A trio of assemblymen is calling on the Department of Environmental Conservation to immediately suspend a soon-to-close comment period on the state’s proposed regulations for hydrofracking.
In a letter to DEC Commissioner Joseph Martens and state Health Commissioner Nirav Shah, the three assemblymen criticized the agencies for keeping a review of the potential health impacts of fracking under wraps.
The lawmakers—Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee Chairman Robert Sweeney, D-Suffolk County; Health Chairman Richard Gottfried, D-Manhattan; and Charles Lavine, D-Nassau County, chairman of the Administrative Regulation Review Commission—cited an internal 2012 assessment from the Health Department and DEC that found fracking could be conducted safely in New York with proper safeguards.
“The Department of Health is still reviewing the health impacts of fracking, although the extent of that review is not clear, and the FOIL demands for disclosure of studies and data have not yet been fulfilled,” the assemblymen wrote. “If the public is to provide meaningful comment on the proposed regulations, the public should be able to see the studies and analysis that were produced at public expense.”
The letter comes at an interesting time. The three lawmakers are set to host a hearing on the fracking regulations on Thursday—a day before the 30-day comment period is set to close.
According to the letter, both the Health Department and DEC have been invited to testify at the hearing. It wasn’t immediately clear if either agency would participate.
Here’s the press release. The letter itself is on page 2 and 3.
5 Comments
Thank you Assemblymen Robert Sweeney, Richard Gottfried and Charles Lavine for asking for the suspension of the DEC’s rushed, backward process that had been initiated in the middle of the holiday season. It is virtually impossible to make intelligent comments on proposed regulations without having access to the SGEIS. The Health Department report that was leaked to the press has been touted all over the media as stating that fracking is safe. This is an absurd situation.
If Governor Cuomo is true to his word that science is the most urgent consideration in the decision on fracking, he will step forward and have this process realigned in a rational manner.
Once again it is members of the NY State Assembly who are taking steps and conducting hearings to help protect the health of environment of constituents. As usual, the State Senate is AWOL. We need more transparency and accountability from legislators, DEC, DOH, and the governor. Thank you Mr. Sweeney, Mr. Gottfriend and Mr. Lavine for doing what every representative should be doing. We should not have to learn about DEC’s review process, of utmost importance to NY state, via forced releases under FOIA.
Not only has the information been kept from the public, but the approval process for the regulations has lost transparency since the SGEIS on which the regulations are based is as yet incomplete and not made available for public review. This is not only backwards but appears to violate DEC’s own regulations and processes. Hopefully the three Assemblymen, and indeed the Assembly as a whole, will demand that the public comment period on the regulations will remain open for a reasonable period AFTER the SGEIS is finalized and made public.
If that means that the entire regulation adoption process has to be restarted, so be it.
Kudos to these three assemblymen for ‘getting it-’ understanding what a sham it is to have people commenting on regs that have been released without benefit of a full review of the data! And to understand the implications of a year old health assessment, especially one based on industry data that supports the misguided and completely erroneous notion that fracking is safe, is wonderful news to the many thousands f New Yorkers who also understand how very dangerous hydrofracking is. Thank you sincerely to these three intelligent assemblymen, who are also not afraid to buck the industry and admit that fracking is not the way to go!!
It’s good to see the relevant Assembly committee chairs taking action on the behalf of all New Yorkers. I appreciate their diligence on this vital issue.