Cuomo Says No Fracking in NYS

  |  December 18, 2014
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Just in case you’ve been in a holidaze and missed yesterday’s very big announcement from Governor Cuomo’s office: Hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as fracking, is now banned in the entire state. You can read all about it in the New York Times. Quoth Howard Zucker, Cuomo’s acting health commissioner:  “I cannot support high volume hydraulic fracturing in the great state of New York.” Fracking, which is a means of extracting oil or natural gas from under Marcellus shale deposits by spraying a mix of water and chemicals at the shale to fracture it, has been derided by state environmental groups as potentially harmful to the water, air, and other state natural resources. This is a huge victory for environmentalists all over the state and could set a precedent for other states to follow suit.

Many comments we’ve read on social media about this announcement, which came during a year-end cabinet meeting on Wednesday, were forgiving toward the Gov, praising him for the ban. And while Cuomo’s decision could be as strictly political (let’s not forget that a virtually unknown Zephyr Teachout bloodied his nose a little during the most recent gubernatorial race), it’s still a smart move and one that many of us were concerned would never happen. It’s been a long time coming, after all. Supporters of fracking hoped to see natural gas mining spark job growth in the state. And we certainly understand that. But as we said when we posted about the REDC’s very pointed exclusion of Niagara Bottling from its awards list, we are no longer interested in sacrificing our precious natural resources for economic development. We’ll just have to find other ways to do it. Meanwhile, we’re still relishing the good news.

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