A celebration of the December 2014 ban on Fracking in New York State
This program is also produced with gratitude in memory of Theo Colborn, author of Our Stolen Future. Her research into the risks associated with the chemicals used in fracking played a huge part in that victory. She died, age 87, three days before the ban was announced.
On Wednesday, December 17, 2014, a victory made the news: The state of New York banned fracking for natural gas. After activists demanded that the health effects of fracking be studied, a two year investigation by the state’s own commission confirmed what the movement had been saying all along, that fracking cannot be done safely. The acting Commissioner of Health for New York State even said he would not let his family live in an area that is being fracked.
New York became the first state with proven oil and gas reserves to announce that it will ban fracking. It was a day for the history books and one that would never have happened if it weren’t for basically everyone.
People from Colorado, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, Texas, Ohio, Arkansas and other fracking-plagued states sounded the alarm and educated New Yorkers about the coming threat. Scientists uncovered the evidence of fracking’s dangers. Lawyers discovered that New York towns had the right to ban fracking and defended that right in court.
This program contains material of a 2010 TUC Radio broadcast in collaboration with hydro-power radio WJFF in the Catskills and programmer Fred Pecora. He gave me his interviews of the founding members of Damascus Citizens.org, that I combined with and presentation by Theo Colborn.
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