Students should become involved in effort to ban fracking, contact Gov. Cuomo

In order to keep drinking water frack-free, students need to stand up.

Our Governor, Andrew Cuomo, has been “waiting for the science” to tell him whether or not to allow hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, into our methane-rich state. All the while, countless cases of water contamination and methane migration have been springing up across the country. The list of those harmed by fracking is up to more than 1,500. What’s more, the oil and gas industry has been ‘caught in bed’ with our New York politicians more than just once.

Governor Cuomo is waiting for the Department of Health to release a report before he makes a decision to ban fracking or not. However, this regulatory group has been caught exchanging emails with the gas industry about making their regulations less strict. More instances of bias come from our federal Environmental Protection Agency, since they have dropped three different cases across the country where they were studying water contamination due to fracking. This is unacceptable. Since fracking became a “buzzword” in Albany, Exxon Mobil became the number two lobbying organization in N.Y. It is hard to not correlate their large coiffeurs with governmental inactivity.

If New Yorkers want to continue to profit from our extensive wine and agricultural industry, vacation in the Finger Lakes and Great Lakes regions and simply drink some of the cleanest water in the country, then we have to ban together and force Cuomo to listen to us. This is not hard. The New York Public Interest Research Group, the organization I have been working with for the past two years, has already done a great deal in delaying Cuomo’s decision by organizing and putting extreme pressure on him to make the right choice.

We cannot rest. One simple thing students can do is take forty-five seconds to call Cuomo’s office, 1-800-566-5020, and state their name, address and that they will not accept fracking into New York State. This is a small effort, but compounded day after day it forces our politicians to listen to us. This is our state and our water, and we will not give up until fracking is banned.

Shaye Weldon
NYPIRG Hydrofracking Campaign Leader