Over 500 Elected Officials Call for Further Study on Science and Socioeconomics of Fracking

Elected Officials to Protect New York (EOPNY), a group of over 500 county and local representatives representing millions of New Yorkers throughout sixty-one counties in the state, held a press conference yesterday calling on Governor Andrew Cuomo to adequately study the negative socioeconomic impacts of fracking. EOPNY’s previous letter to the Governor also requested that he address concerns about the safety of fracking for our health and our environment. The group includes twenty representatives from the five proposed sacrifice counties in the Southern Tier, where Governor Cuomo has proposed to roll out fracking in municipalities that “want it.”

Riverkeeper supports these elected representatives in calling on Governor Cuomo to base his decision on the facts and science of fracking, not the politics. As EOPNY points out, even if fracking is limited to certain regions, its impacts will be felt statewide. Without adequate information about potential health, economic, and cumulative environmental impacts on local communities, elected officials cannot fulfill their duties to prevent or mitigate potential harms to New Yorkers.