On October 6th, we announced the Sierra Club endorsement for Adam Haber in the 7th NYS Senate District. Concurrent with the announcement was a Newsday article featuring charges from his opponent that he had business ties to companies that frack for natural gas. The Sierra Club took this accusation seriously and asked Adam Haber to respond to the charges and clarify the nature of his investments. He answered our questions to our satisfaction and offered the following statement:
To be clear: I am opposed to fracking in New York state, now and in the future, and will be an ally to those would seek to prevent it from occurring in our state.
My investments in fracking, thousands of miles away, were made in the aftermath of 9/11, in which I was personally involved. That day had a huge impact on me - I left my work in the financial sector several years ago and decided I wanted to devote my life to improving my community and my country. At the time, our energy economy was largely dependent on countries that sponsored terrorism, and so I made these investments with a view towards our nation becoming independent from foreign oil.
These investments were not about profit, and with our dependence on foreign oil greatly reduced since I made that time, I am looking into divesting from them. I will certainly not be making any future investments in domestic energy companies that use fracking technology.
To reiterate: I am 100% opposed to fracking in New York state, regardless of the outcome of the Governor's study. In the event that the Governor does end up finding fracking to be permissible, I would still want to ensure that localities could vote to prevent fracking from occurring in their communities.
I have a great many passions on a variety of environmental issues. I firmly support developing offshore wind in Montauk. I have a plan to rent out the roofs of public and private schools for solar paneling. The Freon 22 debacle in my own community was a wake up call that our ground water on Long Island is being polluted beyond repair and I would like to proactively stop that before it is too late. I hope I can be considered on the totality of my environmental commitment, because it is animating force in my life, and I would be deeply proud to stand alongside the Sierra Club to fight for these concerns in Albany.
Thank you.
Adam Haber
Democratic Candidate for NYS Senate
Seventh District