An op-ed in the pro-drilling blog site Natural Gas Now by Science 2.0 s Hank Campbell skewers the anti-fracking enviro s for their sheer hypocrisy. Ostensibly devoted to saving the earth and similar high-minded endeavors, the essay exposes the rampant agenda behind their crusade against shale drilling for tight oil in New York State s Marcellus shale deposits.
Campbell points out that those marching in the streets demanding Don t Frack New York have zero evidence of fracking s ill effects, despite their outrageous allegations of toxic emanations into our drinking water and adverse health effects. However, while they assert their concern for Mother Earth and their neighbors who might have been afflicted with fracking s effects, they continue to eagerly use that same natural gas in their own homes and businesses. Where does this come from? Quite a lot comes from the frack-friendly southern neighbor, Pennsylvania. Do they care about those folks, exposed as many of them are to the dangers of fracking. Nah, not so much.
These points cannot be better said than by the author himself:
What do wealthy progressives in New York and California share in common? Both groups are happy to exploit poor people as part of their self-identification. In California, that has involved not vaccinating their children, instead letting poor kids get vaccinated to provide herd immunity for their special snowflakes, while in New York it means adopting a veil of environmental sincerity, by going after both nuclear power and natural gas, while quietly buying all the fossil fuel energy they can get to prevent brown-outs. Let poor people in Pennsylvania have health risks, say New Yorkers.
The environmental lobbyists who control the New York Department of Environmental Conservation yes, there is a state department devoted to being against science issued the final report of a seven year study whose conclusion was preordained; fracking is bad, they said. Meanwhile, another part of New York government is preparing to buy energy they will need from over the border in Pennsylvania, which will come from ¦fracking. Because activists also want Indian Point nuclear power closed this summer and they cannot meet their energy demands without Pennsylvania fracking.
ACSH s medical director, Dr. Gil Ross, had this comment: The fringe anti-fracking zealots have managed to seize control of the New York State government, taking Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Health commissioner Howard Zucker, and Enviro chief Joseph Martens into their bosom, keeping Appalachia fixed as in amber in the rust-belt 20th century, while Pennsylvanians reap the rewards of vigorous shale gas extraction. And why? Because a few wealthy progressives fear the encroachment into their precious manorial enclaves all warm and toasty thanks to the natural gas they claim to despise of the drilling technology safely and economically utilized in at least twenty other states. Banning the practice was, according to Dr. Zucker, based solely on concerns of safety: the precautionary principle, not on any actual documented dangers. But in fact, that whole Health Report had been written for Cuomo years ago by his green base, devoted to getting rid of fossil fuels by any means necessary. When the former health commissioner, Dr. Nirav Shah, declined to cooperate with Cuomo and Yoko and Josh Fox, he got the ax and Zucker endorsed the ban. So the people of New York suffer the consequences.
For the lowdown on hydraulic fracturing/fracking, see ACSH's report here.
