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By arimoore, on December 16th, 2009%
Check out this update on Walter Hang’s petition in Krisy Gashler’s 6,000 sign petition asking DEC to strengthen natural gas-drilling regulations, for the Binghamton PressSun Bulletin:
An Ithaca environmental activist and 6,000 other individuals and organizations asked the governor Tuesday to withdraw the state’s newly drafted regulations on natural gas drilling, saying the state’s entire regulatory framework needs to be strengthened before more drilling occurs.
Walter Hang, president of Toxics Targeting, is the activist who last month publicized 270 spill reports from the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s own database, documenting well contamination and other environmental pollution related to the conventional, vertical gas drilling that has gone on in New York State for decades.
“DEC’s own data document systematic, on-going failures to prevent oil and gas drilling pollution impacts or to clean them up. It is imperative that DEC resolve those regulatory shortcomings prior to issuing new drilling permits,” the petition states.
Signatories include state Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton, U.S. Congressman Eric Massa, the National Resources Defense Council, Common Cause, Earthjustice, Earthworks, and the New York State Public Interest Research Group.
The Ithaca Town Board also voted unanimously Monday night to urge the governor to withdraw the regulations. (Read more)
Click here to sign the coalition letter and click here for two other urgent petitions.
By shirari, on March 28th, 2009%
 Reverend Billy and fellow activists protesting against plans to drill for natural gas in the Upstate watershed. Villager photo by Jefferson Siegel “Aqua-lujah!” Green candidate Billy damns drilling (The Villager):
Performance-artist preacher Reverend Billy “baptized” 3-month-old Noah Salinger, held by his mother, Tracy Gary, on the Christopher St. Pier on Sunday, World Water Day. The baptism was part of the ceremony of the Blessing of the Water, as well as a protest against plans to drill for natural gas in the Upstate watershed. Billy, real name Bill Talen, is the Green Party candidate for New York City mayor. “If you poison the ground water, you’ve lost the ability to drink,” said Christabel Gough, a longtime Christopher St. resident. Gough sat on the pier’s grass with dozens of others, many holding signs, each bearing the name of a New York neighborhood whose water would be affected by the drilling. “We have the purest water here in the city,” Ellen Peterson Lewis said, holding a “West Village” sign with her husband, Lewis. “We owe it to future generations to keep the water pure,” she said. “Water is not a profit center,” Reverend Billy proclaimed as the crowd chanted, “Aqua-lujah!” Billy said that, if elected, he would advocate for the city’s takeover of the watershed by eminent domain.
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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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