Experts are now saying the Gulf Coast oil spill is the worst in U.S. history. But even after all the environmental devastation, lost livelihoods, and broken “safety” promises from the oil industry, New York might allow an even riskier kind of drilling here — one that could contaminate the water supply for millions of New Yorkers.
The EPA hasn’t finished studying whether this new gas drilling method (called “hydrofracking”) is safe. But energy lobbyists are pushing New York’s leaders to let them start drilling now.
Thankfully, Assemblymember Steven Englebright has just introduced a bill to ban hydrofracking in New York until the EPA finishes its safety study. Will you ask your state legislators to support the ban? Our drinking water could depend on it:
http://action.workingfamiliesparty.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1825&tag=hydro1
New Yorkers are famously proud of our drinking water — New York City’s supply has even been called “the champagne of tap water.”
This new drilling method could ruin that by blasting millions of gallons of chemical-filled water into New York’s earth, and potentially into our watersheds. The NY Department of Environmental Conservation just put stricter regulations on ‘hydrofracking’ in the parts of the state that supply drinking water for New York City and Syracuse – but those protections don’t ban hydrofracking and don’t apply to the rest of New York State.
The bottom line is that we just don’t know what effects this new gas drilling will have — and we shouldn’t rush to drill before the EPA has finished its safety study.
Will you help protect our drinking water by telling the gas lobbyists to wait? Ask your state legislators to support a statewide hydrofracking ban until the safety verdict is in:
http://action.workingfamiliesparty.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=1825&tag=hydro1
Thanks,
Bob Master, WFP Co-Chair
Dan Cantor, WFP Executive Director
