Groups Welcome Comptroller DiNapoli's Proposal to Put Financial Burden of Fracking Pollution on Industry

ALBANY, NY (08/09/2011)(readMedia)-- In response to New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli's proposal to make the gas industry financially responsible for cleanups likely to result from dirty gas drilling and hydraulic fracturing or "fracking," Catskill Mountainkeeper, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, Earthjustice, Earthworks Oil & Gas Accountability Project, Environmental Advocates of New York, Natural Resources Defense Council, New York Public Interest Research Group, and Riverkeeper, Inc., released the following statement:

"By proposing to hold the gas industry responsible for fracking pollution already occurring in New York State, Comptroller DiNapoli is signaling his recognition of dirty drilling's risks. The Comptroller's proposal would help protect New Yorkers already facing the impacts of such activity. And because fracking's impacts don't stop at the well pad, his proposal also acknowledges the risks inherent in every phase of this industrial process, from trucking dangerous fracking fluid to drill sites to transporting resulting wastewater through our communities.

Comptroller DiNapoli's proposal would extend New York's bedrock principle regarding how the state protects our communities from oil spills and toxic contamination to fracking. In New York, industry polluters--not taxpayers--pay to clean up the messes they make. The organizations welcome Comptroller DiNapoli's proposal, but emphasize that the environmental impact review process is still very much a work in progress, and no decisions have been made about whether, where, and with what safeguards, fracking should take place in New York."