NY Green candidate calls for ban on Marcellus Shale drilling
Uncovered Politics reports on New York Green Party gubernatorial candidate Howie Hawkins:
Howie Hawkins, the Green Party candidate for governor of New York, called for a ban on drilling in the Marcellus Shale last week…
“Drill baby, drill, usually ends up spill baby, spill, as you can see now in the Gulf of Mexico,” said Hawkins during a recent campaign appearance in Endicott. “We’re for a ban on hydrofracking because there are better options for energy, and what this really does is privatize the cost and socialize the risk.”
Hydraulic fracturing is a process that requires injecting a fracturing fluid, mostly water but also containing hundreds of chemicals, into the shale at a very high pressure to fracture or “open up” the rock. Oil and gas industry spokesmen contend that the benefits outweigh the risks and that the natural gas, chemicals and contaminated water flow up to the wellhead where they are captured for production or remain trapped in the shale rock thousands of feet below the surface, while environmental critics argue that the gas and fluids can flow into the groundwater supply or the air, polluting both, while potentially creating dry beds out of streams, ponds and rivers.
