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EPA to Release Comments on Fracking
Wednesday marked the deadline for public comment on the state's environmental impact statement about fracking.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is readying comments for the state.
The EPA expects to release those comments before midnight Wednesday.
The agency delivered comments on a previous draft of the impact statement back in 2009.
Fracking opponents hope the EPA echoes their concerns.
Drilling supporters, meanwhile question the EPA's role saying it's a state issue.
"They need to wrap it up quickly. They've been three and a half years at it and they've done a very thorough job but it's taken way, way too long. And they've overdone certain aspects of it to the point that companies may not be able to do business," says Tom Shepstone from Energy In Depth.
"If the most important environmental regulatory agency in the nation says this is just not acceptable, it's incomplete, it's inadequate, I think that's going to be a hurdle that this proposal is simply not going to be able to surmount," says Walter Hang the President of Toxics Targeting.
A summary of DEC responses to comments will be included in the final S-GEIS and final fracking regulations.
Anti-Fracking Demonstration
In downtown Binghamton Tuesday morning, a group opposed to fracking set up shop on the sidewalk near the Holiday Inn Arena.
Benjamin Perkus is a member of New York Residents Against Drilling. He says the DEC's proposed fracking guidelines are insufficient to protect people and land and should be withdrawn.
Ben Perkus says, "There have been so many comments, criticisms and shortcomings of the SGEIS that all 21,000 people have agreed that this can't protect our land and water. That's why we're requesting that it be withdrawn."
Perkus believes fracking in the state will be delayed. He says an executive order by former Governor David Paterson states that fracking permits can't be issued until all environmental hazards have been addressed.
Fracking foes hope for EPA support
Ithaca -- For anti-hydraulic fracturing activists like Ithaca environmentalist Walter Hang, Tuesday was D-Day.
On the last day to submit comments on the state Department of Environmental Conservation's draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, those who oppose the use of the natural gas drilling method in New York gathered at rallies in major cities across the state.
Hang has spent more than two months collecting nearly 22,000 signatures for a coalition letter urging Gov. Andrew Cuomo to withdraw a revised version of the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement. He said he expects the rallies and letter, in combination with comments expected from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, to pack a punch that would delay forward motion on hydrofracking in the state. Hang said he expected the EPA's statement to be "blistering."
A 2009 letter from the EPA listed several concerns with proposed regulations, none of which, Hang said, were adequately addressed in the state's revised regulations.
"Maybe as early as today, this letter will come out, and I think it will be extremely hard for the governor to say these proposed safeguards are based on good science," he said.
Hang's letter claims there are 17 "major flaws" in the draft impact statement, uppermost the DEC's lack of regulation.
At anti-fracking rallies in Albany during the governor's State of the State address, Hang said activists made an impression.
"They had to walk right by these giant, screaming, chanting hordes of anti-frackers," he said. "There wasn't a pro-fracker in sight."
Cuomo gets earful from State of State protesters
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Governor Andrew Cuomo is getting an earful from protesters as he prepares to deliver his State of the State speech, devoted in part to celebrating his first year in office.
Opponents of hydraulic fracturing are toting signs that say the Democrat can never be president if he can't protect the state's water supply.
They're against extracting natural gas from a reserve in upstate New York by injecting water and chemicals into shale formations.
Those protesters were joined Wednesday by other progressive groups, including Occupy Albany and the Hunger Action Network. They
say Cuomo has served middle class taxpayers and corporations while hurting the poor through budget cuts.
Cuomo and the Legislature addressed a $10 billion deficit last spring in part through reduced funding for education and nonprofit social service groups.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Mandate relief, drilling rules missing from Cuomo's speech, Tompkins observers note
Ithaca -- Leaders in Tompkins County were commenting more on what wasn't in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's State of the State address Wednesday than what was in it.
Tompkins County Legislator Martha Robertson, D-Dryden, said she was disappointed Cuomo's speech lacked any mention of state mandate and Medicaid relief for local governments.
"He gets so much credit for the tax cap, and he promised that would come with mandate relief," Robertson said, noting that if a push for mandate relief doesn't come from the governor's office, it's not likely to start anywhere else.
Robertson and Toxics Targeting President Walter Hang, an environmental activist, pointed out Cuomo didn't include comments on the Marcellus Shale or the Department of Environmental Conservation's draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement on hydraulic fracturing.
"I think that's really good," Hang said. No mention of fracking could mean he has no plans to move the regulations or environmental impact statement forward, Hang explained. "He didn't indicate that that's in any part of his immediate plans."
But the speech did include several topics of concern for Tompkins residents and municipalities, Robertson said, including funding for infrastructure projects, voluntary public financing for campaigns, and non-partisan legislative redistricting.
Tompkins-Seneca-Tioga BOCES Superintendent Ellen O'Donnell said she was disappointed Cuomo did not mention the Board of Regents or the commissioner of education.
"We have a leadership structure that has been working at breakneck speed for reforming education in New York state and they should be credited," she said.
Districts can certainly do better, she said, but there are a lot of obstacles, such as childhood poverty or students not coming to school prepared to learn. Districts are not looking for more resources, but rather a more equitable distribution of those resources, O'Donnell said.
People in education are not afraid of being held accountable for students' test results, but really are just looking for a fairer distribution of resources, she added.
"Many of our districts in this area are getting good results with children," she said. "It is blanket statements about underperforming schools that sometimes need clarification."