Your Award-Winning News Source for the Upper Delaware River Valley Region Since 1975
Vol. 40 No. 52
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DECEMBER 25 - 31, 2014
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www.riverreporter.com
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Triumph (for now) of the fractivists By FRITZ MAYER
been instrumental in shaping the conclusion that was ultimately reached. In a YouTube video shot by journalist Sabrina Artel (tinyurl.com/mbdhukl), Cuomo accepted a sign handed to him thanking him for the ban, and he said, “You really did a great job of making your voices heard, and that’s what democracy’s all about; and I actually enjoyed seeing it in action. I know it didn’t always seem that way.” The community of fractivists in the Upper Delaware River Valley sprouted up in 2008 and grew vigorously over the next several years to include Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy (CCSE), Catskill Mountainkeeper, Damascus Citizens for Sustainability and Sullivan Area Citizens
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EGION — They were so committed, active and numerous that a new name had to be created to describe them—fractivists, or activists opposed to high-volume hydraulic fracturing. After Gov. Cuomo announced on December 17 that fracking would be banned in the state, he traveled the next day to Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. He had not, however, come to talk about the fracking ban, but instead about Sullivan County’s newly-promised casino. Analysts say he is distancing himself from the ban should he seek the presidency one day. But he did acknowledge to a small group of fractivists in Albany that they had
TRR photo by Isabel Braverman
In June 2013, “Gasland Part II” played to a packed house in the Callicoon Theater. The documentary about hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, by director and Milanville, PA resident Josh Fox, picked up where the original Academy Award nominated “Gasland” ended.
TRR photo by Fritz Mayer
Members of Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy mail comments to the New York Department of Environmental Conservation in January of 2013.
for Responsible Energy Development. They teamed up with other environmental groups such as the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), EarthJustice, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and the Community Environmental Defense Council. The fractivists included celebrities such as Mark Ruffalo, Debra Winger, Yoko Ono and filmmaker Josh Fox. Early on, it seemed inevitable that New York would soon complete its Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) within a few months and drilling and fracking in the state would commence. Many were convinced that the coming gas rush would bring riches to residents who lived above the Marcellus Shale, and the economic benefit would
be “transformative to the region.” But questions arose about health impacts and economic viability; skepticism grew and people engaged. The completion of the SGEIS stretched from months to years. The growing opposition to fracking could be seen in the ever increasing number of comments submitted to New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). In 2009, a draft version of the SGEIS elicited 14,000 comments. Three years later a revised draft SGEIS received more than 65,000 mostly negative comments. In 2013, the DEC received more than 200,000 comments criticizing the proposed fracking regulations, with Continued on page 3
SPANNING 2 STATES, 4 COUNTIES, AND A RIVER THAT UNITES US
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