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Hydrofracking: if you haven’t heard of it, you have one more day to get up to speed.
Why? New York State has been in the midst of an ongoing debate over whether to allow hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) in our state, and the opportunity for public comment ends on Wednesday, Jan. 11.
This blog is admittedly late to the party on the issue, and it’s too big an issue to sum up in 300 words, but I’d be remiss not to address it. A Messenger Post article sums up this week’s news very well.
In short, hydrofracking has been big news in our area ever since the discovery that an estimated 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas could lie within the Marcellus Shale (and below it the Utica Shale) formation – a subterranean rock formation that extends from West Virginia to New York’s Southern Tier and Finger Lakes regions (see map).
As you can imagine, oil and gas companies have been eager to drill in the “Marcellus Shale play” (as it’s called in industry terms) for years, and tout the economic benefits of doing so.
To counter, environmental watchdogs have demanded that the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) perform its due diligence and examine the many risks before issuing permits, if at all. Most environmental groups (and this blogger) have been encouraged by the fact that the DEC has continued to extend the comment period. My observation is that because of public interest and knowledge, energy companies are being forced to consider the impact of the drilling process on the communities they enter.
I hope that if you haven’t examined hydrofracking yet, at least click on the links here, and continue to do your own research. Then, hurry up and get to the DEC’s comment page before the comment period closes.
As a long-time environmental enthusiast, Josh Thines has never actually hugged a tree, but he does get pretty excited learning and writing about new ways to preserve them.
