Gather at Otsiningo Park Last Saturday
September 17, 2012September 17, 2012

A group of 60s hippies and hippie wannabes gathered at Otsiningo Park (in Binghamton, NY) over the weekend to hold a press conference and make noise about fracking—anti, of course. Among them were failed Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan, his failed sidekick (running for County Executive in a laughable campaign), Tarik Abdelazim, socialist Binghamton Council member Leah Webb and others. Read more about the event by clicking for the Press & Sun-Bulletin article the link below.

However, the better and frankly more perceptive coverage of the event, came from a former Press & Sun-Bulletin reporter who’s also anti-fracking, Tom Wilbur. Tom points out the rather small group assembled (maybe 100 people total, out of a metro area of 125,000), are signing pledges that if fracking is allowed in New York, they’re going to try and stop it using so-called “civil” disobedience (we’ve personally never seen the anti crowd act civilly!). In his coverage, Wilbur reaffirms what MDN has said for years now: These people are lost in the 1960s.

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Education | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Tompkins County

Cornell University’s Anti-Fossil Fuel Brainwashing Sessions
September 17, 2012September 17, 2012

The Cornell University Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences along with the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future (also a Cornell group) have launched a lecture series for undergraduates they call “Sustainable Earth Energy and Environmental Systems” (see the flier embedded below).

MDN calls it brainwashing sessions for young students to ensure they’re properly indoctrinated into the cult of hating fossil fuels.

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Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

A Reasonable Anti-Driller in New York?!
September 14, 2012September 14, 2012

Is there such a thing as a reasonable anti-driller? MDN doubted it, until we read a guest viewpoint in today’s Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin, by John Orzel. Mr. Orzel is a Democrat, former social studies teacher, resident of Broome County and running against Republican incumbent Tom Libous for the 52nd State Senate seat in New York.

Most anti-drillers attempt to obfuscate the fact they oppose drilling because of their bias against fossil fuels. Mr. Orzel owns up to it. Refreshing! He also owns up to the fact we still live in a free country with the best system known to exist for the fair distribution of wealth: capitalism. In MDN’s book, he constitutes one of the few examples of a reasonable, and truthful, anti-driller.

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Education | Erie County (NY) | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Research

SUNY Bd of Trustees Orders UB to Report on Shale Institute
September 13, 2012September 13, 2012

Started by the George Soros-funded Public Accountability Initiative, the witch hunt at University at Buffalo—the university that dared to establish a Shale Resources Institute—continues full force (see this MDN story for background). Now the State University of New York (SUNY) Board of Trustees is “ordering” UB to report back to them details about the Institute. Interesting the kind of influence money can buy.

Here’s what’s being reported:

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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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Broome County | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation

Anti-Drilling Group Gets Binghamton Univ. to Sign Petition
September 12, 2012September 12, 2012

An anti-drilling group in the Town of Vestal, NY (Broome County) continues to agitate and pressure the town board to enact a moratorium on non-existent fracking in the town. (New York still does not allow high-volume horizontal fracking, and by all accounts, won’t any time soon.)

The latest tactic by Vestal Residents for Safe Energy (VeRSE) is to dupe get 60 Binghamton University employees to sign a petition requesting a fracking moratorium. VeRSE plans to present the petition at tonight’s town board meeting.

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

Cuomo Says No Immediate Decision on Fracking in NY
September 11, 2012September 11, 2012

Is fracking in New York now effectively dead for the foreseeable future? MDN is pro-drilling, you know that. And we live and work in New York, you know that too. And we have many landowner friends in New York. We love New York!

But after comments made in a radio interview yesterday by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, MDN has to confess we’re concerned about the future of fracking in the state. Here’s how it went:

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Health Impacts | Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

More Details Leak on Secret DEC Meeting with Enviro Groups
September 10, 2012September 10, 2012

Anti-drilling book author and former Gannett reporter Tom Wilbur, who blogs about Marcellus Shale drilling here, still has his sources in Albany. And those sources tell him that Gov. Cuomo remains undecided about releasing new drilling rules for New York (called the SGEIS). They also told him more details about the recent secret meeting held by the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and virulently anti-drilling groups, a meeting where more delays were discussed, favorably, as it turns out:

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Hydraulic Fracturing | Industrywide Issues | New York | Regulation | Statewide NY

22 NY Town Supervisors to Gov. Cuomo: Drill Here, Drill Now
September 7, 2012September 7, 2012

On Wednesday, a group of 22 State of New York town supervisors, mostly from the Southern Tier area of New York, sent a letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo strongly encouraging him to release the Dept. of Environmental Conservation’s new drilling rules (called the SGEIS) now. A copy of the letter is embedded below. One of the signatories is Town of Binghamton Supervisor Tim Whitesell, current president of the New York State Association of Towns.

The supervisors’ message to Cuomo: enough with the delay. Further delays only encourage “disruptive acts” by anti-drillers and serve no purpose. Near the end of the letter, in bold, is this paragraph:

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Crime | Energy Services | Industrywide Issues | New York | Pipelines | Spectra Energy | Statewide NY

2 Protesters Arrested in NYC at Spectra Pipeline Site
September 7, 2012September 7, 2012

Yet another case of unhinged anti-drilling protesters, this one in New York City. For some time, protesters have rallied against a new 20-mile, $1.2 billion natural gas pipeline being built from New Jersey to New York City by Spectra Energy (see this MDN story). It’s the first new natural gas pipeline built to NYC in decades. According to NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg, without new sources of natural gas, New York City residents won’t just pay higher rates for heating and electricity, they’ll run out of it (see this MDN story).

Anti-drilling protesters don’t let reality and common sense get in the way of a good protest, however, so they’ve taken to so-called acts of “civil” disobedience—attempting to block workers in NYC as they try to construct the new pipeline. Yesterday, their antics got two of them arrested.

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