PRESS RELEASES
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FrackBusters NY
PO Box 302, Watkins Glen, NY 14891
www.FrackBustersNY.org
PRESS RELEASE
November 13, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jack Ossont, 607-243-7262 (land); 315-521-4458 (mobile); info@FrackBustersNY.org
FrackBusters NY Unveils Law to Criminalize Fracking and Corporate Frackers
NEW YORK STATE—FrackBusters NY (FBNY) announced today its new draft legislation that criminalizes hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and related industries throughout the state.
FBNY, a coalition of truly grass-roots individuals and organizations, hopes to mobilize antifracking groups and activistsacross the state, using the power of a people-powered law.
New York State Public Law No. 1 was conceived by SPAN (Sovereign People’s Action Network) and crafted with further additions by individuals from grassroots groups across the state.
The law is intended to become part of the NYS Penal Code. It will impose stiff penalties, including jail time, for people and the executives and board members of business corporations convicted of fracking or any fracking-related activity.
The oil and gas mining laws of New York, as presently written, disempower citizens and communities while treating corporate fracking and fracking-related activities as legal, despite the extreme and irreversible harm this industrial process causes.
New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) functions as a pro-corporate agency, enabling hazardous extraction processes that benefit the few against the interests of local communities and the vast majority of citizens.
“We’re setting out,” said Richard Grossman of FBNY, “to focus the exciting struggle to prevent the fracking of New York State. People are already organized into scores of groups. Our legislation will help unify antifrackers, so that one day soon the State of New York will declare fracking, corporate frackers and fracking-related activities to be Class C felonies.”
The felony offenses specified in this bill include:
· extracting oil and/or gas via fracking in NY State
· mapping, exploring and locating oil and/or gas deposits with the intent to frack
· importing frack-related materials into NY State, including fracking wastewater and drill cuttings
· withdrawing any NY State water for the purpose of fracking anywhere
· owning, possessing or transporting fracking paraphernalia anywhere in NY State.
The law also requires that the state attorney general will revoke a corporation’s charter if the corporation is found guilty of fracking.
“When the average person hears even a portion of the dirty truth about fracking,” said Kate Bartholomew, a founding member of FrackBusters NY and of Coalition to Protect New York, “the common response is, ‘How can this be legal?’ FBNY translates this intuitive response into a law that has the teeth to stop the fracking industry in its tracks.”
FBNY seeks to concentrate the momentum of the many activist groups already engaged in building the anti-fracking movement to compel NYS lawmakers to enact the criminalization bill.
Not deflected by the false hopes and energy sink of regulatory or permitting agencies such as the DEC, FBNY works outside the usual lobbying channels, conducting workshops, lectures, rallies and teach-ins around the message of criminalization.
FBNY sees a shift in power dawning in New York to stop the destructive fracking of people’s lives, vital natural resources and communities and to make the transition to truly clean and renewable energy.
FBNY firmly believes that elected officials are the public servants for all citizens. They should be enacting laws that protect the people instead of writing laws that protect corporations that engage in harmful activity.
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FrackBusters NY
PO Box 302, Watkins Glen, NY 14891
www.FrackBustersNY.org
PRESS RELEASE
November 13, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: Jack Ossont, 607-243-7262 (land); 315-521-4458 (mobile); info@FrackBustersNY.org
FrackBusters NY Unveils Law to Criminalize Fracking and Corporate Frackers
NEW YORK STATE—FrackBusters NY (FBNY) announced today its new draft legislation that criminalizes hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) and related industries throughout the state.
FBNY, a coalition of truly grass-roots individuals and organizations, hopes to mobilize antifracking groups and activistsacross the state, using the power of a people-powered law.
New York State Public Law No. 1 was conceived by SPAN (Sovereign People’s Action Network) and crafted with further additions by individuals from grassroots groups across the state.
The law is intended to become part of the NYS Penal Code. It will impose stiff penalties, including jail time, for people and the executives and board members of business corporations convicted of fracking or any fracking-related activity.
The oil and gas mining laws of New York, as presently written, disempower citizens and communities while treating corporate fracking and fracking-related activities as legal, despite the extreme and irreversible harm this industrial process causes.
New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) functions as a pro-corporate agency, enabling hazardous extraction processes that benefit the few against the interests of local communities and the vast majority of citizens.
“We’re setting out,” said Richard Grossman of FBNY, “to focus the exciting struggle to prevent the fracking of New York State. People are already organized into scores of groups. Our legislation will help unify antifrackers, so that one day soon the State of New York will declare fracking, corporate frackers and fracking-related activities to be Class C felonies.”
The felony offenses specified in this bill include:
· extracting oil and/or gas via fracking in NY State
· mapping, exploring and locating oil and/or gas deposits with the intent to frack
· importing frack-related materials into NY State, including fracking wastewater and drill cuttings
· withdrawing any NY State water for the purpose of fracking anywhere
· owning, possessing or transporting fracking paraphernalia anywhere in NY State.
The law also requires that the state attorney general will revoke a corporation’s charter if the corporation is found guilty of fracking.
“When the average person hears even a portion of the dirty truth about fracking,” said Kate Bartholomew, a founding member of FrackBusters NY and of Coalition to Protect New York, “the common response is, ‘How can this be legal?’ FBNY translates this intuitive response into a law that has the teeth to stop the fracking industry in its tracks.”
FBNY seeks to concentrate the momentum of the many activist groups already engaged in building the anti-fracking movement to compel NYS lawmakers to enact the criminalization bill.
Not deflected by the false hopes and energy sink of regulatory or permitting agencies such as the DEC, FBNY works outside the usual lobbying channels, conducting workshops, lectures, rallies and teach-ins around the message of criminalization.
FBNY sees a shift in power dawning in New York to stop the destructive fracking of people’s lives, vital natural resources and communities and to make the transition to truly clean and renewable energy.
FBNY firmly believes that elected officials are the public servants for all citizens. They should be enacting laws that protect the people instead of writing laws that protect corporations that engage in harmful activity.
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