James Northrup worked in the gas industry for thirty years. He's from Texas, but summers in Cooperstown, NY. He's concerned about hydrofracking in NY State. He says the gas industry could use non-toxic fracking chemicals, or at least non-carcinogenic chemicals, but they don't because they don't have to. He talks here about four things which need changing in NY State:
1) Require a severance (production) tax like almost every drilling state does.
2) Separate the agency that issues drilling permits from the agency that serves as a watchdog for the environment. The NY DEC currently does both.
3) Get rid of compulsory integration which he says is just wrong.
4) Do something about the vulnerability caused by the ownership of NY State surface water. The state owns almost all lakes in NY State. Municipalities have absolutely no control over water use.
Northrup says that NY State law is antiquated and completely inadequate for today's technology and the geology of New York State.
DEMAND ACCOUNTABILITY!
Good start - Read the full Power Point on this at
ReplyDeletehttp://www.otsego2000.org/
New York's environmental commissioner just quit over the state's complete lack of preparedness for this 21st century technology.