IOGANY Weighs in on Cuomo’s NY Frack Ban
MDN is a member of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York (IOGANY). We joined to support oil and gas drilling in New York State–our home. So we receive emails to the membership from Brad Gill, executive director of IOGANY. (Brad is an MDN friend, by the way. A really great guy.) Anywho, we don’t want to belabor the bad news of New York’s frack ban, but Brad sent around a summary yesterday of what happened during the Cuomo cabinet meeting/announcement, along with his own critique. We found Brad’s viewpoint useful and thought you would too…
Read More “IOGANY Weighs in on Cuomo’s NY Frack Ban”
It is a sad day. The proud Wheeling Water Warriors–with their super hero capes flapping in the breeze–are now reduced in rank by one. The top Warrior, the woman who started it all–Robin Mahonen–is hanging up her cape and leaving West Virginia. You may recall MDN talking about the Warriors, formed in 2013 to oppose a proposed frack wastewater treatment/barge facility in Wheeling (see 
Fracking Derangement Syndrome (FDS) is a dangerous disease. Most often it attacks those who grew up watching Captain Planet on Saturday mornings (one of the risk factors). FDS creates all sorts of weird behaviors in its victims. The disease recently struck again–this time infecting a 36 year-old Michigan man. The disease manifested by causing the man (the Green candidate for the U.S. Senate in Michigan) to crawl inside of a pipeline under construction by Enbridge and stay there for 10 hours, creating a danger to himself and those around him…
Yesterday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo held a rare cabinet meeting to discuss a variety of issues. The main focus of the meeting, however, was to announce Cuomo’s decision to ban fracking in New York. NY State Dept. of Health Howard Zucker presented his agency’s “review” of so-called impacts of fracking on public health. The entire charade was well-scripted to insulate Cuomo from the decision to ban fracking in the state, making it seem as if “science” has determined fracking is not safe. Zucker recounted the process his agency pursued in reviewing available studies and evidence of the possible affects of shale drilling on those who live near it. Zucker’s repeated claim was that there is not enough evidence, not enough “gold standard” studies thus far, to prove that fracking is not a health risk. Zucker intentionally chose prove a negative, which is a logical fallacy (you can’t prove a negative). Immediately following Zucker’s dog and pony show, NY Commissioner for the Dept. of Environmental Conservation, Joe Martens, said a) with all of the town bans happening, fracking would only be allowed in maybe 30% of the state, that the economic benefits are far less than originally thought, and b) given Zucker’s findings that fracking may not be safe, he (Martens) would close out the draft regulations, known as the SGEIS, and that he (Martens) would not allow fracking for the foreseeable future. Cuomo pretentiously said, “I don’t even think I have a role here.” Below we have the “report” from Zucker, a video of the cabinet meeting, and reaction to this carefully scripted and choreographed decision…
This is a very sad day for all New Yorkers. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has decided to not proceed with high volume hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in the state. MDN editor Jim Willis has just finished listening to a live announcement in which the State Dept. of Health Commissioner Howard Zucker embarrassed himself by admitting he relied on shoddy rumors and flawed studies–and even lack of studies–to draw the conclusion that fracking should not be allowed. Zucker repeatedly said “there’s not enough research” to convince him that fracking is safe for NY’s human population.