Petition to Ban toxic gas drilling across NYS

Join FoBP and add your organization as well as your individualness.


Today an online petition was launched calling for a ban on natural gas drilling across NYS. To sign it, go to:
Not just a petition, we need you to act too!


http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/NY-Statewide-Ban-On-Natural-Gas-Drilling

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The following 50 groups have issued statements in support of a state-wide ban, and/or in support the Sierra Club resolution:

Atlantic Chapter of Sierra Club
Action Otsego
Advocates for Springfield
Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz, Jr.
Bronx Community Board 1
Bronx Community Board 2
Bronx Community Board 5
Bronx Community Board 7
Bronx Community Board 8
Bronx Community Board 9
Bronx Greens
Brooklyn Community Board 3
Brooklyn Community Board 10
Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy (CCSE)
CDOG (Chenango Delaware Otsego Gas Drilling Opposition Group)
Concerned Citizens of Otego
Damascus Citizens for Sustainability
Delaware County Herbal Network Group
Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society
Energy Justice Network
Environmental Working Group of Central New York
Franklin Local Ltd.
FWCanDo (Fort Worth Citizens Against Neighborhood Drilling Ordinance)
Friends of Brook Park
Friends of the Upper Delaware River
Green Party of New York State
Hands Across the Border
Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Confederation)
Manhattan Community Board 2
Manhattan Community Board 3
Manhattan Community Board 4
Manhattan Community Board 6
Manhattan Community Board 9
Manhattan Community Board 10
Manhattan Community Board 11
More Gardens!
National Alliance for Drilling Reform (NA4DR)
Neighbors of the Onondaga Nation (NOON)
New York Climate Action Group (NYCAG)
NYH2O
Protectors of Pine Oak Woods, Inc.
Queens Community Board 4
Queens Community Board 5
Schoharie Valley Watch, Inc
Shaleshock Citizens Action Alliance
Staten Island Community Board 2
Staten Island Community Board 3
Sustainable Otsego
SWiM (Safe Water Movement)
Tioga Peace and Justice

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On Saturday, October 17, 2009, the Executive Committee of the Atlantic Chapter of the Sierra Club met in Syracuse and passed a resolution proposed by the SC Gas Drilling Task Force. The resolutions calls on the NYS legislature to enact a ban on unconventional gas drilling in NYS.


„WHEREAS extensive environmental and health damages would be caused by horizontal drilling and high pressure hydrofracturing gas extraction techniques due to the contamination of water, soil and air by the toxic chemicals used in drilling and fracturing, and the naturally occurring toxic chemicals brought to the surface from deep in the ground,

„WHEREAS these environmental and human and animal health damages will have damaging economic consequences on residential property values, and on the state‚s tourism, agriculture, forestry, winery, real estate development and educational businesses,

„WHEREAS the infrastructure costs of building and repairing roads, water treatment facilities, and other public services would far exceed any economic benefit to local communities, and

„WHEREAS it is yet to be proven that the green house effects of the production and use of natural gas produced by horizontal drilling and hydrofracturing are any less than those of the production and use of coal when the life cycle emissions of natural gas production and the higher impact of methane as a green house gas are taken into account.

„Be It Resolved that the Atlantic Chapter of the Sierra Club calls on the New York State Legislature to enact a ban on permitting gas wells that use horizontal drilling and hydro-fracturing to release gas from tight sand and shale formations such as the Marcellus.‰


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Meeting at Harlem River

Our many years of advocacy for real waterfront access for our South Bronx communities on the Harlem River received a big boost today. With a site visit arranged by our local Council Members Viverito an Arroyo, NYC Parks Department, NYC City Planning and the Federal National Park Service gathered with local constituents to map out the final plan of action to achieve official park status! Stay tuned and stay involved.

Protecting Water Quality

FoBP has been busy around the region lately, advancing the issues of clean water and access to our waterways in a number of important forums. We attended two invitation only events with profound implications for our water quality.


We represented Bronx Council on Environmental Quality at the Pace University Law School NYS Water Policy Conference where we able to question Kit Kennedy of the NYS Attorney General's Office about the need to ban gas drilling in the State, and the navigability of the Bronx Kill.
On September 30th we testified at the NYS Senate Standing Committee on Environmental Conservation Chaired by Senator Antoine M. Thompson with local Senator Bill Perkins in attendance. We made several recommendations to ease the regulatory process for mollusk and wetlands habitat restoration, the need for budget increases to the NYSDEC EJ grants program and for greater equity in the NYSEPF allocation. Mostly, we pressed for a total ban on the dangerous gas drilling that is proposed in New York State. Learn more here:



http://www.shaleshock.org/