NYS Legislature’s Budget Hearing on Environmental Conservation

Department of Environmental Conservation Commissoner Joseph Martens testifies before members of the New York State Legislature. The first video, after a short prelude featuring Sandra Steingraber, shows the hearing up through Commissioner Martens' opening remarks, and then shows fracking-related excerpts only. The second video is the rally which immediately followed the meeting.

Statement from: New Yorkers Against Fracking:

 

RALLY TO STOP FRACKING APPROVAL BY GOVERNOR CUOMO

NO SGEIS – NO REGULATIONS- NO FRACKING NY February 4th, 2013- Albany, NY

 

It’s the 11th hour in the fight against fracking. We are faced with a February 13 do or die deadline when the revised Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) will or will not appear in the DEC’s Environmental Notice Bulletin. The SGEIS legally has to age 10 days in order to issue the final Findings Statement and final regulations (the ones we recently commented on) by Feb 27. We need to voice to the Governor that the power of our movement is growing and that allowing fracking in New York would be the fatal mistake of his political career.

The health review currently underway has been done in secret with no public comment or transparency. The Governor needs to open up the review and allow for public participation. By opening up public participation of the health review, he must halt finalization of the SGEIS and subsequently let the proposed regulations expire - this is what needs to happen to allow science, facts, and public health to drive this decision.

This is why we need you back in Albany on February 4th for the NYS Legislature’s Budget Hearing on Environmental Conservation, where the legislature will be able to question DEC Commissioner Martens on their secretive, dysfunctional and undemocratic process. We need to pack the room and be there when DEC Commissioner Martens testifies, starting at 9am and for the entirety of his remarks. Following the Commissioners testimony we will gather in the Million Dollar Staircase for a rally and a press conference to unite as a united front and demand that this fatally flawed process not move forward. We’re asking everyone to wear blue and bring a jar of the clean water from your tap to hold up as well as signs. Our message to Governor Cuomo is this – we are organized and we will not let up or give up.

OUR MESSAGE ON FEBRUARY 4th is this: NO SGEIS- NO REGS- NO FRACKING.