Syracuse, N.Y. — Dozens rallied in front of the state Department of Environmental Conservation's regional headquarters in Syracuse today, demanding that Gov. Andrew Cuomo and the DEC ban hydraulic fracturing throughout the state.
Similar rallies were held across the state after published reports that a Cuomo administration proposal would limit the natural gas-drilling method to communities that support the drilling in five Southern Tier counties. The rallies were organized by New Yorkers Against Fracking. The state currently has a moratorium on the practice.
"Governor Cuomo, anybody who makes my son cry has a problem with me," said biologist Sandra Steingraber, founder of the group and distinguished scholar in residence at Ithaca College.
Steingraber touched on some of the themes echoed by many of the other speakers:
• Hydrofracking hasn’t adequately been tested for its impact on human health;
• It makes no sense to divide the state into areas that allow fracking and those that don’t by using the people in some of the poorest parts of the state as "lab rats";
• The jobs created and natural gas produced by the process are exaggerated and only temporary;
• Cuomo appears to be supporting limited fracking for political reasons with an eye toward running for president in 2016;
• And even if the state did a thorough, scientific study of fracking, its only logical conclusion would be a permanent ban.
Frank Ordoñez / Staff photographerMost in attendance held signs such as "Don’t Frack With Our Water" and waved them at motorists who drove by the Region 7 headquarters at 615 Erie Boulevard West. Some motorists honked as they passed.
Bill Fisher, of LaFayette, said Cuomo was proposing the limited use as a political trial balloon.
"This balloon is filled with methane gas, and it will blow up in your (Cuomo’s) face," he said.
Joe Heath, a Syracuse attorney who represents landowners and the Onondaga Nation, agreed that Cuomo’s position was politically motivated.
"We can’t allow Cuomo to do this to the Southern Tier," he said.
Perennial Green Party candidate Howie Hawkins called for people who favor a ban to step up and run for political office, so New Yorkers won’t have to choose between candidates who favor no ban and a limited ban.
"There is power in numbers," agreed Matthew Greacen, CEO of Nature’s Chemistry LLC and a cousin of actor Alec Baldwin. "If Facebook can overthrow the oldest government in the world, Egypt, we can ban hydrofracking."
