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By Clover56, on September 30th, 2010%
October 6, 2010
Press Contacts: Kate Bartholomew, CPNY, FLP, SLPWA 607-228-7371 & J. Paul Bursic, FLP 607-387-6562
Many questions have been raised in New York about the safety of the process of high-volume, high-pressure horizontal fracturing, or “fracking.” Other questions have been raised about the effect this form of gas drilling will have on property values.
Here’s your chance to learn more about the various issues involved from well-informed experts, local citizens, and Pennsylvania residents who are currently living in active and or soon-to-be active Marcellus Shale gas drilling areas.
On Wednesday, October 6, a Schuyler County Community Forum on Fracking will be held at the Watkins Glen Elementary School Auditorium, Watkins Glen, NY (612 South Decatur Street). Start time is 6:30 p.m.
Committed panelists include Dr. John Stolz, a microbiologist from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA; David Whiting of Red Newt Winery and Bistro (Schuyler County), Peggy Haines, a realtor with Audrey Edelman Realty; Helen Slottje, Esq., and environmental attorney; and Craig and Julie Sautner of Montrose, Pennsylvania. The Sautners live on the now infamous Carter Road in Dimock, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, an active drilling region
The Marcellus Shale, which underlies the Finger Lakes and other regions, is not the only shale formation with methane gas; there is the potential for accelerated drilling in the Utica Shale, which lies deeper than the Marcellus and is distributed across almost all of New York State.
At the moment, this form of drilling is not permitted in New York because a New York Department of Environmental Conservation study (dSGEIS) has not yet been acted upon. The preliminary regulations have been widely criticized for failing to address many safety questions about the chemicals used in the drilling. Property values in other states have been adversely affected by this type of gas drilling, with water contamination due to hazardous chemicals being one of many reasons for the decline in value.
The evening forum is being sponsored by the Finger Lakes Progressives, Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes, Environmentally Concerned Citizens of Hector and the Coalition to Protect New York. It is free to all. It will be moderated by Paul Marcellus, a local business owner and former member of the Schuyler County Legislature.
By Clover56, on September 23rd, 2010%
Drilling for methane (hyped as “natural”) gas via high-volume slickwater hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in the Marcellus, Utica, and other shale formations is a dire threat to the water, air, soil, property values, infrastructure, and communities of our beautiful region, and to the short- and long-term health of our people, animals, and environment.
Yet the Big Gas/Big Oil industry is spending tens of millions of dollars to convince Congress, the executive branch, and the public that methane gas is a “safe, clean, homegrown bridge fuel to help take the country from dependence on foreign oil” and that fracking “poses no threat to our water supply.” They’ve got some very slick PR folks — and they’ve been pretty successful in perpetrating these falsehoods.
That’s partly because mainstream media, and even many self-proclaimed “progressive” media outlets and journalists, have bought their story hook, line, and sinker. Populist, popular alternative music shows accept sponsorship from the gas megacompanies that have been fined for contaminating Pennyslvania’s water, air, and soil.
To help fight these rich corporate propagandists, we need well-trained, ethical, responsible citizen journalists who will tell the true story and educate the public and representatives about the dangers of fracking. Citizen journalists know the audience — their friends, families, colleagues, neighbors, and local elected officials — in a way no mainstream media outlet can.
We have designed an intensive, eight-session course citizen journalism course specifically for antifracking activists working in our region — central, western, and northern New York and northern Pennsylvania.
Read more about the class to see if you’d like to participate. The first course, in Ithaca, runs Thursday evenings, September 23 to November 18. Subsequent classes are planned for Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, and Cortland, Schuyler/Chemung, and Yates Counties, New York, and other counties as need and demand dictate.
By Clover56, on September 22nd, 2010%
Palante is back in action! Besides hosting the Shaleshock101 Series at Cornell (open to all) for five weeks, they’re throwing one heck of a party.
Palante and friends invite you to…
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
SALSASON LATIN DANCE PARTY & ANTI-FRACK BENEFIT
SATURDAY OCTOBER 2
BIG RED BARN
8:30PM Doors open
8:45PM Free Salsa and Latin Rhythms “Survival” Dance Lesson with Palante. Jonathan Kline on Percussion.
9:45PM-1:00AM Latin Dance Party!
*Heavy Salsa into mixed sets of Salsa, Bachata, Merengue, Reggaeton, Cha Cha Cha, Cumbia and more.
$4 students/$6 non-students
Donations for Shaleshock Action Alliance accepted. Palante to make additional donation.
ANTI-FRACK BENEFIT
Representatives from Shaleshock will have info table to answer your questions on fracking in the Marcellus Shale and explain how you can become involved in this vital environmental justice movement. We will also take registrations for Drilling 101, an educational and organizer training series beginning at Cornell on 10.19, brought to you by Shaleshock via Palante and Friends. For more info on Drilling 101, go to: http://palantetroupe.org/events.html#drilling. If your organization or department would like to cosponsor Drilling 101 at Cornell and support the work of Shaleshock, send email to palante@cornell.edu.
MORE INFO
Palante Events: http://palantetroupe.org/events
SalsaSon on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=140637312648228
Drilling 101 on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=153549754667693
DIRECTIONS & PARKING
The Big Red Barn sits atop a hill between the Farrand and Rockwell Azalea Gardens at the corner of Tower Road and East Avenue on the Cornell Campus. Parking can be found after 5pm at the front entrance to the Barn on East Avenue, via the back entrance off of Garden Avenue, or in other nearby parking lots or on-street along Garden Avenue or Tower Road. For detailed directions use Google Maps:http://maps.google.com/. Or use online Cornell campus map: http://www.chess.cornell.edu/misc/large_search.pdf.
¡¡¡¡¡¡HASTA LA FIESTA!!!!!!
By Clover56, on September 21st, 2010%
This is an exciting time, and well timed is a Shaleshock Monthly Meetup for updates, announcements, and the help us begin to organize our movement across state lines to Pittsburgh for the largest mobilization against fracking yet!
AGENDA
5:30pm Shaleshock Orientation for New Folks
6:00 – 7:30pm Meeting begins with Announcements and Updates
Agenda* Items:
-Marcellus Protest (www.marcellusprotest.org)
-Further Improvements/feedback for www.shaleshock.org
*Please e-mail additional agenda items
“On Wednesday, November 3-4, the gas industry will host a national conference on shale gas drilling at the David Lawrence Convention Center in in Pittsburgh. As Pennsylvania citizens concerned about the health of our communities and the environment on which we depend, we will attend this summit in the streets. We hope you will join us.”
By Clover56, on September 20th, 2010%
 Tuesday 10.19, Tuesday 10.26, Monday 11.1, Tuesday 11.9, Tuesday 11.16
McGraw Hall Room 125 – Arts Quad, Cornell Campus 6:00-8:00PM
Please Register in advance. Find McGraw on CAMPUS MAP.
Workshops led by Ryan Clover and Maria Oldiges
Drilling 101 with Shaleshock – Hydro-Fracking in the Marcellus Shale
Drilling-Shaleshock 101 is a comprehensive curriculum that covers everything from the basics of Gas Drilling to movement building and strategy. Over the course of five class sessions we’ll cover a broad spectrum of relevant topics. This class is based on a curriculum that began last year to expand the knowledge and capacity of participants to engage in a movement to protect our communities from exploitative drilling. The curriculum we use evolves and changes as it’s updated, fact-checked, and to meet the needs of participants.
We want participants to attend all sessions. If you need to be flexible, please talk to us about it and perhaps we can make arrangements.
UPDATED SCHEDULE!
October 18th: Drilling 101
In this session we’ll overview the entire drilling process, getting into the gritty details. You’ll find this an important topic whether you’re new to the whole thing, or experienced with gas extraction. This class provides an important re-cap, as well as deep investigation into the environmental and health risks of drilling.
October 25th: Regulations, Leases & Laws
Gas drilling happens on land who’s owners have leased the “mineral rights” to a energy extraction corporation. In this session we’ll cover the details about how this process goes about–how the gas companies aquire leases, trade them, and how it affects landowners, and everyone else.
November 1st: Media, PR & Greenwashing
The energy extraction industry is propped up with Public Relations. We’ll take this session to explore the frameworks and narratives they use in their representation of drilling and fracking for shale-gas.
November 9th: Community Response
In this class, we’ll explore the rich history of social movements that have confronted industrial developers and profit extracting industries such as the shale-gas industry. We’ll explore examples as well as tactics, even doing some of our own brainstorms about our community response, and alternatives to the narrative being presented by the gas industry.
November 16th: Connect the Dots, Fracking in Context
Although many of us are shocked at the dangers and risks of shale-gas drilling, this isn’t the first time that this land area (New York State) has faced invaders seeking to exploit the land for profit and “resource” extraction. Likewise, shale-gas isn’t the only problem we face in New York’s economy of industrial prisons, war, and factory farming. These industries are all touted as a solution to NY’s failing economy, yet are devestating and traumatic to everyone involved. We seek to put our movement to stop fracking in context of a larger movement to end exploitation.
By Clover56, on September 17th, 2010%
Rally to Save Our Communities and Environment
November 3rd – Pittsburgh, PA
November 3-4, the gas industry will host a national conference on shale gas drilling at the David Lawrence Convention Center in in Pittsburgh. More details can be found at Marcellusprotest.org
By Clover56, on September 17th, 2010%
For Immediate Release: September 14, 2010 Contact: Anna Sears, 585-473-4115
asears@rochester.rr.com
HYDRAULIC FRACTURING: WHAT IS IT AND WHY SHOULD ROCHESTER CARE?
Rochester, NY - – A public forum about the Marcellus Shale and how gas drilling impacts us will take place Tuesday, September 21, 2010, from 6:30-8:30 p.m. in the Brighton Town Hall Auditorium (2300 Elmwood Avenue, Rochester, NY 14618). Admission is free.
The panel of scientists and a family who is living through the nightmare right now in Dimock, PA, just south of Binghamton, aims to give the audience a balanced and truthful viewpoint of what will happen in New York state once drilling permits are granted to the gas companies.
Dr Richard Young (presenter), SUNY Geneseo faculty member for 43 years, has spent most of his career investigating how the Grand Canyon was formed, He is among several geologists featured in the Season 2 premiere of the History Channel’s “How The Earth Was Made” series. He was also featured in National Geographic’s “Naked Science” series on PBS.
Dr. William “Bill” Podulka (presenter) is a physicist with a lifelong interest in energy and environmental issues. In 2009, after learning about the impending gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale, he and his wife researched information on many different aspects of the gas drilling issue and created TCgasmap.org. He is chair of ROUSE (Residents Opposing Unsafe Shale-Gas
Extraction), a grass-roots group in Tompkins County seeking to educate the public about gas drilling issues and working to protect residents from harm.
Craig and Julie Sautner (presenters) are coping with the results of gas drilling in and around their property in northeastern Pennsylvania. The family lost their clean water source just one month after hydro-fracking gas drilling began. The Sautners are traveling to Rochester to voice their concerns about hydro-fracking and mobilize New Yorkers into action to protect their watersheds.
Jack Ossont (moderator) is a member of the Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes based in Yates County. After a stint as a Naval aviator during the Viet Nam era, Jack has worked tirelessly for over 30 years in community service including serving as a drug counselor, as a Yates County Legislator and as Director of Keuka Housing Council on affordable housing issues. He received the 20th Anniversary Environmental Leadership award from the NYS Citizen’s Environmental Coalition.
This forum is organized and produced by two concerned Rochester residents, Anna Sears and Nedra Harvey.
Media, please note: interviews may be arranged.
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About Us Shaleshock is an information hub connecting people to regional groups and projects working to stop exploitative drilling in the Marcellus Shale.(more)
2009 Signs of Sustainability
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