For Immediate Release
Contact: Martha Robertson, 607-272-0584, mrobertson@tompkins-co.org

Elected Officials to Protect New York has written an open letter to Governor Cuomo and D.E.C. Commissioner Martens (attached) urging an extension of the comment period on fracking regulations to 90 days to allow local governments to comment on the revised regulations. Operating under the state’s Open Meetings Law, most local governments will be unable to respond at all to these critical regulations under the current 30-day comment period.

Here is our open letter.
Here is our letter from December 3 that calls for the health review to be made public and opened for public participation, which this letter references.

This request is about good governments and public participation. This short comment period, especially during a period of major religious and national holidays, is inadequate for any reasonable public review of such extensive regulations.

About Elected Officials to Protect NY (www.NYElectedOfficials.org):

Representing more than 550 local elected officials from all 62 New York State counties, Elected Officials to Protect New York is a nonpartisan, geographically diverse group of local elected officials representing cities, towns, villages, and counties across New York, who are committed to protecting our great state.

The group believes that prior to making a decision about fracking, at a minimum, Governor Cuomo must do a comprehensive health impact assessment, a thorough socioeconomic impact assessment that considers all potentially negative impacts, and a revised and properly thorough study of cumulative impacts.

The initiative launched in June, 2012 to bring concerns about fracking to Governor Cuomo, and urge the governor to continue the moratorium on fracking until and unless the drilling method is proven safe for all New Yorkers.