In a decision loaded with potential economic and political consequence, the Cuomo administration today ended years of tortured consideration and said New York state would move to ban hydraulic fracturing, the controversial technique that uses pressurized fluids and sand to extract gas and oil from shale rock formations.
At an Albany cabinet meeting, Acting Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker revealed that a state study begun more than two years ago had concluded that while it was difficult to say fracking was dangerous, “the potential risks are too great” to allow it in New York. Since 2008, the state had maintained a de facto ban on the practice
“I consider the people of the state of New York as my patients,” said Zucker, according to Bloomberg News. “We cannot afford to make a mistake.”
Fracking has helped to remake the world energy landscape, boosting gas and oil production in the United States and bringing big job gains to several regions of the country. Among the beneficiaries has been Pennsylvania, taking advantage of the Marcellus shale formation that extends into New York.
Opponents of the practice argue it also brings a range of environmental risks, most notably to groundwater supplies. Proponents contend that done with care, fracking is actually an old technique that can be perfectly safe.
The science on fracking has been voluminous but hardly conclusive. For instance, a 2013 study highlighted possible problems with drinking water, but a year later, the National Academy of Sciences said at least some of those problems might be a result of poor sealing work, not fracking itself.
The fracking question posed a real dilemma for Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who cultivates a moderate image. Banning fracking would win points with environmentalists, but tilt him leftward; allowing it would boost the state’s economy (at least in the near-term), but anger many fellow Democrats.
On Wednesday, Cuomo suggested that, in the end, it wasn’t really his decision to make.
“Let’s bring the emotion down and let’s ask the qualified experts what their opinion is,” Cuomo said before the results of the report were announced, according to Think Progress. “I will be bound by what the experts say because I am not in a position to second-guess them with my expertise.”
Doing so brought cheers from green groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council.
“Governor Cuomo has kept his promise to let only sound science – not pressure from powerful oil and gas companies – be his guide on fracking,” Kate Sinding, who directed the NRDC’s fracking efforts in New York, said in a statement. “Mounting scientific evidence points to serious health risks from fracking operations. New Yorkers have made it loud and clear that we want to keep this reckless industry at bay. With this announcement, the governor has listened—and he has demonstrated both courage and national leadership on this critical issue.”
But Nicole Jacobs of the pro-fracking group Energy In Depth Marcellus pointed to reports from last year that the state had earlier found that fracking could be safely pursued.
“Today’s decision is an unfortunate one for the people of Upstate New York who were counting on Governor Cuomo to stick to science above emotion in coming to a decision on whether or not to move forward with natural gas development in the state,” EID Marcellus spokesperson Nicole Jacobs said in an emailed statement. “He and Commissioner Zucker ignored the NY State Health Department’s scientists who said even back in 2012 that it is a safe practice. The scientific evidence is clear that fracking is safe, and that’s something that Obama administration officials have stated time and time again.”
Even without the new decision, towns and cities in New York were taking up their own fracking bans, bans that were upheld by the New York Court of Appeals this past summer.
