Say No to DEC’s New Fracking Regulations

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Say NO to the Governor Moving Forward with Fracking Regulations Before Environmental and Health Reviews Are Complete

Yesterday, under Governor Cuomo’s direction, the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) filed a new set of fracking regulations with the Secretary of State. But DEC does not plan to make its new regulations available to the public until December 12 for a public comment period that will only last until January 11, 2013. DEC is required to finalize these new regulations by February 27, 2013.

DEC’s action wholly undercuts the governor’s promise to let the science of the Department of Health’s (DOH) review of fracking’s health impacts and DEC’s yet-to-be-completed environmental impact statement guide his decisions on fracking. Neither study will be completed before the public comment on the revised regulations closes. This is a fatal misstep for New Yorkers.

The consequence of filing this revised set of fracking regulations now will be to suppress public participation in the rulemaking process, given that the minimum 30-day comment period that DEC is providing will occur over the holidays.

But DEC has a better option: it could and should wait for the health and environmental reviews to be completed. Then a decision on whether to move forward with revised regulations could be based on those reviews.

The governor needs to hear from you. Tell the governor that he is making the wrong choice for New Yorkers and that we expect him to keep his promise to allow the science to determine whether New York moves forward with fracking. This holiday season should not be a sleigh full of goodies for the gas and oil industry at the expense of millions of New Yorkers.

You can make a difference by contacting the governor’s office, as well as DEC.

• Ask the Governor to live up to his promise to let science and the facts guide his decision on whether to allow fracking in New York and wait for the health and environmental reviews to be complete and made public before revised fracking regulations are proposed and finalized.
• Call for DEC and the Governor to withdraw the fracking regulations that they have just filed without being informed by their on-going environmental and health reviews.

Call the office of the Secretary to the Governor at (518) 474-4246.

Call DEC’s Office of Communications at (518) 402-8000.