New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration extended its ban on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, because officials said the health effects of the controversial drilling method haven’t been fully explored.
“This is a very emotional debate, but this is a very factual presentation based on the facts,” the Democrat said during a Wednesday news conference.
New York Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joseph Martens said his department would have to study the health effects more closely before it reached a decision on whether to allow fracking. That could take several more years.
“Certainly there is a lot of evidence on the table that [fracking] couldn’t be done safely,” Martens said.
The state has had a moratorium on fracking since 2008, when then-Gov. David Paterson, a Democrat, stopped the practice. The Department of Health was asked to evaluate the effects on human health in September 2012, adding to delays.
The state has been ground zero for battles over the drilling practice, which injects a high-pressure cocktail of water, sand and chemicals into tight-rock formations to access oil and gas. Environmental groups that form a part of the Democratic base have kept the heat on Cuomo, who has avoided weighing in on the practice as it underwent years of study.
The fracking prohibition comes as local governments have increasingly debated whether to allow the practice. In November, Denton, Texas, voted to block it, while political leaders in Colorado negotiated a compromise rather than decide on whether to impose restrictions through ballot measures.
Green organizations said they hoped the New York ruling would propel pushes across the country to ban fracking.
“Today’s decision will shake the foundations of our nation’s flawed energy policy, and we can only expect that it will give strength to activists nationwide who are fighting fracking in dozens of states and hundreds of cities and counties,” Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said.
But the ruling angered the oil and gas industry, which has seen Pennsylvania drilling take off and jobs increase in the same Marcellus shale formation that runs underneath New York.
“New York is sitting on a major opportunity to help fuel America’s future. Just next door in Pennsylvania, more than $630 million has been distributed to communities since 2012 – including more than $224 million in just 2014. These once economically poor areas are now thriving,” said Karen Moreau, executive director of the New York Petroleum Council.
Cuomo, who was re-elected in November, rejected claims that the timing of the announcement was politically motivated so as to avoid angering business supporters who want fracking in the state.
“Now it’s after the election. So it can’t be political, it’s after the election,” he said.
Environmental groups have raised concerns that fracking pollutes groundwater, and activists in New York have sought to block the practice. Industry groups, however, say the practice is safe.
“I have never once heard someone say to me, ‘Fracking is great,'” Cuomo said. “What I’ve heard them say is, ‘I have no alternative to fracking.'”
Howard Zucker, the acting commissioner for the state’s health department, said there wasn’t enough evidence to say definitively whether fracking posed no harm. He said studies are just now emerging, and that issues such as the effects of fracking on soil quality haven’t been assessed over a long-enough period of time.
Environmental groups applauded Cuomo’s move.
“Our growing national movement has persevered. We applaud Governor Cuomo for acknowledging the overwhelming science that speaks to the inherent dangers of fracking to public health and the environment,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director with Food & Water Watch, which has taken a lead role in opposing fracking in the state.
