Drilling & the DEC: Responding to New Guidelines Ithaca July 25th

Drilling & the DEC: Responding to New Guidelines

 

Experts will speak out on DEC’s revised draft SGEIS at free, public forum in Ithaca.

Monday, July 25, doors open at 6:30; presentations start at 7:00

Women’s Community Building, 100 W. Seneca Street, Ithaca, NY

Speakers:

Louis Allstadt,  Former Executive Vice President,  Mobil Oil Corporation

Tony Ingraffea, Ph.D.,  Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering at Cornell University

Helen Slottje, Managing Attorney,  Community Environmental Defense Council

Roger Downs, Conservation Director,  Atlantic Chapter of the Sierra Club

Karen Edelstein, GIS and Mapping Consultant

Martha Robertson, Chair of the Tompkins County Legislature, will introduce and moderate the event.

One of the key questions to be considered by the presenters will be how the newly revised SGEIS differs from the one released and widely decried nearly two years ago.  During that time, much more has been learned about hydrofracking as it is conducted in other states, especially in neighboring Pennsylvania.  Significant new restrictions and protections have been written in the new revised draft, using problems in Pennsylvania as lessons.  Those who attend the event will learn what’s better about this draft, what concerns remain, and what are some recommendations for the DEC.

Attendees will be encouraged to submit comments on the newly revised SGEIS to the DEC. Template comment letters, addresses, and online links will be provided to participants and made available widely afterwards.

A second public forum will be held in Ithaca in early fall to address the community, social and economic impacts section of the SGEIS.  This final section of the SGEIS will be released to the public in August.  All public comments on the SGEIS, parts 1 and 2, will be due to DEC on or about October 1.

This event will be videotaped and available through the internet at www.shaleshockmedia.org several days following the meeting.

The forum is sponsored by numerous local organizations including:

Shaleshock Action Alliance

ROUSE (Residents Opposing Unsafe Shale-gas Extraction)

DRAC (Dryden Resource Awareness Coalition)

Cayuga Lake Watershed Network

Social Justice Committee, First Unitarian Church of Ithaca

Brewery Ommegang and the Business Coalition

ENSAW (Enfield Neighbors for Safe Air and Water)

Otsego 2000

GDACC (Gas Drilling Awareness for Cortland County)

Keuka Citizens Against Hydrofracking

Concerned Citizens of Ulysses

Danby Gas Drilling Task Force

League of Women Voters of Tompkins County

Sustainable Tompkins

CPFL (Committee to Preserve the Finger Lakes)

C-CARE (Chenango Community Action for Renewable Energy)

People for a Healthy Environment

PAUSE (Promoting Alternatives to Unsafe Sources of Energy)

Committee on Justice, Peace, and the Integrity of Creation, Ithaca First Presbyterian Church

Tompkins County Council of Governments Task Force on Gas Drilling

For more information contact Martha Robertson: mrob@twcny.rr.com,

Hilary Lambert: hilary_lambert@yahoo.com, Sara Hess: sarahess63@yahoo.com.