Local residents and elected officials applaud roadblock for hydraulic fracturing drilling in the state

Environmental activists and anti-fracking New Yorkers cheered Governor Andrew Cuomo’s announcement that the issuance of the final Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, which would determine the fate of hydraulic fracturing in New York State, will be delayed. The announcement has been counted as a victory by opponents of the controversial drilling practice in the on-going debate over the health and safety impacts of hydro-fracking.

New York State Department of Health Commissioner Nirav Shah said that more information is needed to complete the public health review before any final statement can be made. Without a public health review, Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens said that he cannot release this Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, which would outline the effects of fracking on the natural environment.

“The decision to permit high volume hydraulic fracturing (HVHF) is important, and involves complex questions about the impact of the process on public health,” said Commissioner Shah in a letter to Commissioner Martens. “The time to ensure the impacts on public health are properly considered before a state permits drilling.”

If the hydraulic fracturing processes were approved, the process would involve horizontal drilling for natural gases into the Marcellus Shale rock, and a technique known as “slick water fracturing,” which would utilize large amounts of water. This, said Commissioner Shah, is exactly what he would be analyzing: the fracking’s effect on water contamination, as well as air quality and surrounding community impact.

“Dr. Shah is wisely taking the time to come to a careful decision about what needs to happen to protect New York from the harmful effects of fracking,” said Dr. Kathleen Nolan, Catskill Mountainkeeper’s High Peaks Regional Director.

Hydro-fracking has remained a controversial issue in New York, and many local officials have denounced the process. An Upper West Side community forum on fracking was held last week by elected representatives including State Senator Adriano Espaillat and Council Member Gale Brewer.  Assembly Member Linda Rosenthal, who was also at the community forum and has repeatedly spoken out against fracking at the state level, is concerned about the impact on the local community.

“It is my sincere hope that the Administration would heed the warnings of public health and environmental experts to stop this process in its entirety until a comprehensive and wholly independent health study can be completed,” said Rosenthal in a statement.

This delay, however, is not a permanent setback for the drilling industry. Once the health review is completed within the next few weeks, and if it has addressed each of these concerns, a permit to begin the hydro-fracking process could be processed within 10 days.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is pushing for high-tech investment in New York, has touted the University of Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering. (Photos from College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering)

New York City isn’t the only part of the state that has been attracting a growing number of high-tech companies.

In upstate areas struggling to rebound from the recession and recover from the longer-term decline in manufacturing, the state has been recruiting companies like Yahoo! and IBM to add or expand operations, create new jobs and assist in rebuilding the economy.

To read the full article, please visit cityandstateny.com.

Sean Lennon & Yoko Ono. Photo by Aaron Adler.

By Alissa Fleck

Artists Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon and Mark Ruffalo, alongside longtime experts in the field, held a press conference today in Manhattan to promote “Artists Against Fracking,” an activist project with the aim of raising awareness about the ill effects of hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking).

Hydrofracking is a process of extracting gas by blasting a pressurized mixture of water and chemicals underground to crack open rock formations. Governor Cuomo is expected to make a decision this week on whether to allow hydrofracking in New York State.

Ono, Lennon and Ruffalo launched “Artists Against Fracking,” with the help of nearly 200 other artists and experts, to warn New Yorkers about their important role in stopping Cuomo from approving hydrofracking in the State. Lennon said he believes the City’s elected officials are “smart and have good intentions,” but hydrofracking is not adequately understood by the public. Furthermore, Ruffalo pointed out: “The world is watching New York.”

The organization hopes people will recognize the negative environmental impact of hydrofracking, the overwhelming opposition in America and the “campaign of misinformation” being spread by gas companies. This campaign aims to convince people fracking is a clean alternative to coal, explained Lennon.

“Bloomberg said it can be regulated to be safe,” said Lennon, “but then why did Dick Cheney exempt fracking from the Clean Air Act? Fracking releases unpronounceable toxic chemicals and carcinogens.”

Cornell Engineering Professor Anthony Ingraffea, who has studied the industry for 25 years, said the primary concerns with hydrofracking are leaks which contaminate underground drinking water, and methane bubbling to the surface of the earth. Ingraffea said one in 20 wells invariably fails, producing leaks. “Methane emissions are a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide,” said Ingraffea. “It will exacerbate climate change. It’s a bad time and this is bad technology for it.”

“Science doesn’t have two sides, just one,” said Ono. “All we want is a place we can trust in terms of pureness for ourselves and our children.”

Ono said the hope is the public will visit their organization’s website, become more informed and send letters to Cuomo everyday, to remind him “we are not forgetting.”

“Cuomo is the gatekeeper right now,” said Lennon, explaining, while the decision currently faces New York, “Nature does not abide by state lines.”

The group promotes renewable energy as an alternative to hydrofracking. As to the issue that any alternative to hydrofracking, however seemingly innocuous, would still leave a carbon footprint, Ingraffea said: “We’re realists. Nobody controls the price of the sun or wind and we can harness those for a smaller carbon footprint.”

“You cannot lie about something forever,” said Ruffalo. “A sun spill is just a beautiful day.”

Photo Courtesy of Wiki Commons

By Alissa Fleck

The New York Times recently reported yoga studio owners feel unfairly targeted by city agencies. Three years ago, New York State government proposed regulations requiring schools that trained yoga instructors to obtain licenses to do so. Eventually, yoga studios were exempted from the regulation, but the obstacles for studios only continued from there.

Now, yoga studios in the City are saying the State is looking for any way to get money out of the booming industry. As we reported before at the Press, the State Department of Taxation recently decided to exclude yoga studios in NYC from the 4.5% sales tax implemented on other gyms and fitness centers. This followed a deluge of audits of local yoga studios though, in which the department threatened to charge back taxes on many studios, many of which were completely unaware of the status of the regulation.

City yoga studios say the government harassment does not stop there. The Department of Buildings has fined studios for not having the appropriate permit, reports the Times. Additionally, the Labor Department has gone after studios for declaring instructors independent contractors instead of employees. Studio owners believe these actions are unfair and unreasonable. Declaring an instructor an employee rather than an independent contractor, when that instructor teaches at multiple studios, incurs an enormous amount of burdensome and unnecessary costs.

J. Brown, the owner of Abhyasa Yoga in Brooklyn, told the Times: “[Agencies] think they can reinterpret statuses and apply them to yoga.”

While the sales tax was recently declared not applicable, studios continue to struggle with government agencies over the other issues. This is particularly hard for yoga studios as, while yoga itself may be an increasingly popular industry, “yoga studios operate on shoestring budgets,” Alison West, executive director of Yoga for New York, told the Times. 

Cyberbullies Beware - photo courtesy of Flickr Commons

New York lawmakers have bullied back at the state’s cyberbullies, and have made another step forward in protecting young students from the perils of the internet.

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo has proposed a bill requiring schools to be vigilant when addressing cyberbullying complaints. The bill is expected to be passed before the current legislation gathering disbands on Thursday, says the Daily News.

According to Cuomo’s memo in support of the bill, 6% of students between the age of 12 and 18, 1.5 million, were cyberbullied either on or off their school’s campus.

“Cyberbullying is a new and insidious form of bullying,” Cuomo said in his statement. “Cyberbullying and other forms of bullying pose a serious risk to school safety and educational success for all children. Every student needs to feel safe in order to maximize his or her academic and social potential.”

The bill will require schools to develop a standard process to respond to potential cyberbullying, to work willingly with police on the matter, and to select an official to directly address a complaint or danger.

They’ll also be required, with the help of the Commissioner, to create curriculum for each age group, teaching the dangers of the internet.

Finally, all teachers or staff applying for employment after June 30, 2013 must be certified in identifying the “social patterns of harassment and bullying”.

One thing that has citizens upset, though, and rightfully so, is that it does not designate cyberbullying as a specific crime, and doesn’t mention any punitive action against offenders.

The bill would probably take effect on July 1, 2013, but there’s a chance it will take effect on July 1, 2012.

–Nick Gallinelli

Follow Governor Cuomo on Twitter – @NYGovCuomo

Photo courtesy of Wiki Commons

New Yorkers and other state visitors are again free to smoke around various state parks, pools, beaches and historic sites after the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation suspended an early April smoking ban on these locales. The smokers’ rights group NYC C.L.A.S.H. officially challenged the smoking ban policy on May 1st. The group claimed the Parks Department acted outside its authority in bypassing legislature and passing the ruling, including putting the ban into effect nine days prior to state prescribed submission of a notice of proposed rule. Other arguments by NYC C.L.A.S.H. against the ban, pertaining to civil rights and misinterpretation of the law, have arisen as well.

(By Alissa Fleck)

The Parks Department continues to discourage smoking despite the ban suspension through intimidation—many signs prohibiting smoking remain in place, though they are now intentionally misleading. NYC C.L.A.S.H. is pushing for these signs to be removed as well.

“The crusade against smokers to date has so emboldened government that the rule of law no longer need be practiced when it comes to its citizens that choose to smoke. So far this free-for-all indicates that the Office of Parks is acting as a surrogate for activists’ anti-smoker experiment,” said NYC C.L.A.S.H. founder, Audrey Silk. “The signage alone, should it remain in place, is now ideological in its coercion for compliance with a moral, rather than a legal, dictate.”

According to Associate Counsel Kathleen Martens of the Parks Department, another rule banning smoking could be in the works. First, however, the department will need to consult the NYS Clear Indoor Air Act for current smoking restrictions to avoid the same legal hurdles they face now.

Silk has retained an attorney and promises to continue fighting what she sees as abuse of the legal process by the Parks Department. “Possibly they figure that no one else will care since it’s ‘only’ about smokers. But when government bureaucracies are allowed to get away with breaking the law, it’s the law itself that suffers and, next thing you know, it will ‘only’ be about some activity you enjoy or some group you belong to,” said Silk.

Alan S. Chartock is president and CEO of WAMC/Northeast Public Radio and an executive publisher at The Legislative Gazette.