Attorney Scott Kurkoski told a pro-fracking crowd in downtown Binghamton that Gov. Andrew Cuomo shouldered the blame for economic stagnation in the Southern Tier.
“Who is Governor Cuomo kidding?” he said at a Jan. 5 protest at the Binghamton Holiday Inn. “He is denying our region the biggest opportunity we have seen in decades.”
The rally was organized by the group The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York Inc. in response to New York”™s announcement in December that it will become the first state to ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the controversial method of using pressurized water, sand and chemicals to mine natural gas out of underground rock formations.
Thirty other states have made fracking legal and many in New York believed similarly legalizing fracking would create a new industry in financially distressed upstate regions that could use an influx of jobs and interest from gas companies in purchasing local properties.
Kurkoski represented a Dryden landowner who unsuccessfully sued the municipality over a local fracking ban ”“ under the contention that fracking was an industry that should be regulated by the state, not a town, village or city. Now the attorney and coalition president Dan Fitzsimmons are saying the state”™s decision to ban fracking due to health concerns was based on what Fitzsimmons called “junk science.”
The fracking proponents are working with local municipalities to put a provision allowing fracking into their codes, with the hope th court”™s decision against them will set a precedent that allows communities to decide for themselves if they do want fracking.
“Governor Cuomo is committed to taking our property rights, jobs and economic opportunities,” Fitzsimmons said, according to a press release from the group, which said that 600 people attended the protest including representatives of state Sen. Tom Libous and U.S. Rep. Tom Reed. The group”™s attacks on Cuomo reached their height in an online graphic announcing the protest that showed the governor”™s face Photoshopped onto a dog defecating on a green strip of land marked “New York Southern Tier.”
The governor decided to ban large-scale fracking on the recommendations of the state Department of Health, which had been studying the potential health effects for three years in a process that took place mostly out of the public eye.
Dr. Howard Zucker, acting commissioner of the department, made a presentation to Cuomo and members of his cabinet Dec. 17 in Albany.
“Would I let my child play in the school field nearby or my family drink the water from the tap or grow their vegetables in the soil?” Zucker said. “After looking at the plethora of reports ”¦ my answer is no.”
New York had held off on a fracking decision since 2008 and the administration of former Gov. David Paterson. Cuomo was sued in February by the coalition, which wanted the federal government to compel the state to complete its ongoing studies into potential health impacts. A judge dismissed the suit, but the case is being appealed.
Two other recent fracking lawsuits were decided in favor of upstate communities that banned the mining method before the state announced its ban. Dryden, in Tompkins County, was sued by an energy company looking to drill in the town. Middlefield, in Otsego County, was sued by a dairy farm that wanted to lease its land. The state appeals court upheld local rulings that allowed local prohibitions on where fracking would be allowed.
Twelve million acres, or 39 percent of the entire landmass of the state, sit above the gas-rich Marcellus Shale. About 63 percent of that overall acreage would have been ineligible for mining regardless of the ban due to proximity to watersheds and factors other than local prohibitions or bans, according to the state.
Fracking into the Marcellus has provided an economic boost over the border in Pennsylvania, pro-fracking groups say. The New York State Petroleum Council claimed that $630 million has been pumped into the Pennsylvania economy through fracking since 2012.
