Democracy Means We Decide Not Cuomo
• Albany Action Demands: Ban Fracking in New York and Everywhere
• Anti-Fracking Organizers Gain Erie County Ban
Albany Action Demands:
Ban Fracking in New York and Everywhere
[TOP]
Anti-Fracking Organizers Gain Erie County Ban
On December 12, the Erie County Legislature voted 11-2 to ban fracking on Erie County lands. Erie County Executive Marc Poloncarz signed the legislation into law January 10. Legislators and Poloncarz alike affirmed the stand of the public is to ban fracking now!
Fracking is the dangerous drilling method for oil and natural gas that poisons the land and water and produced massive amounts of toxic wastewater. The Erie County ban prohibits drilling on county lands. It also prohibits the treatment or storage of any of the toxic wastewater or the use of fracking “brine” on county roads. The ban is the result of broad and sustained organizing by various anti-fracking forces in Buffalo and Erie County. These include New Yorkers Against Fracking and various other student and environmental groups.
The organizing included mass actions of dozens at Erie County hearings on fracking, as well as on the day of the vote itself, where more than seventy-five people jammed the legislature with the signs demanding a ban. It also included gathering almost 4,000 signatures of residents against fracking, a call-in week to county legislators. The legislators themselves spoke to the fact that the broad participation at hearings and for the vote and the petitions had an impact on their vote for the ban. The organizing also included persistent efforts of various kinds to educate the public and legislators about the dangers posed by fracking. These dangers include the poisoning of water and land, as has already occurred in the southern tier where some fracking has taken place and methane levels in water is so high it can be lit with a match. It includes major health impacts to humans and animals from the fracking and toxic radioactive wastewater produced; pollution and major disruption to the lives of the communities where drilling takes place, and more.
Erie County joins Buffalo and many other counties and more than 100 municipalities in New York to ban fracking. Buffalo Forum salutes the organizers and the efforts of all concerned to secure the ban and to carry forward the fight to ban fracking in New York State and everywhere. Current organizing efforts are focused on a rally in Albany January 8 targeting Governor Cuomo, who will be giving his State of the State address. People are mobilizing from across the state to demand that Cuomo act to Ban Fracking in New York State NOW.
Organizing efforts also include submitting more than 50,000 public comments to the NY Department of Environmental Conservation — all condemning a set of fatally flawed draft regulations that will allow building of fracked gas infrastructure. Alongside the Erie County ban, people in Monrovia, New York also secured a ban on fracking December 18. As well a plan to lay a fracked gas pipeline along the I-81coridor between Endicott and Syracuse was defeated. Broad resistance to the proposal achieved this defeat for the oil and gas monopolies.
New Yorkers have made clear that they do not want fracking in New York or anywhere. Buffalo Forum joins with all in continuing the organizing efforts to Ban Fracking in New York and Everywhere!
[TOP]