Environmentalist are using fracking to raise cash -
September we saw drilling opponent protesting outside a Marcellus Shale Coalition conference. Wednesday, the American Petroleum Institute sponsored a public drilling forum in Albany, NY where drilling advocates believe that environmentalist may have alternative motives to raise cash. Karen Moreau, head the New York State Petroleum Council, said that environmentalists have stirred up the controversy as a fundraising tool.
Environmentalist and other anti-fracking advocates won’t deny that the fracking controversy has attracted more members and has raised more money in recent years. However, Katherine Nadeau, of the Environmental Advocates for New York said that the idea of using fracking as a fundraising method is “preposterous…[Our members] are incredibly concerned about the harmful effects of fracking that have happened all over the country.”
The forum on Wednesday represented more than 400 oil and gas producers. Attending the forum were geologists, engineers, and landowners from the Southern Tier and Central New York, which are areas that fracking could take place. New York State currently has a temporary moratorium on drilling companies.
Moreau argues that the regulations that the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), including bans on fracking in Syracuse and NYC watersheds, are motivated by politics.
“They carved out certain parts of the state, where I think that they thought, for a variety of reasons, it would be certainly politically sensitive,” she says.
Environmentalist would like to see a permanent ban on fracking.
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