Sunday, October 27, 2013

Hydraulic Fracturing Legislation in Dryden, NY

Hydraulic Fracturing, otherwise known as fracking has been a controversial topic dividing the United States. The pros of fracking include an influx in jobs and economic growth. One well can last 20-40 years; this tends to create "boom and bust" towns in which there is an initial increase in economic prosperity then decrease as the well becomes inactive. The cons of fracking include habitat destruction because of the roads built to reach the drills, the use of millions of gallons of water, watershed/aquifer contamination and health effects. In August 2011 local lobbyists went to the highest court in New York, the Court of Appeals, to get fracking banned in Dryden, NY. This ban has been bombarded by gas lobbyists ever since its passing and now the state is deciding whether or not to uphold it. Mr. Cuomo, the governor of New York, commented that fracking would bring in revenue, but that health risks had to be taken into account. The Department of health has been working on determining the health effects of fracking for a year, but no report has been published. Both sides of the fracking controversy are frustrated by the lack of publications by the Department of Health and wish to know the findings. One hypothesis for the delay mentioned in the New York Times article about this topic in Dryden (the link is posted below) is that New York legislatures do not want to take a firm positive or negative stance on the topic for fear of loosing NY voters. Mr. Cuomo is up for election next year and it makes sense that he would postpone this dividing issue until after his campaign for reelection. In a Siena College Poll 43% of voters statewide opposed fracking, while 38% approved of the method. This narrow margin would explain why Mr. Cuomo might advice the Department of Health to take as much time as it wants to conduct a survey of the health effects of fracking. I think Mr. Cuomo has an easy decision to make, hydraulic fracturing uses tons of water to get energy in an unsustainable and damaging way, it would make much more sense to invest in sustainable energy. 

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Link: NY Times Article about Legislation in Dryden, NY

A video about what fracking is and its implications:



1 comment:

  1. Investing in sustainable energy would seem to be the obvious solution. Easy to cheer for, but there must be some good arguments against it. This is a great idea for a blog. Make sure you understand the opposing viewpoints so you can better rip them to shreds.

    And please use paragraphs!

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