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The Fracking Rashomon Effect: Why New York Banned but California and Maryland Didn’t

January 22, 2015
The Fracking Rashomon Effect: Why New York Banned but California and Maryland Didn't

Have read several accounts of how “we” banned fracking in New York, how “you (fractavists)” banned fracking and at least one thinly veiled “How I” banned fracking, plus the usual assortment of why Cuomo banned fracking from the main stream media, some of whom have gotten this about half right. The net result is a kind of Rashomon Effect - different observers see the same scene but report it quite differently, in some cases ignoring some of the other players entirely. You are entitled to your own perception of what happened, but you’re not entitled to your own facts. Have written a brief history of the New York ban movement myself, and have been agnostic as to who or what was more effective - since there were indeed a lot players involved and […]

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A Brief History of the New York State Frack Ban Movement

December 21, 2014
A Brief History of the New York State Frack Ban Movement

Or what the frack really happened ? The science - including the political science and the geoscience - decided. Why New York Did Not Get The Fracking It Did Not Deserve “Success has many parents, failure is an orphan.” We can summarize why fracking was prohibited in New York with a simple construct - the cost/ benefit ratio - what the environmental risks and economic costs would be to the state and it citizens versus the benefits of shale gas industrialization. Initially, this ratio appeared to tilt very much in favor of fracking - at least in the popular press and in the corridors of power - because the gas industry had grossly overstated the benefits of shale gas development while categorically denying the risks and collateral damage associated with it. […]

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Grisanti to Head DEC as Cuomo Greenlights Fracking New York ?

November 22, 2014
Grisanti to Head DEC as Cuomo Greenlights Fracking New York ?

UPDATE 11/24 GRISANTI OUT AS DEC COMMISSIONER “Environmental groups got nervous this week when they heard rumblings that the governor would tap soon-to-be-former Sen. Mark Grisanti to replace Joe Martens as head of the DEC. Martens, who had a considerable environmental background before joining the administration, has been with the governor since 2011. Grisanti is the outgoing Senate Environmental Conservation Committee chairman and is seen as especially close with the Cuomo administration. During the campaign, Cuomo publicly praised the GOP senator – the last remaining Republican senator of the four who voted “yes” on same-sex marriage in 2011. The governor stopped short of endorsing Grisanti outright, but didn’t back his Democratic foe, Senator-elect Marc Panepinto, either. But several sources on Monday didn’t just dismiss the idea, but slammed the door […]

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New York Court of Appeals Dryden Middlefield Home Rule Videos !

June 3, 2014
New York Court of Appeals Dryden Middlefield Home Rule Videos !

Home Rule, a municipality’s legal right to apply its zoning laws to oil and gas wells, was defended Tuesday in New York State’s highest court, the Court of Appeals. The judges grilled both sides, but left the distinct impression that, if the Legislature wants to specifically preclude a municipality from applying land use laws to oil and gas drilling, the Legislature will need to expressly prohibit it. Because the statute in question clearly does not. The trial courts and the state appellate court, a total of eight justices, including the judges in Avon and Binghamton that referred to Dryden, have found that zoning bans did not “seek to regulate the details or procedure of” gas drillers, but “simply establishes permissible and prohibited uses of land” within towns. Conspicuous in their absence: The DEC. The plaintiffs are contending […]

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Walter Hang’s Letter to Cuomo: No More Frack Filth in Water Plants

April 27, 2014
Walter Hang's Letter to Cuomo: No More Frack Filth in Water Plants

Dumping Frack Waste In Water Treatment Plants April 22, 2014 Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo Governor of New York State New York State Capitol Albany, NY 12224 Greetings: I write respectfully to request that you take immediate action to safeguard New York’s environment from the Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) inadequate regulation of natural gas drilling wastewater dumping hazards. This highly polluted wastewater contains a wide range of metals, organic chemicals and radionuclides that are toxic and persistent. As you will recall, I wrote on April 7, 2011 to request that you: “investigate potential environmental and public health impacts associated with approximately 20 million gallons of natural gas drilling wastewater reportedly accepted by the Auburn, Canandaigua and Cayuga Heights Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs).” I noted that: “This matter warrants your […]

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New York Shale Gets (another) Major Downgrade

April 21, 2014
New York Shale Gets (another) Major Downgrade

The League of Women Voters of New York have commissioned their own study on New York’s shale gas potential - this time from the industry. The results are a fraction - about 5% - of what the DEC had lead the public to believe was New York’s shale potential. Full report here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/219405163/Marcellus-Resource-Assessment-for-New-York-April-10-2014 http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/04/22/new-report-finds-marcellus-gas-costly-produce-raising-doubts-new-york-state One of the authors will be on Capital Pressroom : Arthur Berman and Elisabeth Radow on Capitol Pressroom, Tuesday April 22 at 11:30 to discuss report on economically recoverable Marcellus shale natural gas in New York. http://www.wcny.org/radio/capitolpressroom/ The League of Women Voter of New York State has contracted with Labyrinth Consulting Services, Inc. to perform an evaluation of potential economically recoverable Marcellus shale natural gas in New York. The resulting report: Resource Assessment of Potentially Producible Natural Gas Volumes […]

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State to Frack Babies: Frack Off

March 29, 2014
State to Frack Babies: Frack Off

The State of New York has responded to a landowner’s suit by telling them - in no uncertain legal terms - to take a fracking hike. The landowners claim that the state is taking too long to conduct its environmental and health review of fracking, but they are at a complete loss as to say how long such a study should take. They claim they have waited too long to drill a shale gas well on their property - when none of them has ever had a valid well permit application in the queue at the DEC. It’s ironic that they are calling for the state to update its regulations, when the gas industry has opposed any update in the state’s environmental regulations for decades. When it came to time to […]

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Frackers Giving Away Frack Goo !

February 13, 2014
Frackers Giving Away Frack Goo !

To any town or county that wants to coat their roads with a 100 year supply of fracking flowback. Then the locals can figure out how to get the stuff off their cars, trucks, trees, grass, streams, their kids. For the next 1,500 years or so. Think of all the money your town or county will save on de-icing ! Act fast, only a few trillion gallons left. . . . Or your town and county can tell the frackers to take their fracking filth somewhere else, Like some New York towns and counties are already doing. Is your town or county coating your roads with a secret blend of radium 226, strontium 90, arsenic, barium, and diesel fuel ? If your town or county elected officials have not taken steps to protect you […]

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Constitution Pipeline Frackdown !

February 13, 2014
Constitution Pipeline Frackdown !

Hearings have been scheduled on the proposed unConstitutional and increasingly Irrelevant Williams Pipeline at 7 pm on the dates / locations shown below. These hearings address the proposed draft environmental impacts of the proposed pipeline, here. Would encourage you to go, and would not fail to mention that the proponents of the pipeline - which will cause significant environmental damage and condemn miles of ROW - are unable to demonstrate that the gas field it serves - the Northeast Pennsylvania Marcellus - is in need of additional transmission capacity - now that it is in decline. Moreover, the exploration and production sister company of one of the pipeline’s owners, WPX, is already cutting back operations in the field the pipeline taps. If in fact production from the field was increasing, there might […]

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Williams : Fracking Bozos of the Marcellus

February 12, 2014
Williams : Fracking Bozos of the Marcellus

Every oil and gas play has its pioneers - generally the wildcatters that discover the field - and its bozos, the me-too johnny-come-latelys that define where the field ends. The Marcellus has a large cast of bozos in New York - Norse Energy, Gastem, various fracking riffraff. Pennsylvania has its own share of bozos - Hess, Newfield, and Williams Exploration - who is single handedly defining that the NE Pa. Marcellus has plateaued if not peaked. These are the fracking gasholes that want to buy up ROW in New York state to build the Constitution Pipeline to supply a field that they can’t find any fracking gas in. If these gasholes show up at your place looking to buy right of way and threatening you with condemnation, tell them Come and fracking try […]

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