An open letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo:
The sneaky ways the big oil companies are using to promote the drilling technique known as hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, is enough to arouse grave suspicions that the procedure is as dangerous as the environmental scientists say it is.
Many questions arise. Why are there large financial contributions by energy companies to certain congressional campaigns? Why is there secrecy about the toxic chemical mix injected into the shale bedrock, and why is it further cloaked under a heading of “proprietary protection’?
Why are there only four public hearings in all of New York and only one hearing in all of New York City when this is such an important issue? Why are no e-mails or letters accepted as testimony? Why do interested parties have to sign up in advance and only then be allowed to testify in person at the hearings?
Why the unseemly rush to approve such a frightening and apparently irreversible action?
Many of us saw the “60 Minutes” segment where tap water on a Pennsylvania farm burst into flames when a match was lit near it. The gas was methane, one of the pollutants involved in global warming. From what we know so far, the risks of hydrofracking outweigh the potential benefits of this potential environmental disaster.
Please put a total ban on hydrofracking. Save us from big oil.
Marjorie Ferrigno
Flushing
