Important New Sign-On Coalition Letter Gains Nearly 800 Signatories/Potentially Useful Chats With Giant Green Group Presidents/Beat the Bushes for More Signatories

SUPER URGENT: Please Become a Signatory to a Critically Important New Coalition Letter: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/letters/2013/10/17/letter-to-frack-panel

Greetings,

I am thrilled to report that there are nearly 800 signatories to the new coalition letter which requests that members of the Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel write Governor Cuomo to request that the DOH "health impact analysis" Review be put on-hold and that a comprehensive "Public Health Impact Study" be conducted openly and transparently.

This request echoes an extremely important letter sent by a member of the Fracking Advisory Panel to the Cuomo Administration on 10/7/13. See: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/documents/letters/2013/10/09/lupardo_donna

Signatories include an astounding array of elected officials, esteemed scientists, farmers, business leaders, physicians, academic researchers, community leaders, important writers, artists, health professionals and grassroots activists of every description.

Sign the letter at: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/letters/2013/10/17/letter-to-frack-panel

We must crank up the heat. Keep beating the bushes for signatories. This is ultra important. Go, Go, Go. See below.

Why Haven't Giant Green Group Fracking Advisory Panel Members Written Governor Cuomo to Put the DOH Review On-Hold?

Last Friday, I spoke personally with the president of one of the Giant Green Groups represented on the Fracking Advisory Panel. We have been pressuring that group for more than a year to oppose any shale fracking "demonstration project" and to request that the DOH Review be halted. I have known the president for decades. Our conversation was entirely cordial. The president invited me to call "anytime."

First, I apologized as a matter of civility for pressuring the group with thousands of emails, letters, phone calls and personal appeals, but I noted that the group had not adopted the linchpin policy proposals that the two of us discussed 18 months earlier. The president responded, "We can take it."

Second, the president said, "You have tied the Governor in knots." I acknowledged that maintaining New York's shale fracking moratorium had gone exceedingly well from my biased perspective, but I said I was seeking a clear resolution to the DOH Review being conducted without any public participation.

The president replied that their group did not think the Governor would make a final shale fracking decision in the near-term and was, in effect, letting sleeping dogs lie.

That strategy poses major problems. Above all, we have prevented completion of the DOH Review and adoption of a Final SGEIS by pressuring the Governor in an unrelenting, highly-coordinated campaign that has generated massive press coverage. There is no rationale for halting that effort.

In addition, Dr. Shah was widely reported to have been traveling around the nation as recently as 8/13/13 conducting his "review." This is a clear indication that Governor Cuomo has not "kicked the can down the road."

That thesis was supported by Commissioner Martens' recent press interviews in which he notes that the DOH Review is on-going with an expanded scope of work due to our immense pressure.

See: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/news/2013-10-23/dec-commissioner-martens-state-health-report-hydrofracking-not-coming-any-time-soon and http://statepolitics.lohudblogs.com/2013/10/23/the-update-on-fracking-is-there-is-no-update

When I mentioned the very important letter from the Fracking Advisory Panel member, the president noted that their group supports a thorough health study. I asked for help with the key requests in the new coalition letter. There might be an opportunity for further discussions. I will let you know.

As luck would have it, I also had very interesting exchanges yesterday with the president of another Giant Green Group who spoke at Cornell. Decades ago, the president and I were young interns together at the group that he now runs. I congratulated him on all his good works and success. The president kindly remembered that we share the same birthday.

In an extremely well-thought-out and nuanced presentation, the president made only one factual error. The president said that Dr. Shah was conducting a shale fracking health "study." We know that is not the case.

In the last question of the event, I: a) clarified that Dr. Shah is only conducting a "review" of DEC's "health impact analysis" that has received scathing criticism, b) observed that New York is the epicenter of the national shale fracking debate and c) asked for his group's help in developing a model of effective regulatory action that could safeguard New York and be replicated nationwide.

I cautioned that merely adopting regulations that likely would not be enforced was meaningless. We discussed "financial surety" requirements that could hold frackers strictly liable for pollution clean up and afford potential fracking victims "private right of action." Those are key provisions of the coalition letter to withdraw the Revised Draft SGEIS with more than 22,000 signatories.

After the presentation, the president and I had a pleasant chat. The president said, "I want to hear more." I promised to follow up.

These two groups have combined annual budgets of more than $220 million. They both carry immense weight with the powers-that-be. It would be very good if our grassroots activism could persuade more heavyweight groups to work in concert with us.

Keep Pushing/Get More Signatories

Against that background, please forge ahead. No Let Up.

If Dr. Shah's "review" is completed, DEC could adopt a Final SGEIS within days that would terminate New York's more than five-year-long shale fracking moratorium. That is what we are fighting to avoid each and every day.

With that goal in mind, please sign the new coalition letter to put the DOH Review on-hold: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/letters/2013/10/15/letter-to-frack-panel

Please reference every group you represent, every advanced degree you were awarded, every official position you hold and any other notation that maximizes your credibility.

I invite you to read the coalition letter very carefully. It is hard to believe that the Giant Green Group reps on the Fracking Advisory Panel refuse to support this sensible position in light of Governor Cuomo's on-going efforts to complete a secret DOH Review that has received withering criticism. Push those groups hard, but always respectfully.

Open and Transparent Public Health Impact Study Requested

The letter requests that Governor Cuomo: "resolve High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing (HVHF) health concerns once and for all by undertaking a comprehensive, open and transparent "Public Health Impact Study."

At a minimum, that proceeding would require a) formal written public notice, b) opportunity for public review and comment as well as c) public hearing(s) to allow interested parties to testify about how the Study should be undertaken, the substantive issues that must be addressed and any other aspects of the Study that anyone might wish to speak about.

What's not to like?

PLEASE CALL AND SPEAK DIRECTLY TO MEMBERS OF THE PANEL TO GAIN THEIR SUPPORT FOR THE TWO REQUESTS. BE FIRM BUT RESPECTFUL.

See Fracking Panel Member Contact Info: http://www.toxicstargeting.com/MarcellusShale/dec-fracking-panel

Activists Are Doing Astonishingly Great Work

Finally, see below a touching alert that a wonderful activist sent out. This well-crafted, technically accurate missive is a testament to everything we are working so hard to achieve. An immense array of activists are learning fundamental advocacy and organizing skills essential to safeguarding their communities. In the process, we are collectively revitalizing the American environmental movement. I bow in praise.

Hi everyone,

Please join me in signing this letter, penned by Toxics Targeting's Walter Hang and addressed to members of Governor Cuomo's Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel, supporting and reiterating Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo's ask to DEC Commissioner Martens that Health Commissioner Dr. Shah's health review of the SGEIS be halted and instead a comprehensive health study, complete with public participation and transparency, be undertaken. This faulty health review, if completed, could be the last step to adoption of the wholly inadequate SGEIS under which fracking in NY would commence.

Assemblywoman Lupardo, a member of the panel representing NY's SouthernTier (the proposed "Sacrifice Zone" for fracking), is bravely speaking up for her region and ultimately the state itself yet the other members of the panel have so far remained silent. Governor Cuomo says his decision will be based on science not emotion yet the health review is absent of much of the science vital to making a truly informed decision... its up to us to keep pushing for its inclusion.

Please add your name today to keep fracking from starting in NY.

Thank you all,

In close, I commend all the librarians, dentists, teachers, poets, farmers, academicians, philanthropists, vintners, essential oils advocates, Buddhist speech therapists, musicians, artists, elected officials and every kind-hearted soul who has stood by our sides in this long, tough fight. Thank you so much. I salute your achievements.

We live to fight another day come what may. Keep slugging. Go hard. Onward and upward. No excuses.

Take nothing for granted.

More to come very shortly.

Very best regards,

Walter


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