October 20, 2008

Welcome to Environmental Advocates of New York’s online newsletter from the State Capital, your source for environmental news. We update you every other week with tidbits and observations carefully gleaned from the halls of the Capitol.

Frack Attack

While the Southern Tier may not be under siege just yet, those who would like to profit from extracting the natural gas abundant beneath the Marcellus Shale Formation are gathering like dark clouds. And no one is sure what sort of storm they might bring.

New Yorkers are worried and with good reason. A drilling technique called hydraulic fracturing or “hydrofracking” has poisoned drinking water in other parts of the country.  And gas companies want to use this technique, combining it with horizontal drilling (whereby a vertical well is drilled to a certain depth before running horizontally below the surface) to extract natural gas from the Southern Tier.

You may recall that Environmental Advocates of New York reached out to our members and friends this past summer regarding our concerns about the drilling practice, whereby millions of gallons of slurry and potentially toxic chemicals are pumped into a well at high pressure to fracture the rock and release the gas. 

Hydrofracking, when combined with horizontal drilling, uses millions of gallons of water and chemicals per well. In July, we urged the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to update the state's “Generic Environmental Impact Statement on the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program” to address these concerns and update drilling regulations accordingly.

This is a critical issue because New York’s generic environmental impact statement for well siting, drilling, production and plugging is nearly 20 years old. The out-of-date document does not address changes in drilling technology and the amount of water and chemicals that hydrofracking requires. 

And as far as we’re concerned, New York's water resources are too precious to risk the depletion or contamination that could result from a lack of state oversight. 

In testimony before the Assembly’s last week, we let lawmakers and the DEC know that New York needs a transparent, fair, and predictable set of water withdrawal laws backed by strong science. The DEC needs the authority to assess and regulate the cumulative impact of multiple users on a water body, allowing for safe water use without depleting our resources, harming wildlife or disrupting delicate hydrologic balances.

The DEC is asking such authority statewide. Commissioner Grannis also said that drilling companies must tell the state what chemicals are used in fracking fluids, so that New York can assess and regulate their use to prevent water contamination. The industry considers these chemical formulas to be trade secrets.

There’s also the lingering question as to whether or not the state’s primary environmental agency has the staff it needs to get the job done. While the DEC has not released projections for the number of staff the agency anticipates needing to monitor and enforce drilling permits, in order to safeguard New York’s environment and drinking water supplies the agency will require more people to handle more permits.

While the Marcellus Shale Foundation may be the Northeast’s largest natural gas deposit, the threat of poisoning New York’s precious drinking water is too great, and too expensive, to contemplate. Such drilling cannot get a green light from state lawmakers, the DEC, or environmental groups, until we are certain it can be done safely and responsibly. 

Click here to read an editorial from last week’s New York Times calling for no drilling in the NYC watershed.

Click here to read an editorial from the Journal News.

Click here for the Times Union story on the Assembly hearing.

Polluters Should Pay

Protecting our natural resources from the threat of bad drilling practices, and a host of other threats, means the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) needs boots on the ground. But the Governor is calling state lawmakers back to Albany on November 18^th to consider budget cuts in addition to reductions already in place, and it’s not looking good for the DEC, or any New York State agencies for that matter.

The across-the-board hiring freeze that the Governor put in place back in August will result, by our estimates, in a loss of at least 200 to 300 staffers due to retirements alone. The hiring freeze means these positions will not be replaced, with unknown consequences for the state’s air and water quality.  

With at best flat, if not further reduced, budgets at the DEC, Environmental Advocates of New York believes the best hope for environmental protection is new proposals that embrace the “polluter pays” principle.

In the upcoming state budget, New York should make sure those responsible for polluting our air, land and water are paying for the damage they cause—and not cash-strapped New Yorkers. To protect our water resources from the threats of hydrofacking, the state should consider boosting drillers’ permit fees.

And this principle can be applied broadly. Take the state’s air permitting program for instance. Because of the program's outdated caps and fees, New York taxpayers—and not polluters—are paying a big chunk of the cost to regulate the state's air pollution. That's against the law according to the federal Clean Air Act.

We’ll continue to document how these budget cuts impact the DEC, and stay tuned for more ideas about ways to boost revenues and cut spending to ensure our precious natural resources are protected for generations to come.    

Save the Date for the 2008 Advocate Awards

Join Environmental Advocates of New York in celebrating the state’s conservation heroes at the 2008 Advocates Awards on Tuesday, November 11^th in New York City. Click here for details.

A Special Live Presentation of An Inconvenient Truth

Join us Wednesday, November 12th for a special presentation of An Inconvenient Truth to learn what we can do to address the climate crisis. Sponsored by New York State Senator Eric Schneiderman, Environmental Advocates of New York and Congregation B'Nai Jeshurun.

WHAT: An Inconvenient Truth 

WHEN: 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, November 12, 2008.

WHERE: Sanctuary at Congregation B'Nai Jeshurun, West 88th Street, NYC

Statewide Energy Bike Tour Coming Soon

As part of Energy Awareness Month, the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG), Environmental Advocates of New York and other environmental and civic organizations are organizing a bike tour and events across New York State to raise awareness about the need to take action against global warming. The events are being held between October 17th and the 25th at locations across the state.  At each event, there will be a news conference and rally calling on federal and state legislative candidates to embrace a “clean energy agenda,” including at least an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, embracing clean energy sources such as wind and solar power, and increasing efforts toward energy efficiency and conservation. Look for Information about an event near you in Environmental Advocates’ next newsletter. If you are part of an organization that would like to endorse the tour, please email cleanenergytour@gmail.com.