From The Guardian UK: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/13/fracking-new-york-grassroots-campaign-to-stop
City councils and local activists have stymied shale gas mining in New York, and could prove an example for others to follow
Richard Schiffman
guardian.co.uk, Monday 13 May 2013
Readers of the New York Daily News were treated to a little unsolicited advice from Ed Rendell recently. The former Pennsylvania governor, a Democrat, who presided over much of the fracking boom in his state from 2003 to 2011, invited his neighboring governor – who’s been sitting on the fence over shale gas mining – to join the party.
In Pennsylvania, Rendell effused, “thousands of solid jobs with good salaries were created, communities came back to life and investment in the state soared”.
What the Daily News failed to mention is that Rendell has lobbied the Environmental Protection Agency in favor of a driller company, Range Resources, and is currently a paid consultant of Elements Partners, a private equity firm with big stakes in several energy companies that are engaged in fracking.
And what Rendell failed to mention is that the drilling of over 150,000 wells for natural gas has transformed large swaths of rural Pennsylvania into what basically are industrial zones, bristling with monster trucks, wastewater ponds, and traffic jams. Air pollution is higher in counties with drilling than those without and residents complain about round-the-clock noise.
Ed Rendell also didn’t mention the McIntyre family, who live in Butler County – western Pennsylvania’s frack zone – and whose members suffer from projectile vomiting, headaches, breathing problems, mysterious skin rashes … the list goes on. The family dog died suddenly, after lapping up some water the family believes was problematic. The McIntyres no longer drink, brush their teeth, or do their laundry with the water piped into their home.
New Yorkers worried about fracking have been looking at the impact it’s had on their neighbors in Pennsylvania. Increasingly, they don’t like what they see there. After a fact-finding tour to the town of Troy, in northern Pennsylvania, Terry Gipson, a New York state senator, reported that, despite signs of renewed economic activity in the region, he couldn’t help wonder what will happen when the gas boom goes bust, as all booms inevitably do. Gipson asks:
Continue reading at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/may/13/fracking-new-york-grassroots-campaign-to-stop
