In a move typical of the New York State Legislature, the lower house today passed a bill that would bar the use of hydraulic fracturing in connection with drilling for natural gas in the state until at least 2015. According to the legislation, more studies will be needed to determine if the process known as hydrofracking or just fracking for short is safe, with the main concern being contamination of ground water and danger to the health of residents.
Two comments about this bill deserve repetition. First, the Speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver of Manhattan said this: "We will not sit idly by and endanger the health and safety of our communities by rushing necessary health and safety reviews." Second, the attorney for the Natural Resouces Defense Council had this to say: "I think it is a victory for everybody who thinks that science should rule the day."
If you ever wanted to build a monument to superstition and ignorance, you ought to put a bust of both of these people in prominent positions. Just think what we already know:
1) Fracking has been used across America for many decades. In all that time, there has never been one instance where fracking caused contamination of ground water.
2) The Obama EPA did a study of multiple instances where it was alleged that fracking had caused contamination or other environmental problems and concluded that there was no evidence of any harm resulting from fracking. This is important. The EPA did not find that on balance fracking was safe. It found that there was absolutely NO EVIDENCE OF ANY SORT that fracking had caused harm.
3) The examples which are always used by the anti-fracking forces, namely the water with gas mixed into it, was shown to be naturally occuring. In other words, there are a few areas in the USA where natural gas mixes into the ground water. It was not caused by fracking. For anyone who doubts that oil and gas seep out naturally, I suggest they visit the California coastline where naturally occuring oil seeps into the offshore water.
4) Over the last decade, there have been multiple additional studies to look into the safety of fracking. None of them found any health problems resulting from the process.
5) In the last five years, Pennsylvania which lies just south of New York has been the site for drilling thousands of wells using fracking. As a result, the Pennsylvania economy has done much better than that of New York. Literally hundreds of thousands of jobs have been created. Small communities that were dying (like much of upstate New York) have been invigorated and revived. During the same time, New York has continued to decay.
The problem that we all face is that ignorance is allowed to masquerade as "science". Anyone who saw "Promised Land", the recent Matt Damon anti gas propaganda film will understand that. Science requires empirical data, but all of that says fracking is safe. What the anti-fracking forces have is "belief", a belief that anything connected to a fossil fuel must be bad. They are willing to spread lies just to stop progress.
In New York, the wacky part of the environmental movement is winning for the moment. So too, in California. Over time, these states will pay the price for their folly. Sadly, however, all of America will also suffer as natural resources that are easily available will be kept from production so that we all will remain beholden to Iran, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Libya for that much longer.
Two comments about this bill deserve repetition. First, the Speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver of Manhattan said this: "We will not sit idly by and endanger the health and safety of our communities by rushing necessary health and safety reviews." Second, the attorney for the Natural Resouces Defense Council had this to say: "I think it is a victory for everybody who thinks that science should rule the day."
If you ever wanted to build a monument to superstition and ignorance, you ought to put a bust of both of these people in prominent positions. Just think what we already know:
1) Fracking has been used across America for many decades. In all that time, there has never been one instance where fracking caused contamination of ground water.
2) The Obama EPA did a study of multiple instances where it was alleged that fracking had caused contamination or other environmental problems and concluded that there was no evidence of any harm resulting from fracking. This is important. The EPA did not find that on balance fracking was safe. It found that there was absolutely NO EVIDENCE OF ANY SORT that fracking had caused harm.
3) The examples which are always used by the anti-fracking forces, namely the water with gas mixed into it, was shown to be naturally occuring. In other words, there are a few areas in the USA where natural gas mixes into the ground water. It was not caused by fracking. For anyone who doubts that oil and gas seep out naturally, I suggest they visit the California coastline where naturally occuring oil seeps into the offshore water.
4) Over the last decade, there have been multiple additional studies to look into the safety of fracking. None of them found any health problems resulting from the process.
5) In the last five years, Pennsylvania which lies just south of New York has been the site for drilling thousands of wells using fracking. As a result, the Pennsylvania economy has done much better than that of New York. Literally hundreds of thousands of jobs have been created. Small communities that were dying (like much of upstate New York) have been invigorated and revived. During the same time, New York has continued to decay.
The problem that we all face is that ignorance is allowed to masquerade as "science". Anyone who saw "Promised Land", the recent Matt Damon anti gas propaganda film will understand that. Science requires empirical data, but all of that says fracking is safe. What the anti-fracking forces have is "belief", a belief that anything connected to a fossil fuel must be bad. They are willing to spread lies just to stop progress.
In New York, the wacky part of the environmental movement is winning for the moment. So too, in California. Over time, these states will pay the price for their folly. Sadly, however, all of America will also suffer as natural resources that are easily available will be kept from production so that we all will remain beholden to Iran, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Libya for that much longer.
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