December 17th was a historic day for the anti-fracking movement. After years of back and forth and kicking the can down the road, Governor Cuomo's office listened to science and finally banned fracking for the state of NY.
It’s a big victory for the state of New York--and a potential game changer in the fight against fracking here in California and nationwide.
After almost an hour of presentations from the Department of Health and the Department of Environmental Conservation, Dr. Zucker’s quote “Would I let my child play in the school field nearby, or my family drink the water from the tap or grow their vegetables in the soil? After looking at a plethora of reports … my answer is no.” has stayed with me in my mind the most.
New York state’s top health official just declared that he wouldn’t allow his children to be near fracking based on the scientific data that he’s reviewed. Governor Jerry Brown needs to follow New York’s lead by listening to the experts and banning fracking in California.
Over the last few years of campaigning on fracking, what has been the most shocking everyday is that very notion. Governors, legislators, even our President, has been pushing the idea of expansion of the fracking industry at the cost of our children and climate. Very rarely do we see states take into consideration the precautionary principle of thinking and reviewing before fracking.
Based on NY’s decision on Wednesday- Governor Cuomo has said that the health of New York’s children are far too important to risk for the economic greed of the oil and gas industry. In California, we’re asking, why are New York’s children too precious but 352,724 children in California go to school within a mile of a fracking well?
According to a report released just last month from FracTracker and the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment, hundreds of thousands of children (60% of which are Latino) are exposed to the very risks that NY told us were far too big to allow fracking in their state.
In fact, community members from the Central Valley have asked Governor Brown to come see fracking first hand in their community. Community members know that once Gov. Brown sees what he's exposing the children of California to, he would move to ban the harmful practice. Check out the video that they made this year showing the reality of fracking in California.
According to Joseph Martens, NY State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner, at most 63% of the sitting shale was open for recovery — but because of setback laws (laws that California state does not employ for fracking), significantly less was actually available to the point that fracking in New York wasn’t worthwhile. Because NY state has decided the health and well being of their communities, water, and children, deserved to be shielded from fracking, a little less than half of the recoverable gas was off the table.
New York's decision not only ended the possibility of the practice being employed in the state- but it effectively takes it off the table of every other state fighting and experiencing fracking first hand.
We're looking to Governor Jerry Brown to make the same common sense decision for California and listen to the experts.
Over the next few months, Californians will be ramping up pressure on Governor Brown to make the right decision on ending fracking once and for all in our state. As we face the worst drought in history, despite all of the recent rain, we still are wasting fresh water only to produce oil that will further exacerbate our drought, continue to poison our communities, and put the health of California’s children at risk.
If Governor Brown wants to continue to be seen as a climate leader, we have to stop investing in climate ruining practices like fracking and other fossil fuel development.
Californian’s are asking that Governor Brown step up to be a REAL climate leader. If he isn’t willing to, we will be in the streets in the thousands in Oakland on February 7th, to show him what real climate leadership looks like. Join us on February 7th, to let Governor Brown know that if fracking isn't safe for NY children, it's not safe for Californian children either!
