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Kate Fried, Food & Water Watch, (202) 683-4905;
Eric Weltman, Food & Water Watch, (617) 304-5330;
Claire Sandberg, Frack Action, (646) 641-6431
As the six-month moratorium on hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in New York is soon set to expire, a diverse group of civic leaders and citizens are today calling upon Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature to issue a permanent ban on this dangerous, polluting practice. The "Rally and March for a Statewide Ban," which is expected to draw hundreds of participants from across the state, will unite elected officials, consumer advocates, farmers, members of the business community, organized labor, scientists, medical professionals, students, good government groups and others to illustrate why New York cannot afford to allow fracking given its threat to the well-being of the state's water and food resources, public health and economy.
"Fracking endangers vital food and water resources, taxes our nation's already overburdened water infrastructure systems, and sacrifices our rural communities to our seemingly insatiable thirst for energy resources," said Food & Water Watch executive director Wenonah Hauter. "As consumers around the U.S. reject this dangerous energy extraction process, legislators in New York have an opportunity to be real leaders on this issue. A ban on fracking in New York State would represent a watershed moment in the fight to defend our communities, while serving as model for other states who wish to protect their essential resources from the hazards of fracking."
Rally participants from the business community, including the Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce and Brewery Ommegang, will decry the economic downsides of fracking for New York State's agriculture and tourism industries, and long-term economic viability. "The plans for drilling pose a direct and material threat to the interests of the Chamber membership," said Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Susan O'Handley. "Industrial-scale hydrofracking in the upstate region will irreparably damage the essential qualities that make the Cooperstown area an excellent place to live, raise families, farm and work. It puts at risk much of the local economy, ranging from hotel and tourism to restaurant and retail businesses, most of which are driven by the hundreds of thousands of tourists who choose to visit the region every year."
"Economic impact research NOT funded by the gas industry has reached vastly different conclusions than has research funded or sponsored by industry groups openly seeking to gain financially in the gas plays," said economist Jannette Barth, of J.M. Barth and Associates. "In reality, the economic health of the Marcellus Shale region may be worse off in the long run if gas drilling is allowed."
Farmers will speak to the potential impacts of fracking on agricultural communities, and highlight the recent Chesapeake Energy gas well blowout in Bradford County, Pa., where thousands of gallons of undiluted fracking chemicals spewed across farmland and forced residents to evacuate. "I don't want to farm in an industrial zone. I don't want to live in an industrial zone," said Mark Dunau, farmer from Delaware County and policy co-chair for the Northeast Organic Farming Association-New York. "And if the water's poisoned, that's a threat to me whether or not I'm farming. For humanity the most important fuel is food and water. The gas is for fifty years. The water is forever."
Cornell University biologist and acclaimed author Sandra Steingraber will address the long-term public health consequences of allowing this practice to move forward across the state: "Fracking relies on chemicals linked to cancer, preterm birth, and miscarriage. It fills our air with asthma-inducing air pollutants. It releases radioactive substances. It turns fresh water into poison and uses it as a club to smash the bedrock a mile below our feet. Is this what we want to do to the farmlands and cow pastures of upstate New York? To the watershed that serves as a source of drinking water for millions of people? Think again, New York. Don't fracture our children's future."
The event comes as the legislature considers S4220-A 57218, introduced by event participants Senator Tony Avella (D-11) and Assemblymember William Colton (D-47), which would ban fracking.
The process of extracting gas from shale rock, fracking uses toxic chemicals that have been shown to contaminate water resources. To date, there have been more than 1,000 documented cases of water contamination near drilling sites around the country. The process also endangers consumers who do not reside near drilling sites because fracking fluids, which often contain radioactive elements, cannot be effectively treated by municipal treatment plants, and are often released into waterways where they can pollute drinking water resources and the water used to irrigate food crops.
Late last year, outgoing Governor David Paterson imposed a temporary moratorium on fracking in New York that will expire on July 1, 2011. Last month, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced plans to sue the federal government if it does not produce an environmental impact assessment of proposed fracking projects in the Delaware River Basin before drilling again commences. The Delaware River provides drinking water for 15 million Americans.
Sponsored by: Frack Action, Food & Water Watch, Onondaga Nation, WaterDefense.Org, Democracy for America, Citizen Action of New York, Josh Fox - Gasland, Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation, CDOG - Chenango Delaware Otsego Gas Group, Syracuse Peace Council, Shaleshock, Sustainable Otsego, Damascus Citizens for Sustainability, NYH2O, Ommegang Brewery, Gas Drilling Awareness of Cortland County (GDACC), Capital District Against Fracking, Coalition to Protect New York, Frack Free Catskills, New York Action Network, New York Residents Against Drilling, Syracuse Cultural Workers, Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce, Students Against Fracking, Cornell Sustainability Hub, Mountain View Movies, Ithaca College Frack Off!, Honest Weight Food Co-op, Dryden Resource Awareness Coalition, Gray Panthers, The Green Bus Tour, KyotoNOW!, Water Back Project, Davenport Concerned Citizens, The Ad Hoc Committee to Uphold Environmental Law, Allegany County Non-violent Action Group, Concerned Citizens of Allegany County, Delaware Action Group, Sullivan Area Citizens for Responsible Energy Development, Advocates for Cherry Valley, Inc, Schoharie Valley Watch, Binghamton Environmental, Mamalama, Brecht Forum, Delaware Action Group, NYC Friends of Clearwater, No Fracking Way Project, Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory, Peacemakers, The Lower Manhattan Public Health Project, Woodstock Hidden Kitchen, Up North Movement, Take Back the Tap, Fly Creek/Otsego Neighbors, Shaleshock Action Alliance, People for a Healthy Environment, Inc., PDAWNY, New Yorkers for Sustainable Energy Solutions Statewide, R*CAUSE-Rochesterians Concerned About Unsafe Shale-gas Extraction, Walk About Water
Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold and uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people's health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.
(202) 683-2500"Trump cozying up with the industry is wildly unpopular," asserted climate campaigner Jamie Henn.
Noting former U.S. President Donald Trump's coziness with the fossil fuel industry and the fact that an overwhelming majority of voters want politicians to tackle its greed, one prominent climate campaigner urged Vice President Kamala Harris—the Democratic nominee—to highlight her Republican opponent's Big Oil ties during Tuesday night's debate.
"Harris should absolutely go after Trump for being in the pocket of Big Oil," Fossil Free Media director Jamie Henn said on social media, adding that "89% of Americans want politicians to crack down on Big Oil price gouging."
In a
separate post, Henn urged ABC News, which is hosting the first—and likely only—2024 presidential debate, to ask the candidates about the climate emergency.
"Ninety-nine percent of Americans have experienced some form of extreme weather this year," he wrote. "If ABC News doesn't ask about the climate crisis this evening, it's journalistic malpractice."
On Tuesday, a trio of Democratic U.S. lawmakers called on fossil fuel executives to comply with a request for "information regarding quid pro quo solicitations" from former U.S. President Donald Trump, who earlier this year promised to gut climate regulations if they donated $1 billion to his Republican presidential campaign.
Climate campaigners have been warning of the dangers of a second term for Trump, who during his previous administration rolled back regulations protecting the climate, environment, and biodiversity, resulting in increased pollution and
premature deaths and fueling catastrophic planetary heating.
"If a Trump administration was merely going to be a four-year interregnum, it would be annoying. But in fact it comes at precisely the moment when we need, desperately,
acceleration," 350.org co-founder Bill McKibben wrote in a Guardian opinion article last week.
"The world's climate scientists have done their best to set out a timetable: Cut emissions in half by 2030 or see the possibilities of anything like the Paris pathway, holding temperature increases to 1.5°C above preindustrial levels, disappear," he continued. "That cut is on the bleeding edge of the technically possible, but only if everyone is acting in good faith. And the next presidential term will end in January of 2029, which is 11 months before 2030."
"If we elect Donald Trump, we may feel the effects not for years, and not for a generation," McKibben added. "We may read our mistake in the geological record a million years hence. This one really counts."
"Anti-abortion opponents are trying everything to keep abortion rights questions away from voters—but their dirty tricks keep failing," said one campaigner.
Reproductive freedom defenders on Tuesday cheered the Missouri Supreme Court's restoration of an abortion rights referendum—one of numerous 2024 ballot initiatives seeking to codify access to the healthcare procedure in states from coast to coast.
Missouri's highest court overturned Cole County Judge Christopher Limbaugh's ruling removing Amendment 3—also known as the Right to Reproductive Freedom initiative—from the November 5 ballot. Limbaugh ordered Republican Missouri Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, who decertified the measure on Monday, to place it back on the ballot.
“The majority of Missourians want politicians out of their exam rooms, and today's decision by the Missouri Supreme Court keeps those politicians out of the voting booth as well," Planned Parenthood Great Rivers Action vice president of external affairs Margot Riphagen
said on social media. "On November 5, Missouri voters will declare their right to reproductive freedom, ensuring decisions about our bodies and our healthcare—including abortion—stay between us, our families, and our providers."
Kelly Hall, executive director of the Fairness Project—which provides funding and technical assistance to abortion rights campaigns in Missouri, Arizona, Montana, and Florida—said in a statement that "anti-abortion opponents are trying everything to keep abortion rights questions away from voters—but their dirty tricks keep failing. They know that when voters have a say, reproductive freedom is upheld time and time again."
Chris Hatfield, a lawyer representing abortion rights groups in the case, toldThe New York Times: "This is a big deal. The court will send a message today about whether, in our little corner of the democracy, the government will honor the will of the people, or will have it snatched away."
Missouri has one of the nation's most draconian abortion bans, with the procedure
prohibited in almost all circumstances "except in cases of medical emergency." The ban—which dates to 2019—took effect when the U.S. Supreme Court overturnedRoe v. Wade in 2022.
The Midwestern state joins
at least seven others in which abortion will be on the ballot this November. Every abortion rights ballot measure since the overturn of Roe has passed.
In neighboring Nebraska, the state Supreme Court on Monday
heard arguments in three lawsuits filed by activists trying to keep multiple abortion rights referenda off the ballot.
"You don't have to agree with the tactics of climate activists to understand the importance of defending their rights to protest and to free speech."
Rich Western countries have cracked down on non-violent climate protests with harsh laws and lengthy prison sentences, in violation of international law and the civil rights they champion globally, according to a report released Monday by Climate Rights International.
CRI, an advocacy group based in California, found that Australia, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States had used heavy-handed measures to silence climate protesters in recent years. The measures aren't in keeping with the freedoms of expression, assembly, and association enshrined in international law, the report says.
"You don't have to agree with the tactics of climate activists to understand the importance of defending their rights to protest and to free speech," Brad Adams, CRI's executive director, said in a statement.
"Governments too often take such a strong and principled view about the right to peaceful protest in other countries—but when they don't like certain kinds of protests at home they pass laws and deploy the police to stop them," Adams toldThe Guardian.
“These defenders are basically trying to save the planet... These are people we should be protecting, but are seen by governments & corporations as a threat to be neutralised. In the end it’s about power & economics”
- @MaryLawlorhrdshttps://t.co/WPunhbDhCq
— Dr. Aaron Thierry (@ThierryAaron) September 10, 2024
The CRI report details relevant international law, disproportionate actions taken against climate protestors, and draconian new laws established in four of the countries studied. It also lays out recommendations and proposed reforms. CRI was founded in 2022 with a mission that states, "Progress on climate change cannot succeed without protecting human rights—and the fight for human rights cannot succeed without protecting our planet against climate change."
The examples of government crackdowns on climate protesters are numerous. In October 2022, Just Stop Oil activists Morgan Trowland and Marcus Decker climbed the cables of a major bridge in England and remained there for two days, causing police to stop traffic across the bridge. They called for the U.K. to stop licensing new oil and gas projects in the North Sea.
Trowland and Decker were each subsequently sentenced to more than 30 months in prison under a 2022 law passed by the Conservative government that led the country at the time. The sentencing prompted concern from a United Nations special rapporteur. An op-ed published Tuesday in The Guardian by Linda Lakhdhir, CRI's legal director, indicated that the Labour Party, now in power in the U.K., has not made a total break from the Conservatives policies.
A similar U.K. case involved Just Stop Oil's disruption of traffic on a highway in November 2022. Five campaigners, including Roger Hallam, well-known as a co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, had spoken on a Zoom call designed to increase participation in the direct action. This July, they were each sentenced to at least four years in jail, with Hallam receiving a five-year sentence—the longest sentences ever given in the country for non-violent protest, The Guardianreported.
Michel Forst, the U.N.'s special rapporteur on environmental defenders, attended part of the trial and called the sentencing a "dark day for peaceful environmental protest."
The attempt to silence climate protest has gone well beyond the U.K. In late August, a German court sentenced a 65-year-old man to nearly two years in prison for blocking a road as part of a protest. An Australian protester was given 15 months in prison for blocking one lane in a five-lane road for 28 minutes in 2022.
In April 2023, Joanna Smith was one of two protesters who put water-soluble paint on the protective case of a sculpture at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. She faced unexpectedly harsh federal charges—for two felonies—that could have landed her in prison for five years, and ended up making a plea deal for a 60-day sentence. Her fellow protestor, Timothy Martin, has a trial scheduled for November.
The report makes the following four general recommendations for governments:
The final recommendation stems from the fact that some jurisdictions and judges have prevented climate activists from stating the reasons for their civil disobedience in court. A U.K. judge, Silas Reid, has repeatedly denied climate protesters the ability to explain their motivations to juries, and even jailed two of them for contempt of court when they did so anyway.
The U.S. has not passed a harsh federal bill along the lines of the 2022 U.K. law, but many states have placed anti-protest laws on the books in recent years, and other state legislatures have considered measures, the report says. A 2019 Texas law strengthened penalties for protests around pipelines and other fossil fuel infrastructure, and a 2020 Tennessee law did so for "inconvenient" protests.
Harsh penalties are not the only danger that environmental defenders face. Nearly 200 environmental defenders were killed across the world in 2023, according a report released Tuesday by Global Witness.
Crackdowns on non-violent protest in rich Western countries extend beyond the issue of climate. Pro-Palestinian campus protests in the U.S. have also seen harsh crackdowns in the past year, with fears among campaigners that anti-protest measures could increase.
The report posits that governments should take a different approach to such civil disobedience, given its importance in spurring social change in the past.
"Governments should welcome peaceful protests as the sign of an engaged citizenry," the report says. "Those who engage in peaceful protest should, at a minimum, be assured that their rights will be respected."