New York’s Anti-Science Party
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Anti-fracking protesters outside of Gov. Cuomo's campaign fundraiser at the Grand Hyatt in New York City.Photo: Murray Head
Just last week, Gov. Cuomo vowed yet again not to make an “emotional decision” on fracking, insisting he’d “do it on the science and not the politics.”
Well, science has spoken. All that’s now standing in the way of the jobs and industry that would help revive our upstate is Cuomo’s unscientific opposition.
Two new landmark studies, one from the US Department of Energy, confirm what we’ve contended all along: The process of extracting natural gas by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, is safe.
The 18-month DOE report found no evidence that chemicals released during fracking move upward to contaminate drinking water. Instead, they remain some 5,000 feet below the surface water supplies.
This was confirmed by a separate study published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Here Ohio State, Duke, Stanford and Dartmouth researchers found that any water contamination stemmed “from well-integrity problems such as poor casing or cementing.”
In other words, poor construction, which can be remedied.
Neither of these studies is particularly revolutionary.
Indeed, their findings mostly confirm prior research that led the Obama administration to embrace fracking as an environmentally safe way to expand America’s energy production, create jobs for the American people and make us less dependent on foreign energy.
Meanwhile, New York remains shut out, even as our fracking neighbors prosper. The question is, will Gov. Cuomo move forward — or maintain the place of New York Democrats as the party of science denial?
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