The NYS Senate passed a bill Aug. 3 to extend the DEC moratorium on high water volume, horizontal drilling, hydraulic fracturing for natural gas extraction until May '11. The Assembly hasn't acted and the session is getting very short. Petition:



AND/OR:

Call Assembly Speaker Silver (212-312-1420), assembly member Robert Sweeney (631-957-2087), and Buffalo's Sam Hoyt (716-885-9630). Tell them to vote “yes” on this moratorium (A11443), as well as asking that they recommend this to their fellow assembly members, and tell them to bring this moratorium to a vote AS SOON AS THEY RETURN! We cannot wait on this! Tell Governor Paterson (518-474-8390) to support this legislation and sign it as well!

Also, don't believe the "natural gas is cleaner than coal" crap. If you only look at the moment of burning, yes, it's cleaner, but if you take into account the whole process, it could be dirtier than the entire coal extraction & burning process, according to the

(PDF)

We urge caution in viewing natural gas as good fuel choice for the future. Using the best available science, we conclude that natural gas is no better than coal and may in fact be worse than coal in terms of its greenhouse gas footprint when evaluated over the time course of the next several decades. Note that both the National Academy of Sciences and the Council of Scientific Society Presidents have urged great caution before proceeding with the development of diffuse natural gas from shale formations using unconventional technology.