Upfront full disclosure – this post is not ‘fair and balanced.’ Also, I don’t claim to know enough to be able to have a good debate with a really well-read person on the other side of the issue. There are tons of websites where you can get all the graphs, charts, and arguments, both pro can con, about the issue of hydrofracking for natural gas. This isn’t one of them.
I do, however, know where I stand, firmly, on the issue. NO FRACKING!
Ok, now that you know where I’m coming from, I’m guessing you agree, or you would have stopped reading by now. If you are also opposed to fracking and live in New York State, there’s currently an opportunity to take a step to protect the environment. That step is support of Senate Bill #4616. This bill will make the drillers follow the same rules for the disposal of their waste that every other business does – hospitals and farmers, auto body shops and building contractors, factories and…well, everybody. Except the oil & gas industry, who gets a pass on regulations. And on disclosing what, exactly, they use in their fracking fluid.
You can google SB 4616 and get tons of information, so I’m not even going to try to give you more here. I’m just going to suggest, strongly, that you contact your NYS senator THIS WEEK and encourage him or her to vote FOR SB 4616. If you write a letter or send an email, send a copy of it to Dean Skelos, Senate Majority Leader & Chair of the Senate Rules Committee. (I believe the bill is still in the Rules Committee.) Here’s Senator Skelos’ contact info:
Albany Office
Legislative Office Building, Room 909
Albany, NY 12247
Phone: (518) 455-3171
District Office
55 Front Street
Rockville Centre, NY 11570
Phone: (516) 766-8383
Your turn: let me know if you have any positive results.
Full disclosure on my part, I thought fracking was just slang for another word (!) until about 2 weeks ago, where it’s also apparently a hot topic in California.
We all have our own learning curves, Jill. And things that are important to us. Living in a rural area, where there used to be lots of active oil wells, makes my county ripe for hydrofracking, so the issue is very real here. If I lived in a city, I probably wouldn’t be paying quite as much attention.