Dear Governor Cuomo:
First, let me say I am grateful to you for your service to New York both as governor and especially as attorney general, where you accomplished a lot of good.
As attorney general, you defended property owners across New York State from land-grab tactics of the shale gas industry, which you rightly characterized as misleading, bullying, and deceptive. As you said in 2009, “Many of these companies used their size and extensive resources to manipulate individual property owners. This land grab must stop.” [1]
I would just ask you now, What has happened to change your opinion of the shale gas industry in three short years, during which the industry itself has not changed in the least?
Please, Governor Cuomo, honor the good work of Attorney General Cuomo by coming to our defense now, and banning hydraulic fracturing throughout New York State.
Do not forsake the most vulnerable of New York landowners by turning their counties into “sacrifice zones” to be exploited for an uncontrolled experiment in fracking. As a former attorney general in a state with a pre-eminent health care sector, you know that the ethics of informed consent prohibit taking advantage of people driven by desperate circumstances to become subjects in experiments that entail significant risk to their safety and well-being.
Do not abandon our beautiful state, so blessed with truly valuable resources of pristine water, fertile agricultural land, and smart, enterprising, hard-working people.
We do not need shale gas – which, contrary to industry claims, is increasingly recognized as the dirtiest fossil fuel of all in terms of climate change [2] – as a bridge to sustainable energy.
Governor Cuomo, show true leadership. New Yorkers have the will and the wherewithal to support sustainable industry, agriculture, and tourism throughout our state without dirty money from a dirty industry. Just use your bully pulpit to ask us. Let New York be a beacon for the future, not another casualty of the past.
Governor Cuomo, Ban Fracking Now!
Respectfully,
William Avery Hudson
References:
1. Wilber T. Under the Surface: Fracking, Fortunes, and the Fate of the Marcellus Shale. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2012.
2. Humes E. Fractured Lives: Detritus of Pennsylvania’s Shale Gas Boom. Sierra. July/August 2012.