The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation has committed $1.6 million to this effort, with $400,000 going to the Environmental Defense Fund to help institute new or improved regulations in fracking states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Texas, as well as in New York. “The rapid expansion of fracking has invited legitimate concerns about its impact on water, air and climate - concerns that industry has attempted to gloss over.” increase New York Citys sustainability and is supportive of shale gas. After years of advocacy from thousands of residents, Sierra Club organizers, and numerous partners, the governors of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware unanimously voted to permanently ban fracking in the Delaware River Basin. “Fracking for natural gas can be as good for our environment as it is for our economy and our wallets, but only if it’s done responsibly,” Mr. Michael Bloomberg announced that he was running for president of the United. In late February, the fracked gas industry had yet another one of its increasingly frequent bad days. Mike Marinello, a spokesman for Bloomberg Philanthropies, said the mayor’s active support for natural gas was a next logical step. Bloomberg gave $50 million to a Sierra Club campaign to block new coal-fired power plants and eliminate existing ones. HisĪdministration is prodding buildings to switch to natural gas - which already supplies 57 percent of the city’s energy - by phasing out the dirtiest home-heating oils, and has backed construction of a just-approved interstate gas pipeline from Staten Island through New Jersey into the West Village in Manhattan. He has consistently supported more domestic use of natural gas as a way to reduce the country’s and the city’s greenhouse gas emissions. The city succeeded in getting the state to agree to a ban in the watershed if fracking is allowed. Mayor Bloomberg has long opposed fracturing in or near the city’s watershed in upstate New York, largely in the Catskills, which supplies drinking water to nine million people in the city and nearby counties. “He speaks for himself, not the upstate New Yorkers who would be most directly and most immediately affected by fracking,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food and Water Watch, one of the most active antifracking groups in the country.
The governor’s office did not respond to requests for comment on the mayor’s position.īut the mayor’s words immediately drew a rebuke from environmentalists, who say no amount of regulation would make fracking safe and are seeking an outright ban on drilling. It is uncertain when a decision will be announced.
#Michael bloomberg on fracked gas how to#
Cuomo is deciding where and how to allow fracking. Bloomberg has injected himself into the most polarizing environmental debate facing New York State, at a time when the administration of Gov.