New York City Council members call for ban on fracking

In an op-ed today in the Chelsea Now newspaper, New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and member James Gennaro called for a ban on fracking in the state:

It will not be enough to merely place more regulatory hurdles in the path of those who would jeopardize our drinking water supply with this inherently risky technology. Instead, there must be an outright ban on natural gas drilling within our state’s watersheds. The BP oil spill has taught us that regulations can be overruled, ignored or swept under the rug. Mistakes can happen. Technology is not an all-powerful or omnipotent force. And if the Gulf spill makes natural gas seem like the perfect oil-replacement, we have to remember that it is imperative to provide the utmost protection to all of our irreplaceable natural resources. In New York City, that includes our drinking water, and the health and safety of the eight million people who consume it.