(Holbrook, NY) Dozens of concerned Long Island residents will converge on a political fundraiser Monday where Gov. Cuomo is scheduled to appear to remind the governor and his supporters of steadfast and growing opposition to the possibility of fracking in New York State. Hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” is an extremely dangerous method of gas drilling that has been linked to air and water pollution, earthquakes, and human health crises where it occurs.
Local residents will also be calling on Cuomo to veto the Port Ambrose liquefied natural gas (LNG) facility currently being proposed for construction just off Long Island’s South Shore. The facility would pose a grave risk to Long Island’s environment and could increase the demand for fracking in New York State.
What: Anti-Fracking Rally at Cuomo Fundraiser Appearance
When: Monday, April 28, 5:45 pm
Where: Villa Lombardi’s, 877 Main Street, Holbrook, NY
Photo Op: Dozens of animated protesters with signs and banners, marching and chanting.
“Governor Cuomo needs to see that Long Islanders’ opposition to fracking is widespread and will continue growing as they learn more and more about the dangers gas development brings to communities large and small,” said Eric Weltman, senior organizer at Food & Water Watch and a spokesman for New Yorkers Against Fracking. “We need him to protect Long Island by banning fracking and rejecting the ill-advised plan for a dangerous LNG facility just off the South Shore.”
Background: As fracking and natural gas operations have expanded in other states, they have increasingly been accompanied by serious disasters and emergencies. Just weeks ago in Pennsylvania, a natural gas well exploded, killing a worker, shaking homes, sparking a fire that burned for four days, and emitting gas into the atmosphere. In July in West Virginia, a fracking explosion injured at least five people and led to state and federal investigations.
Infrastructure for fracking operations and the transport of natural gas has also led to similar disasters. The explosion of a natural gas pipeline in Texas led to the evacuation of a town, the closure of roads and flames rising from a drilling rig. Just a month earlier, a similar incident occurred in Oklahoma.
Scientists have increasingly associated fracking operations with causing earthquakes – a major uptick in earthquakes in Oklahoma more and more implicates fracking. Just recently, the Youngstown-area of Ohio experienced 11 earthquakes in one week – the state shut down drilling operations as a result of the first four earthquakes.
The proposed Port Ambrose LNG facility would allow for the importation and exportation of natural gas to and from the Northeast region. While the federal government claims that the Port Ambrose facility would only be used for importation of LNG, in fact the port could easily be converted to facilitate gas exportation without a new approval process. Such exportation would increase the demand for fracking in the state and would lead to the increased development of dangerous gas pipelines and infrastructure projects on Long Island and elsewhere.
