$750M gas line draws critics – Times Union
July 11, 2012
Gas Drilling Awareness for Cortland County
October 20, 2011
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
SULLIVAN COUNTY SURVEY
In what is believed to be the first poll to focus on New Yorkers who live in an area likely to be impacted by “fracking”, a Pulse Opinion poll reveals that 7 out of 10 Sullivan County residents do not want to see “natural gas extraction by means of hydraulic fracturing” in their town. An even greater percent favor zoning ordinances to restrict the process. The poll was commissioned by the not-for-profit Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy.
Bruce Ferguson, a member of the grassroots organization, said “Previous statewide polls have shown that most New Yorkers don’t think the rewards justify the risks; now we know that the great majority of people who will be directly affected by fracking want nothing to do with it. Sullivan County residents emphatically say “No!” to fracking.”
The poll of 500 county residents was conducted between October 1st and October 3rd. It has a sampling error of plus or minus 4.5% and a 95% level of confidence. Residents who said they did not know enough about hydraulic fracturing to form an opinion were not included in the poll.
The questions:
Do you support natural gas extraction by means of hydraulic fracturing in your town?
27% Yes
69% No
4% Not sure
Would you support your town enacting zoning ordinances to restrict natural gas extraction by means of hydraulic fracturing?
69% Yes
24% No
7% Not sure
DELAWARE COUNTY RESIDENTS STRONGLY OPPOSE FRACKING , FAVOR ZONING
These results are similar to those of a poll conducted in neighboring Sullivan County the preceding week.
The questions in both polls were identical:
Do you support natural gas extraction by means of hydraulic fracturing in your town?
No Yes Not sure
Delaware County 72% 27% 1%
Sullivan County 69% 26% 4%
Would you support your town enacting zoning ordinances to restrict natural gas extraction by means of hydraulic fracturing?
Yes No Not sure
Delaware County 69% 27% 4%
Sullivan County 69% 24% 7%
The Delaware County poll was conducted on October 8 and 9. The Sullivan County poll was conducted between October 1 and 3, also by Pulse Opinion Research. The margin of sampling error in both polls is +/- 4.5 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Residents who said they did not know enough about hydraulic fracturing to form an opinion were excluded for the polls.
Both polls were commissioned by the not-for-profit Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy. They are believed to be the first scientific polls to measure the sentiment of New Yorkers who live atop the Marcellus Shale.
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