Part One: Fracking = Climate Change

The draft U.N. report issued in August 2014 confirms that the runaway growth in the emission of greenhouse gases from the extraction and consumption of fossil fuels – namely gas, oil and coal – is raising the risk of “severe, pervasive and irreversible impacts” to the earth’s climate over the coming decades.

Natural gas poses a serious threat to our climate because methane -- a component of natural gas -- is eighty-six times more powerful at trapping heat over a 20-year period than carbon dioxide. Methane leakage during the entire fracking and transport process (from wells, pipelines, compressors and processing units) evicerates any climate benefit of burning gas over coal...

Yet the gas industry continues to further our dependence on fossil fuels by investing millions in the construction of infrastructure to transport gas through our state, whether it is drilled here or not. This irresponsible new fossil fuel development will only perpetuate the worst impacts of climate change, and takes us in the wrong direction. In the words of fracking movement leader, author and scientist Sandra Steingraber, “the path to a stable climate is not paved with pipelines and well pads.”

·        The defacto moratorium against fracking in NY remains in effect, despite intense pressure from the gas industry to lift it.  No decision on fracking in New York is expected until after the November gubernatorial election – what that decision will be remains unclear.

·        In the meantime, the gas industry is aggressively building the infrastructure to transport gas from drill pad to processing facility to market – including for export abroad. Effectively, this is an effort to lock us into a fossil fuel-based future.

·        More than 40 proposed or approved gas infrastructure projects are at various stages of development, including numerous pipelines and compressor stations in New York City and its suburbs. People all over New York, including in or around the city, are at risk of exposure to the toxic effects of fracking.

·        A liquefied natural gas (LNG) storage and processing facility called Port Ambrose has been proposed for construction 17 miles off of the New York and New Jersey coasts. Designed for gas importation, the facility will increase traffic in vessels carrying highly volatile LNG and pose a direct threat to the local marine ecosystem.  Additionally, given the ease with which the facility could be converted to export LNG, it could also lead to expanded fracking operations in the northeast as the gas industry looks to profit from rising demand and gas prices in foreign markets.

·         Highly volatile fracked crude oil is being transported by rail and ship throughout New York, exposing communities from Buffalo to Albany to New York City, as well as our waterways, to potentially catastrophic accidents. With increased traffic such accidents are on the rise – one in Lac-Megantic, Quebec last year devastated the town and killed 47 people.

·        The scientific evidence of the dangers that fracking and gas transport pose to our health and environment continues to grow. Catskill Mountainkeeper’s partners at Concerned Health Professionals of New York recently released a COMPENDIUM OF SCIENTIFIC, MEDICAL AND MEDIA FINDINGS DEMONSTRATING RISKS AND HARMS OF FRACKING - a fully referenced and publically available compilation of recent information and studies on fracking.

Frack Is Wack, 2010, Acrylic on Canvas Courtesy Gallery Nine5, New York