SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
NY Assembly Passes Two Year Fracking Moratorium, Senate Hoped to Follow
In a roll call vote of 95-40, the New York State Assembly has passed a two-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), the toxic horizontal drilling process through which oil and gas is procured that's found within shale rock basins across the country and the world.
Mar 07, 2013
In a roll call vote of 95-40, the New York State Assembly has passed a two-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), the toxic horizontal drilling process through which oil and gas is procured that's found within shale rock basins across the country and the world.
The bill, if passed by the Senate and signed off by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, would close the state's doors to the oil and gas industry's desire to begin operating in New York's portion of the Marcellus Shale basin until May 2015. New York has had a moratorium on the books since 2008.
This is the third time the Assembly has passed such a bill, with similar moratorium bills passing in 2010 and 2011, but then dying a slow death in the Senate and never reaching the Governor's desk, meaning the de facto moratorium has remained in place.
Could the third time be a charm in 2013 in the Empire State?
Signs point to "quite possibly," because the bipartisan Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) bloc of the Senate - which shares control of the Senate with the Republicans - has come out in support of the bill's passage, according to the Associates Press (AP).
"We have to put science first. We have to put the health of New Yorkers first," Sen. David Carlucci (D-38) and an IDC member told the AP.
Activists see it as a temporary reprieve and a victory for now. Alex Beauchamp of Food and Water Watchtold the Albany Times-Union:
Hundreds of New York health professionals agree with the State Assembly that we should not move forward without a full, comprehensive examination of the health impacts of fracking...Moving forward would simply enrich oil and gas companies that want to ship their gas overseas and their profits to Texas at the expense of New York's public health and environment.
The oil and gas industry, unsurprisingly, is up in arms. New York Petroleum Council Executive Director Karen Moreau told the Times-Union:
Today's vote by the State Assembly to further delay natural gas development is tantamount to telling the people of the Southern Tier to 'Drop Dead.' Once again, Albany politicians are putting politics before science, and the special interests before the people. The people of New York deserve better, to say the least
Given New York's ability to fend off the industry's desires to enter the state for going on five years, all eyes in the fracking stratosphere will be on the Senate and Cuomo - a potential 2016 Democratic Party presidential candidate - in the coming days and weeks.
On January 20th, it begins...
Political revenge. Mass deportations. Project 2025. Unfathomable corruption. Attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Pardons for insurrectionists. An all-out assault on democracy. Republicans in Congress are scrambling to give Trump broad new powers to strip the tax-exempt status of any nonprofit he doesn’t like by declaring it a “terrorist-supporting organization.” Trump has already begun filing lawsuits against news outlets that criticize him. At Common Dreams, we won’t back down, but we must get ready for whatever Trump and his thugs throw at us. Our Year-End campaign is our most important fundraiser of the year. As a people-powered nonprofit news outlet, we cover issues the corporate media never will, but we can only continue with our readers’ support. By donating today, please help us fight the dangers of a second Trump presidency. |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
Steve Horn
Steve Horn covers energy and the environment for The Capitol Forum. Previously, he wrote for DeSmogBlog and was a freelance investigative journalist.
In a roll call vote of 95-40, the New York State Assembly has passed a two-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), the toxic horizontal drilling process through which oil and gas is procured that's found within shale rock basins across the country and the world.
The bill, if passed by the Senate and signed off by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, would close the state's doors to the oil and gas industry's desire to begin operating in New York's portion of the Marcellus Shale basin until May 2015. New York has had a moratorium on the books since 2008.
This is the third time the Assembly has passed such a bill, with similar moratorium bills passing in 2010 and 2011, but then dying a slow death in the Senate and never reaching the Governor's desk, meaning the de facto moratorium has remained in place.
Could the third time be a charm in 2013 in the Empire State?
Signs point to "quite possibly," because the bipartisan Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) bloc of the Senate - which shares control of the Senate with the Republicans - has come out in support of the bill's passage, according to the Associates Press (AP).
"We have to put science first. We have to put the health of New Yorkers first," Sen. David Carlucci (D-38) and an IDC member told the AP.
Activists see it as a temporary reprieve and a victory for now. Alex Beauchamp of Food and Water Watchtold the Albany Times-Union:
Hundreds of New York health professionals agree with the State Assembly that we should not move forward without a full, comprehensive examination of the health impacts of fracking...Moving forward would simply enrich oil and gas companies that want to ship their gas overseas and their profits to Texas at the expense of New York's public health and environment.
The oil and gas industry, unsurprisingly, is up in arms. New York Petroleum Council Executive Director Karen Moreau told the Times-Union:
Today's vote by the State Assembly to further delay natural gas development is tantamount to telling the people of the Southern Tier to 'Drop Dead.' Once again, Albany politicians are putting politics before science, and the special interests before the people. The people of New York deserve better, to say the least
Given New York's ability to fend off the industry's desires to enter the state for going on five years, all eyes in the fracking stratosphere will be on the Senate and Cuomo - a potential 2016 Democratic Party presidential candidate - in the coming days and weeks.
Steve Horn
Steve Horn covers energy and the environment for The Capitol Forum. Previously, he wrote for DeSmogBlog and was a freelance investigative journalist.
In a roll call vote of 95-40, the New York State Assembly has passed a two-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"), the toxic horizontal drilling process through which oil and gas is procured that's found within shale rock basins across the country and the world.
The bill, if passed by the Senate and signed off by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, would close the state's doors to the oil and gas industry's desire to begin operating in New York's portion of the Marcellus Shale basin until May 2015. New York has had a moratorium on the books since 2008.
This is the third time the Assembly has passed such a bill, with similar moratorium bills passing in 2010 and 2011, but then dying a slow death in the Senate and never reaching the Governor's desk, meaning the de facto moratorium has remained in place.
Could the third time be a charm in 2013 in the Empire State?
Signs point to "quite possibly," because the bipartisan Independent Democratic Conference (IDC) bloc of the Senate - which shares control of the Senate with the Republicans - has come out in support of the bill's passage, according to the Associates Press (AP).
"We have to put science first. We have to put the health of New Yorkers first," Sen. David Carlucci (D-38) and an IDC member told the AP.
Activists see it as a temporary reprieve and a victory for now. Alex Beauchamp of Food and Water Watchtold the Albany Times-Union:
Hundreds of New York health professionals agree with the State Assembly that we should not move forward without a full, comprehensive examination of the health impacts of fracking...Moving forward would simply enrich oil and gas companies that want to ship their gas overseas and their profits to Texas at the expense of New York's public health and environment.
The oil and gas industry, unsurprisingly, is up in arms. New York Petroleum Council Executive Director Karen Moreau told the Times-Union:
Today's vote by the State Assembly to further delay natural gas development is tantamount to telling the people of the Southern Tier to 'Drop Dead.' Once again, Albany politicians are putting politics before science, and the special interests before the people. The people of New York deserve better, to say the least
Given New York's ability to fend off the industry's desires to enter the state for going on five years, all eyes in the fracking stratosphere will be on the Senate and Cuomo - a potential 2016 Democratic Party presidential candidate - in the coming days and weeks.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.