Whose side is Andrew Cuomo on? No need to answer that.
Scott Waldman at Capital
reports on maneuvering by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration on a hydraulic fracking study it commissioned with the U.S. Geological Survey:
The study, originally commissioned by the state in 2011, when the administration was reportedly considering approving fracking on a limited basis, was going to result in a number of politically inconvenient conclusions for Governor Andrew Cuomo, according to an early draft of the report by the U.S. Geological Survey obtained by Capital through a Freedom of Information Act request.
A comparison of the original draft of the study on naturally occurring methane in water wells across the gas-rich Southern Tier with the final version of the report, which came out after extensive communications between the federal agency and Cuomo administration officials, reveals that some of the authors' original descriptions of environmental and health risks associated with fracking were played down or removed.
The final version of the report also excised a reference to risks associated with gas pipelines and underground storage—a reference which could have complicated the Cuomo administration's potential support for a number of other controversial energy projects, including a proposed gas storage facility in the Finger Lakes region that local wine makers say could destroy their burgeoning industry.
Capital learned of the editing of the federal report via emails obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests. The heavily redacted emails between the USGS and state's Department of Environmental Conservation revealed "an active role by Cuomo's Department of Environmental Conservation in shaping the text, and determining the timing of the report's release."
Included in those emails are references from a USGS spokeswoman to the effect that such studies should not advocate particular positions and should be released "in a timely fashion."
Hydraulic fracturing, or fracking—used to pry natural gas and oil from tight geological formations by means of water and chemicals delivered under high pressure—has come under attack over a variety of disputed claims, including climate change-exacerbating methane leaks into the atmosphere, earthquakes and the tainting of groundwater supplies with methane. New York has a fracking moratorium in place, which could be lifted at any time. Waldman reports that Cuomo has been challenged from the left for not banning the practice altogether and from the right for not lifting the moratorium. He has instead taken a supposedly neutral position "holding off as he waits for unspecified studies, with unspecified timelines, on the potential health impacts."
This sort of maneuvering is something we've come to expect from Cuomo, who has worked double-time with renegade Democrats to keep Republicans in control of the state Senate and thus avoid having progressive legislation—like a permanent fracking ban—from reaching his desk.
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