Gov. Cuomo’s ugly message to biz

By JOHN KROHN in New York Post 4/10/2013

Gov. Cuomo likes to declare that New York is “open for business,” but his prolonged refusal to OK hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, sends the opposite message, even as it inflicts real economic losses on some of New York’s most depressed communities.

Cuomo statedover two years agothat science would determine how the state moved forward with hydraulic fracturing. That should have meant a rapid OK — since more than 1.2 million oil and natural-gas wells have been “fracked” without incident.

That record prompted top officials in the Clinton, BushandObamaadministrations to declare the process safe.

Instead, Cuomo put fracking on hold for a supposed review of possible public-health risks. Again, the record clearly shows no such threat, assuming basic safety regulations like those New York has drafted. In fact, his Health Department finished a health review in February 2012 — and the Cuomo administration kept it from the public for nearly a year.

That report found that “significant adverse impacts on human health are not expected from routine [fracking] operations.” Indeed, “the state’s proposed regulations would prevent any potential health risks from air emissions, water contamination, and radioactive materials unearthed during the drilling process.”

Yet last month the Cuomo administration failed to meet yet another deadline, claiming it needed more time toreview three other outside studies.

Just to keep everyone guessing, at a March 11 Cabinet meetingCuomo denied that was the cause of the delay, saying, “We never said you had to...

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Natural Gas Resources Seen at Record in U.S. on Fracking

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Ernest Moniz, Obama’s energy secretary nominee, lauds fracking ‘revolution’

By Ben Wolfgang in The Washington Times 4/9/13

President Obama’s pick to head the Energy Department offered something for everyone during Senate confirmation hearings Tuesday.

Ernest Moniz, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and former undersecretary at the department, praised the U.S. natural gas “revolution” brought about by widespread use of fracking and said it must continue.

SPECIAL COVERAGE: Energy and Environment

He also promoted the transition to a “low-carbon” economy, a nod toward renewable fuels and indication that his Energy Department would invest in solar, wind and other green sources.

Mr. Moniz even had kind words for coal, saying the

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Energy Secretary nominee backs natural gas 'revolution'

in The Plain Dealer by Associated Press business staff 4/9/13

WASHINGTON  -- President Barack Obama's choice to lead the Energy Department pledged to increase use of natural gas Tuesday as a way to combat climate change even as the nation seeks to boost domestic energy production.

Ernest Moniz, a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said "a stunning increase" in production of domestic natural gas in recent years was nothing less than a "revolution" that has led to reduced emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that cause global warming.

The natural gas boom also has led to a dramatic expansion of manufacturing and job creation, Moniz told the Senate Energy Committee.

Even so, Moniz stopped short of endorsing widespread exports of natural gas, saying he wanted to study the issue further.

A recent study commissioned by the Energy Department concluded that exporting natural gas would benefit the U.S. economy even if it led to higher domestic prices for the fuel.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., chairman of the Senate energy panel, called the DOE study flawed and said it relied on old data and unrealistic market assumptions.

Moniz said is open to reviewing the study to ensure that officials have the best possible data before making any decisions.

"We certainly want to make sure that we are using data that is relevant to the decision at hand," he said.

Many U.S. energy companies are hoping to take advantage of the natural gas boom by exporting liquefied natural gas to Europe and...

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Dairy Farmer Demands Natural Gas Decision From Governor Cuomo

Dear Mr Governor, How about a response for this landowner. How about stepping up and accepting responsibility for the damage you have personally caused.JLCpulse

by Lisa Robinson Steuben County, NY Dairy Farmer, Member, Steuben County Land Owners Coalition April 2/2013 In EID

Lisa Robinson is a dairy farmer in Steuben County, NY who has watched Pennsylvanians prosper just across the border from her farm. Meanwhile, New York taxes and unemployment are on the rise, the price of milk paid to the farmer is falling, and landowners still await a decision on natural gas development in the state.

I recently wrote a letter to Governor Cuomo expressing my frustrations over the continued delay on natural gas development in New York. The nearly five years of delay have been long and frustrating, especially in the dairy community, and it’s time we got some answers from our state’s administration. Here is the letter I sent demanding they decide one way or another what our future will hold:

It has been almost a year since I had a lengthy conversation with one of your staff members regarding dairy farming and land owner rights and 

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At Penn St., a natural gas expansion

The new institute, dubbed INGaR, is a collaboration of the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and the College of Engineering. It also will be affiliated with faculty in other disciplines.

Already, more than 70 faculty members in various departments are conducting significant research in natural gas and related areas, said Turgay Ertekin, a professor of petroleum and natural gas engineering who will be the institute's codirector during the search for a permanent executive.

"There's a benefit of having multiple faculty with very diverse backgrounds and interests working together on complex problems that cut across disciplines," said Andrew Zydney, a chemical-engineering professor who is the institute's other interim codirector. "And, of...

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N.Y. should look south for inspiration

by  Dan Fitzsimmons in Pressconnets.com /Opinion 4/1/13

Doug McLinko, chairman of the county commissioners of Bradford County, Pa., said in a radio interview last week that more than $100 million was put into the assessed value of his county by businesses operating in the Marcellus Shale. As a result, Bradford County’s debt was eliminated.

The trigger for this growth was drilling activity in the Marcellus Shale. With more than 1,800 Marcellus wells drilled to date and no safety or health risks, Bradford County is enjoying unprecedented prosperity.

McLinko also said more than $1.5 billion was put into the general fund in Pennsylvania, which will benefit all Pennsylvanians. He is also looking past positive effects in his own community and acknowledging that production of domestic natural gas could make the United States an “energy superpower”:

“When you look at what natural gas does, it keeps our kids home, we’ve cut taxes, eliminated debt, we put people to work, we’re saving family farms, we’re keeping open space and greenways. All of the ways out of our financial problems lay under our feet, and we need to develop it.”

New York...

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Is Yoko above the law?

• Posted: April 02, 2013 in NY Post

The gaggle of celebs at Artists Against Fracking — from Yoko Ono on down — can surely boast more glitz and star power than members of the Independent Oil and Gas Association. But that doesn’t make them any less subject to New York law.

Which is why IOGA was right to ask the state’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics to probe Ono’s group and determine if it has violated state statutes by not formally registering as a lobbying entity.

IOGA, which supports the controversial method of natural-gas extraction and is itself a registered lobbyist, believes the celebs must file because of all the cash they’re dumping into their anti-fracking campaign.

Yoko Ono and Sean Lennon

Let’s be clear: No one is looking to silence AAF in any way; registering won’t limit the group’s free-speech rights one bit.

But it would force it to operate with the same level of transparency as fracking proponents do, by disclosing its funding sources and spending amounts — just as New York’s lobbying law requires.

Like it or not, that law seems pretty clear: An entity that spends more than $5,000 to advocate the passage or defeat of state legislation must register as a lobby. And it’s fairly obvious that Artists Against Fracking — which includes Ono’s son Sean as well as stars like Mark Ruffalo, Lady Gaga and Susan Sarandon — has...

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Fracking critics launch “CallCuomo.com”

LANDOWNERS THIS IS WHY YOU NEED TO KEEP CALLING THE ANTI GROUP HAS NOT LET UP!! WE NEED TO PROTECT OUR RIGHTS AND THE ONLY WAY SEEMS TO BE BY WASTING THE GOVENORS TIME. HEY IT SEEMS TO WORK.. Seems a shame too JLCpulse

Jon Campbell 4/1/2013 in LoHud.com

With the state budget process now over, critics of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas are again ramping up their efforts to target Gov. Andrew Cuomo, launching a call-in campaign Monday with a goal of getting tens of thousands of calls through to the governor’s office.

The campaign—being backed by about 30 groups, including Frack Action, the Sierra Club and Catskill Mountainkeeper—has its own, newly launched website to match: CallCuomo.com. (Screen cap of the website at left.)

“Riverkeeper has joined forces with fellow environmental groups, activists, elected officials and health professionals to put the focus on the question of whether to move forward with fracking where it belongs: how it will affect our health,” said Paul Gallay, president of Ossining-based Riverkeeper. “We need the voices of tens of thousands of New Yorkers who feel the same way to tell Governor Cuomo to wait for critical health study results before making a decision that could

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Andy fracked into a corner It’s a political ‘lose-lose’

• By FREDRIC U. DICKER , April 1, 2013

Gov. Cuomo is paralyzed with indecision on “fracking’’ for natural gas because it’s a “lose-lose’’ situation where even Southern Tier residents who should benefit financially will be bitterly disappointed, a highly placed political source has told The Post.

Cuomo, who has dithered for more than two years on whether to OK the drilling process, which is used safely in nearly 30 other states, fears that his planned “toughest-in-the-nation” regulations and low natural-gas prices have combined to make it unlikely major gas companies would make the investments needed to develop new wells, the source said.

“His fear is that if he gives the go-ahead, nothing is going to happen, the gas companies won’t come in because of overregulation, and gas-price economics and the people [in the] Southern Tier will then say, ‘Look, Cuomo killed it another way.’

“Cuomo’s regulators plan to impose almost impossible restrictions, natural-gas prices are way down, and the governor knows that the less valuable ‘dry’ natural gas is in the [Southern Tier’s] Marcellus Shale, not the valuable ‘wet’ gas that the companies are going after now,’’ the source continued.

“The drilling decision is, and has been all along, about what the governor can gain from it, and right now, he doesn’t see himself gaining anything, whatever he does,’’ explained the source, who has strong ties to Cuomo’s campaign contributors.

After telling associates for nearly two years he believed natural-gas drilling could be conducted safely...

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