Tompkins County Legislature Chair Martha Robertson today issued a statement regarding Governor Cuomo’s recently reported comments concerning the State’s process and timetable for making a decision on whether to allow hydrofracking in New York State.

The County Legislature, by unanimous or near-unanimous votes, has taken several critical stands on the gas drilling issue—including advocating a statewide ban on such drilling, citing “many continuing flaws” in the Department of Environmental Conservation’s draft regulatory document.

“Governor Cuomo is quoted this week as saying the State's decision on whether to allow high volume hydraulic fracturing with horizontal drilling (HVHFHD) will come soon, within a couple of months," Chair Robertson stated.  "Does that mean the DEC will be ignoring the 60,000 comments on the revised dSGEIS that it received from the public as of January 12? On the 2009 draft, DEC received 14,000 comments; it took 20 months to review them and revise the dSGEIS in response. We have been told that many of the new comments are form letters. Even if three-quarters of them this time are form letters, that would leave 15,000 individual submissions to review and analyze. How can that be responsibly done in a couple of months this time?

“The Governor also said the decision will be based on scientific facts. I applaud that statement, since the overwhelming scientific evidence is that this industry will create greater global warming, the gas reserves have been wildly overstated, the industry will cost local communities more than it will benefit them, and fracking will put New Yorkers' health and natural resources at significant risk. In fact, newly published research in the highly prestigious Journal of Geophysical Research reaches the ‘inescapable’ conclusion that ‘shale gas will demonstrably increase the entire greenhouse gas emissions from the US (all gases from all activities) and be disastrous as a bridge fuel.’ It is essential that the DEC and the Governor understand the gravity of this research.

“Any economic gains from this industry will be short-lived, benefit only a few, and accrue mostly to out-of-state corporations. The damage will be widespread and irreversible. If the DEC is to be rushed into concluding its review of 60,000 comments from New Yorkers, the only rational conclusion must be that we already know enough: the damage from fracking -- to our land, water, and air, to our health, to our existing economy, and to the climate health of the entire planet -- cannot be sufficiently mitigated to allow fracking in New York.”

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