Starve the Frackers

Bureaucracies, like the DEC, run on budgetary allocations. Budgets are approved by the state legislature. If the legislature does not approve of the way an agency is being run, it can simply disapprove its budgetary request. Imagine that.

Suppose, as a wild for-instance, that the DEC was involved in a massive cover-up during the entire time that the proposed fracking regulations were being publicly reviewed. Seems far-fetched, but just go with me on this: that, while experts, scientists, physicians and elected officials generated almost 300,000 comments on those proposed regulations, the DEC hid the history of its regulatory proposals. Imagine those hidden regulations were actually better for the general public and the environment than what the DEC now says are its “final regulations.”

What if you went to those SGEIS hearings, wrote your comments and you found out you had been duped by the DEC. Imagine you were a legislator and you had been duped by the DEC. What if you were a legislator, held a hearing on the proposed regulations - and the DEC failed to show up. Or that you had a hearing, and you got the fracking run around.

Under those circumstances, how much money would you be inclined to approve for the DEC to turn Upstate into a experiment in environmental gerrymandering ? How about zero. Goose egg. Nada. You would starve them of funding until they got their house in order.

This is not lost on voters that face the prospect of being fracked.

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/New-anti-fracking-TV-spot-unveiled-4237597.php#media-55836

Go to the DEC’s budgetary hearing in Albany on Monday and tell the legislators how much they should approve to turn New Yorkers into fracking guinea pigs: Not a fracking farthing.

http://nyagainstfracking.org/take-action/the-11th-hour-is-here/

Governor Cuomo: NO SGEIS - NO REGULATIONS- NO FRACKING NYIt’s the 11th hour in the fight against fracking. We are faced with a February 13 do or die deadline when the revised Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) will or will not appear in the DEC’s Environmental Notice Bulletin. The SGEIS legally has to age 10 days in order to issue the final Findings Statement and final regulations (the ones we recently commented on) by Feb 27. We need to voice to the Governor that the power of our movement is growing and that allowing fracking in New York would be the fatal mistake of his political career.The health review currently underway has been done in secret with no public comment or transparency. The Governor needs to open up the review and allow for public participation. By opening up public participation of the health review, he must halt finalization of the SGEIS and subsequently let the proposed regulations expire - this is what needs to happen to allow science, facts, and public health to drive this decision.This is why we need you back in Albany on February 4th for the NYS Legislature’s Budget Hearing on Environmental Conservation, where the legislature will be able to question DEC Commissioner Martens on their secretive, dysfunctional and undemocratic process. We need to pack the room and be there when DEC Commissioner Martens testifies, starting at 9am and for the entirety of his remarks. Following the Commissioners testimony we will gather in the Million Dollar Staircase for a rally and a press conference to unite as a united front and demand that this fatally flawed process not move forward. We’re asking everyone to wear blue and bring a jar of the clean water from your tap to hold up as well as signs. Our message to Governor Cuomo is this - we are organized and we will not let up or give up.OUR MESSAGE ON FEBRUARY 4th is this: NO SGEIS- NO REGS- NO FRACKING NYWhat:
Rally to Stop Fracking Approval by Governor Cuomo
NO SGEIS- NO REGS- NO FRACKING NY
&
Legislative Budget Hearing-Testimony by DEC Commissioner Joe Martens
(Pack the Hearing Room!)When:
Monday, February 4th, 2013 9AM-2PM
Environmental Conservation Hearing- Pack the room during DEC Commissioner Martens Testimony at 9AM
Rally in the Million Dollar Staircase at 12PMWhere:
The hearing is in the Legislative Office Building- Hearing Room B Albany, NY (9am)
The Rally will be in the Million Dollar Staircase in the Capitol Building, Albany, NY (12pm)Bus from NYC:
http://act.foodandwaterwatch.org/site/Calendar?id=102041&view=DetailBus from New Paltz: http://act.foodandwaterwatch.org/site/Calendar?id=102081&view=DetailBus from Syracuse:
http://act.foodandwaterwatch.org/site/Calendar?id=102201&view=DetailBus from Ithaca:
http://act.foodandwaterwatch.org/site/Calendar?id=102182&view=DetailSign up for carpool: http://nyagainstfracking.org/take-action/the-11th-hour-is-here/