Cuomo Bans Fracking Safely Re-Elected, New York’s Governor Hides Behind Bad Science and Hurts Upstate Jobs.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/cuomo-bans-fracking-1418947374
The natural gas shale boom has been a blessing for much of America in these otherwise difficult times—from Texas to North Dakota through Ohio and Pennsylvania. But the bounty won’t be coming to New York, where Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday banned hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the rich Marcellus Shale. New York follows Vermont as the only other U.S. state to ban fracking, joining such economic superpowers as France and Bulgaria.
During his recent re-election campaign, Mr. Cuomo hinted to business supporters that he would end the fracking moratorium the state has had in place since 2008. He said he was merely waiting on his health and environmental regulators to review fracking’s impact. Their “Public Health Review” arrived this week, and it reads as if it were ghost-written by the Sierra Club, and maybe it was.
The reports claims there are “significant uncertainties about the kinds of adverse health outcomes that may be associated with [High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing], the likelihood of the occurrence of adverse health outcomes, and the effectiveness of some of the mitigation measures in reducing or preventing environmental impacts which could adversely affect public health.”
Until “the science provides sufficient information to determine the level of risk to public health from health from HVHF to all New Yorkers and whether the risks can be adequately managed,” health regulators recommend banning fracking. Yet as the report notes, “absolute scientific certainty” regarding fracking’s impact on public health “is unlikely to ever be attained.”
In other words, all of the Governor’s men couldn’t find conclusive evidence that fracking presents a significant risk to public health or the environment. So they’re going to ban fracking until they do.
The truth is that fracking has been taking place around the country for many years without evidence of environmental harm. Even the federal Environmental Protection Agency, which desperately wants to find it, has uncovered no credible evidence that fracking causes groundwater contamination.
The most definitive study, published in a September issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found eight cases of gas polluting 133 drinking water wells in Texas and Pennsylvania, none of which were caused by fracking. Most were caused by faulty well casings and cementing.
Mr. Cuomo’s science deniers also lament that “there are numerous historical examples of the negative impact of rapid and concentrated increases in extractive resource development . . . resulting in indirect community impacts such as interference with quality-of-life (e.g., noise, odors), overburdened transportation and health infrastructure.”
Economic growth sure can be a nuisance. The fracking boom in other states has led to overbooked hotels, restaurants where you can’t get a table, and the quandary of how to spend disposable income from rapidly rising wages. Life is tough when people have more money. The burdens on roads and public services are real, but fracking also produces the extra tax revenue to finance them.
A 2011 Manhattan Institute study estimated that each Marcellus Shale well in Pennsylvania generates $5 million in economic benefits and $2 million in tax revenue. Western New York desperately needs such an economic boost, but Mr. Cuomo is in thrall to the liberal elites of New York City and its suburbs. Upstate residents can console themselves by gambling in the new casinos that the Governor is pushing as a major economic priority. They can bet the extra money they won’t be making.
Mr. Cuomo’s ban will no doubt also please Gazprom , the Russian gas company which also wants the West to stop drilling for gas so it can continue to use its supplies to hold political sway over Europe.
Not that Mr. Cuomo wants to admit this or take responsibility for his decision. “This is self-executing between you two gentlemen? I have nothing to do with it,” he quipped to the heads of his health and environmental conservation departments at a cabinet meeting on Wednesday in Albany. “I love it when that happens.” And this fellow fancies himself a potential President.
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