Major energy decisions hang in the balance
Chances are that by the time you read this, Governor Andrew Cuomo will have made a major decision on fracking. At the time of this writing we have no foreknowledge of whether he will approve some ill-conceived drilling pilot program or will actually take steps to ban the controversial gas extraction technique.
But what we do know is that thousands of New Yorkers will rally outside of Cuomo’s State of the State address on January 7—to either celebrate the victory with him or double down on holding the governor accountable.
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**(Updated to reflect change of date/rally)**
Please join us on for a celebratory rally!
What: Rally to Celebrate New York Fracking Ban and Lead the Nation in Renewable Energy at Cuomo’s State of the State address
When: Wednesday, January 21, 11:30 am-12:30pm; Celebratory gathering with speakers, 1-3pm
Where: Empire State Plaza, Albany (Indoors); Concourse Hallways, outside the entrance to the Convention Center
Additional Info: From 1-3pm we will have a celebratory gathering with food, drink, special guest speakers and music. This will be held at the Hilton Albany, 40 Lodge St (one block down the hill on State St from the Capitol building).
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During the course of the campaign season, Governor Cuomo indicated that he would make a decision on fracking by the end of 2014. His determination of whether to move forward hinges upon an internal review of the proposed drilling regulations by the Dept. of Health (DOH).
While this exercise has quietly kept the issue from advancing for the past 22 months, there has been legitimate criticism that the process has been secretive and largely without public participation, especially from the medical community.
Meanwhile, simultaneous with the internal DOH review, a steady flow of independently produced peer-reviewed studies and research has exposed the potential health hazards of fracking operations. Recently a coalition of medical professionals and scientists released a compendium of over 400 peer-reviewed studies linking fracking to increased birth defects, asthma, neuropathies, cancers and other serious medical conditions.
Almost 300 of those studies were published concurrent with the DOH review over the past two years. The notion that DOH is now receiving a new study-a-day on the health impacts of fracking makes clear that the health issue is far from resolved. The overwhelming evidence to date is that fracking, as currently executed, is a public health hazard.
If Cuomo was to truly listen to the science, as has been his mantra for the past four years, he really has no choice but to provide at least three to five more years for the scientific community to study and deliberate over the emerging data.
One narrative that concerns scientists and advocates alike is that Cuomo would advance a limited pilot program of test wells that would be studied as part of the ongoing review. Legally, such a move would be a violation of process, as no regulations are in place. It could also provide an uncomfortable precedent to ramp up more development without established rules or mitigations.
But from a research perspective, there are plenty of active wells and drilling sites available to study in other parts of the country where fracking is allowed—making it unnecessary to create such potential hazards in New York.
Perhaps more to the point, while studying the individual aspects of well development has its own merit, the real public health crisis occurs with the cumulative impact of hundreds of wells and the ancillary infrastructure to support that development. No test well can replicate that in New York.
The Sierra Club has banded with dozens of other organizations for the Not One Well campaign to demonstrate that not one environmental or public interest group will back Cuomo if he decides to move forward—even with this intermittent step.
The issue of fracking is a political liability and distraction for Andrew Cuomo—and he can no longer afford to put off a decision. Every public appearance he makes is accompanied by anti-fracking protests and every day of delay invites more industry scorn for his indecision. He should begin his second term with a decisive policy that puts the issue to rest.
And while it would be tempting for him to take the politically expedient path of embracing the powerful oil and gas industry, whose financial support could pave a path to the White house, it would also mean four more years of intense protest. Because of Cuomo’s leadership in enacting a gun control measure (the SAFE Act), many pro-Second Amendment rural landowners—the same demographic that is his base of support for drilling—has now irrevocably turned against him. If he does push a fracking program forward, there will not be a legitimate cheering section behind him.
It also seems unlikely that any fracking program he unleashes will see financial benefit to the state within his time in office. Part of the issue is that during the more that six-and-a-half-year de facto moratorium on fracking, all of us in the antifracking community have been busy implementing road blocks to drilling at the local level. And after all the municipal bans, enhanced setbacks, prohibitions, increased price points, reduced production data and mitigations are calculated, only a small portion of the Southern Tier is actually vulnerable to drilling.
While we can take some pride in this accomplishment, Cuomo may use the remaining “sacrifice zone” as cover to allow drilling only where it is perceived that political resistance is weakest—and walk away from the issue. We suggest that a wise governor would acknowledge there is an economy of scale to drilling development—and the public investment in building a fracking regulatory structure (which could cost as much as $150 million) could never be recouped in a constrained development area. Cuomo has to know that at this point fracking will be a bad deal for the state’s taxpayers.
Obsolete economic study
The 2011 SGEIS included a flawed socioeconomic study of fracking in New York that extrapolated potential gas production data, job creation and revenue without exploring costs to taxpayers, municipalities and competing industries; it did not mention losses in property values and quality of life. Clearly, with the reduced drilling area, heightened mitigations, outdated base assumptions and data informing this study (and indeed much of the SGEIS), it is no longer accurate. Before any decision can be made, this study needs to be overhauled so that the public can get an accurate accounting of how tax dollars will be spent in facilitating a drilling program, should it move forward.
But even without knowing how Cuomo will decide, understanding the broader context of the energy decisions before the administration is important. Choosing fracking, with its appalling risks and destructive footprint, would be all the more abhorrent because it is simply not necessary. New York has a tremendous economic opportunity in renewable energy and there are equally important decisions regarding wind and solar power that also need to be made before 2014’s end.
For instance, the state’s current renewable energy program is about to expire. New York’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), with its goal of 30 percent renewable energy in by 2015, has already been successful at bringing new projects online, including 21 new wind farms. It has helped create hundreds of good new jobs and driven $2.7 billion in direct investments in the state. We can envision a new RPS that would set the goal of 50% renewable energy by 2025.
However, if the RPS is not renewed, the lack of a ten-year commitment would discourage clean-energy developers from continuing to invest in New York, and the Empire State will lose out on billions in economic investments and thousands of new jobs. At stake are major off-shore wind proposals and community solar projects that await approvals.
We are hoping that Governor Cuomo will use this opportunity to make constructive choices. He can help get the state back on track by doubling down on clean energy sources that will create jobs and lower energy costs for families and businesses. That’s a choice that builds on current successes rather than accepting dangerous new risks like fracking.
The new year is upon us, and regardless of what decisions the governor will make (or has made already), the Sierra Club is committed to ramping up renewables and fiercely defending all corners of New York from fracking.