ENERGY INDEPENDENCE? NOT REALLY
Health Impacts Ignored by Governor Cuomo TAKE ACTION!
Despite urgent pleas from hundreds of medical organizations and practitioners, Governor Cuomo has so far refused to order a study to determine the effect that fracking will have on the public health. Please take less than a minute to ask the Governor and the legislature to ensure that a comprehensive health impact assessment is conducted before high-volume fracking is permitted in New York.
“Cuomo and Corbett Ignore Health Concerns from Gas Fracking,”by Peter Mantius, provides an excellent summary of the known health impacts of fracking.
The Myth of Energy Independence
One of the most insistent arguments being made for fracking is that it will enable the United States to achieve energy independence. The U.S. has been called “the Saudi Arabia of natural gas,” and one pro-fracking group even shamelessly promotes the slogan “Drill a gas well, bring a soldier home.”
In reality, America’s gas reserves are limited, and fracking will do little to lessen our reliance on unstable and hostile regimes around the world. According to the federal Energy Information Administration, the U.S. has just 4 percent of the world’s proven natural gas reserves—enough to last about eleven years at the current rate of consumption. If we’re foolish enough to give into indus
try pressure and convert our cars, trucks, and furnaces to natural gas, then we’ll burn through our domestic supplies even quicker. At that point, we might find ourselves dependent on the real gas giants—the three countries that control half the word’s natural gas supply—Russia, Iran and Qatar.
But it gets worse. The gas industry has no intention of using American gas to meet domestic energy needs. By the time the U.S. consumer is hooked on “cheap” natural gas, the industry will be ready to export American gas to Asia and Europe, where it sells for as much as five times what it sells for at home. When we’re forced to compete with China and India for our own gas, today’s low prices will be a thing of the past.
Sold Out
American shale gas leases and reserves have already been sold to China, Britain, France, Canada, Norway, Japan, and India, and plans are underway to build a pipeline that will carry natural gas from New York State to Canada and to build liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals that will ship our gas to Europe and Asia.
The ultimate irony: the U.S. might end up selling shale gas to countries that have banned fracking—in other words, the U.S. may become an energy extraction colony for foreign countries unwilling to risk fracking on their own soil.
If Americans want real energy independence, we’ll have to stop subsidizing wealthy fossil fuel corporations and start investing in clean, renewable energy.
Frack Out! Grammy nominated artist James Hunter in a Benefit Concert for Catskill Citizens, Friday March 23rd at 8 P.M. in Lake Huntington, N.Y.
For more information email [email protected] or call (845) 468 7063
For directions go to: http://www.nutshellarts.com
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For more information email [email protected] or call (845) 468 7063
Two out of three people who find out about fracking think the risks aren’t worth the rewards.
Public awareness is the key to our success, so spread the word!
Please donate to Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy.
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