Legislative Report From HSC Listserv
*Tompkins Gas Drilling Concerns Featured at Albany Session*
Speaking on behalf of the Tompkins County Legislature, Chair Martha
Robertson, as part of an Albany event today, urged that Governor David
Paterson withdraw the proposed document that would regulate natural gas
drilling in the Marcellus shale. Last month, the Legislature, approving
its official comments to the State Department of Environmental
Conservation (DEC) without dissent, urged that the State reevaluate its
review process and permit no drilling using the hydraulic fracturing
technique until an adequate environmental review is completed.
At the session at the State Capitol sponsored by a number of
environmental groups, Chair Robertson voiced the Legislature’s concerns
that the DEC’s draft supplemental generic environmental impact statement
(dSGEIS) is inadequate and that too many questions remain unanswered
regarding Marcellus drilling. Robertson said, “The DEC has failed to
meet its basic obligations” under the state’s Environmental Quality
Review Act, and should “scrap this document, read the thousands of
comments from the public, and start over.”
Robertson maintained that much is at stake regarding the county’s
environment and overall quality of life—including the potential of
permanent damage to the area’s water supply from toxic fluids, decline
in property values, a more than 20-fold increase in truck traffic and
other infrastructure issues that “overwhelm” local governments, and
what, in fact, amounts to “the industrialization of rural New York.”
Even with adequate safeguards, the Chair questioned whether the gas
extraction is the proper course, since she said it would dramatically
increase the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, instead of reducing them
as the Governor has urged. Robertson called upon the Governor withdraw
the dSGEIS and have the DEC investigate “the true carbon footprint of
hydrofracking the Marcellus Shale.”
Among other elected legislators addressing the Albany session were
local Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, Assembly members Brian Kavanagh and
James Brennan, and State Senator Tom Duane.
/Contact: Martha Robertson, Chair of the Legislature, 607-274-4434 or
607-272-0584./
*- END -*
------
Marcia E. Lynch
Public Information Officer
Tompkins County
125 E. Court Street
Ithaca, NY 14850
Tel: 607-274-5555/Fax: 607-274-5558
_______________________________________________
For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please
visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/
RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for:
[email protected]
http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins
Questions about the list? ask [email protected]
free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
