Frongillo on Fracking:

Statement on Vote to Ban Gas Drilling

September 11, 2012

I grew up here in Caroline. I’ve lived here all my life.  As child, I walked with my mother along our dirt roads picking up trash thrown from car windows. In summer, I caught grasshoppers in the fields near my house, and in winter I laid in quiet snowy fields. I’ve hiked our state forests and along our streams, and I’ve looked up at the brilliant stars at night.

I gave up joining the Peace Corps to serve this community, which has been the most meaningful work in my life.

Over the years, I’ve watched our town change. My dirt road is now being paved. Fields have grown houses. At night, a streetlight obscures the stars.  Rain now comes in downpours. In winter, our snowpack is disappearing, and in summer, our streams are running dry.

In Caroline we have a long history. We have people in this room whose families have lived here for generations. We’ve faced hard times and we’ve overcome them.

We are facing hard times again now.  For many families, gas drilling seemed like a good opportunity. When the salespeople knocked on the door, many signed leases. Many families that didn’t sign, found out that their neighbors did, and because the gas would be taken anyway, said, “I might as well sign too.”  Soon, we learned 55 percent of our town’s land was leased.

But we didn’t know what we were getting into.  We heard stories from other communities about water contamination, illnesses, death of farm animals, and water that could be set on fire.

I’ve watched this public process unfold for the last year and a half.  I am grateful for the many hours of research, advocacy, organizing, and passionate citizen participation that have led us to tonight. We’ve witnessed the largest citizen petition in the town’s history — signed by half of all voters — and an unprecedented election, many public meetings, citizens writing emails and letters, and giving testimony at our many meetings and hearings. I’ve heard from citizens on this issue more than any other.

I feel the pain expressed tonight — the fear, sadness, anger, and frustration. And I feel the love, hope, and courage.

For me, this issue comes down to two views:

First, are people who are struggling, and see gas drilling as a way to keep land in the family. No one wants to tell their kids that to make ends meet they had to sell land which has been in the family for generations.

Second, are people who see gas drilling as a threat to everything they hold dear and love.

In my seven years serving on this council, this is the most important decision I’ve faced. I take seriously my role to represent everyone, weighing private needs against the public good.

Some say this issue is about landowner rights. I respond, we all respect our freedom and agree we have the right to work our land and operate our businesses. Yet, when impacts of our actions cross property boundaries and burden taxpayers, harm neighbors, or threaten public health, it becomes the Town’s responsibility to get involved.

Some say we have rushed.  I respond, over many months we have done our due diligence. We have sought legal advice from multiples sources. We have put multiple drafts of this law out to the public. We have held many public meetings. We have received and considered carefully written, verbal, and e-mail testimony.

Some say that prohibiting this industry is an extreme action. I respond, extreme is introducing a new industry that is chemically intensive with unproven technology; thousands of heavy truck trips that rut up our roads and damage our bridges, raising taxes for seniors and families on fixed income; radioactive contamination from radon and air pollution from venting methane; transportation of hazardous radioactive waste through our town, putting our firefighters and paramedics at risk from dangerous chemicals; highly toxic chemicals which do not have to be disclosed under law by an industry which has been exempted from the Clean Water, Clean Air, and Safe Drinking Water acts; earthquakes rattling our windows; surface spills, blowouts, and well casing failures – which the industry’s own data reveals is a minimum of 6 percent ­of wells drilled – risking permanent contamination of our drinking water; influx of out-of-state workers, increasing crime rates and rental prices, and forcing out our vulnerable working families; industry which destabilizes our housing prices and threatens the ability for homeowners to secure a mortgage; a boom bust economy that drives out our local businesses, puts our farms under, destroys our tourism base, and drives up costs for residents; fragmentation of our town with pipelines, access roads, staging sites, and compressor stations; and introduction of a 24-hour industry that destroys our town’s rural character. All this is what I call extreme. Many of these impacts are irreversible. A ban on this industry until it is proven safe is both reasonable and conservative.

Some say we risk legal challenge. I respond, 140 communities across New York State have passed bans or moratoria, and only two have faced legal challenge. Courts have ruled in both cases in favor of our right to protect our communities.

Moreover, failing to pass this ban would open our town to liability, including from downstream impacts. Caroline is on the divide of the St. Lawrence and Chesapeake watersheds. As water becomes more precious, we have a responsibility to our downstream neighbors, including the tens of thousands of people who draw drinking water from Six Mile Creek and Cayuga Lake.

Some say this is a state issue and that we should trust the D.E.C. regulators.  I respond, I wish we could trust our state government to protect us. However, despite a record-breaking 70,000 public comments, the D.E.C. has not done due diligence.

There has been no comprehensive health impacts study looking at how gas drilling will directly or indirectly impact the health of our children and elderly.

There has been no comprehensive study of how gas drilling would impact our first responders, property values, home mortgages, existing businesses and economies, local community character; and our roads and bridges.

There has been no comprehensive study of how allowing gas drilling on a town- or state-wide scale would impact our landscape, water, air, and greenhouse gas emissions, nor where the toxic wastewater will be disposed.

Governor Cuomo has said his decision on fracking will be based on facts and science. However, the D.E.C. has given the gas industry unprecedented access to influence regulations, while ignoring independent experts and scientists which can share critical facts and the latest science.

More disturbingly, Brad Field, the head of the D.E.C.’s Division of Mineral and Mining, is a climate change denier.  He’s on record dismissing the science that says climate change threatens our health and well-being and is caused by humans. How can someone who is in charge of the most important scientific review in the state’s history be trusted when he dismisses the conclusions of 98 percent of scientists studying a directly-related issue?  That’s like putting someone in charge of regulating the tobacco industry who does not believe in lung cancer. It’s irresponsible and dangerous.

With unprecedented influence of money in politics, we can no longer trust the state and federal governments to protect our citizens. Local government is the only level of government left to advocate for the health and well-being of its citizens.  We have the responsibility to ensure that our citizens can go to bed at night without worrying about our health, home values, drinking water, or kids’ safety. We have a responsibility to ensure that everyone in town has the opportunity to prosper, not just a few.

Some have said we need gas drilling to survive economically. I respond, a ban ensures that we choose not the false hope of a boom and bust economy reliant on multinational corporations with no tie to our community to solve the challenges that we face, but instead choose a future, by and for Caroline citizens.
We’re also part of a larger story.  Like everywhere in Upstate New York, we’re facing economic crisis, unraveling of community as young people leave for cities and farmers have to sell land just to make ends meet. Every two weeks, our food pantry now serves a third of Caroline’s families.

We’re facing increasing burdens from federal and state governments that are forcing local communities to pay through property taxes services once paid by those with the ability to pay. Rising taxes are forcing struggling families to shoulder more than our fair shares.

We’re facing increasing inequalities — the 1% becoming richer than it’s ever been, and rising corporate power that is corrupting our democracy. We need to return to taxing the 1%, those with means, so we don’t have to turn to desperate means and dangerous industries to pay our tax bills.

We’re facing the fiscal impacts of our town’s second 100-year storm in five years which caused hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage to our roads and bridges.

We’re facing the hottest year on record, water shortage, and drought, with 50 percent of U.S. counties declared disaster zones by U.S.D.A. because of devastating droughts that are the worse than the Dust Bowl, and rising food prices, with no end in sight.

In the face of converging crises, insecurity, and uncertainty, we yearn for security, assuredness, control, and self-determination. But gas drilling will only worsen these crises. Fracking is part of the old fossil fuel economy. Drilling will move us further away from our community and worsen our reliance on the multi-national corporate economy that created these crises.

As a town with a strong history, we believe strongly in our community’s to self-determination, and to choose our own destiny. Caroline’s Comprehensive Plan, literally written by citizens, sets a vision of a safe, affordable town with a vibrant local economy, clean water and air, healthy forests and farmland, and a revitalized farming community for future generations. That’s the future we have said we seek.  Enacting this ban, we choose to affirm that the collective vision that we articulated for ourselves is still the vision that we wish.

We were sold on gas being a clean bridge fuel to the future. Instead, it turns out to be a bridge to catastrophe. Fracking does not just threaten our economy, water, and health, it threatens our climate. Fracking for shale gas would release massive amounts of methane — a dangerous climate-disrupting gas that is 105 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in trapping heat in our atmosphere.

While CO2 emissions are down, methane emissions are now almost half of U.S. climate pollution — and growing. The gas industry is the largest source of methane pollution in the country – double what was previously thought. Due to methane leaks and energy-intensive methods, fracking may be worse for the climate than coal.

Tompkins County’s Planning Department estimates that one 8-well pad would release over its operational span more emissions than all of Tompkins County 100,000 residents would in a year.

Fracking would undermine the work of Energy Independent Caroline and all those advancing a vision of transitioning away from fossil fuels that are destroying our future and building a clean economy so everyone can prosper.
We are not alone. Our town’s experience is playing out in communities around the world. I have been to the United Nations, where I learned that in community after community, country after country, fossil fuel extraction is destroying communities, poisoning democracy, deteriorating our atmosphere, and putting all our lives at risk.

We did not ask for it. Our vote tonight is part of the same story playing out in the mountaintops of West Virginia, the coasts of the Gulf of Mexico, and the boreal forests in Alberta, Canada, where ordinary citizens are joining together to protect the communities they love against the powerful fossil fuel industry.

For me, this is a moral issue. And in the moral arc of history, we New Yorkers have led.  New York women led the fight for the right to vote. New Yorkers have led in fighting for the abolition of slavery through the underground railroad.  Imagine a time where our economy was inextricably linked with an activity that was inherently immoral – and the courage it took for people at that time to say, “we’re all benefitting, but this is wrong. It must stop.”

We are in such a time now. Let this be the time in history that we came together to start turning the tide away from corporate power and the deadly fossil fuel economy that is burning away our future. Let this be the time in history that our nation, instead of being the greatest source of destruction on Earth, once again became the beacon of freedom and hope for the world.

We have a responsibility to lead our nation forward. And that begins right here, right now, in this town Hall, in this small rural upstate New York community.
This vote is not an end, it is a beginning.  Our future is uncertain. We have an opportunity, here tonight, to give it our best shot.

To meet this increasingly uncertain future, we must return to community – to a local economy where we rely on our neighbors more than we rely on foreign corporations. We must return to creating a prosperous future for everyone, one that builds resilience to face the challenges.  We must revive our rural economy to value stewardship of the land – be it harvesting timber sustainably, growing grass for pellets for heating homes, putting up solar farms to generate clean electricity, or setting up bed and breakfasts to serve the tourists that frequent our town.
And this transition is already beginning. Local businesses are leading the way to buying local. Young families are moving to Caroline. Community-supported farms are sprouting up as a new generation of farmers till our soil.  I’m inspired by Erick Smith’s Cayuga Pure Organics, who is selling directly to restaurants and markets across the state, and can’t keep up with demand. Families are once again planting food close to home, and the Brooktondale Inspirational Gardens are growing healthy vegetables for the food pantry. Homeowners are tightening up their homes. Our town’s new office building is super-insulated, powered by solar panels and heated by geothermal – all without fossil fuels.

We have much more work to do.  And despite our challenges, I am hopeful.  Throughout our history, we have met our challenges as they have come. And we will meet our uncertain future together, as one town.

Witnessing the citizen participation over the last year and a half has been one of the greatest inspirations of my life.  This resulting law honors our government’s highest purpose: a venue for our community to work together to meet our common challenges and embrace our common opportunities. We need all of us to make it happen.

This vote is an opportunity to affirm our fundamental belief that we, the people, are still the ones who choose our own destiny.

I cast my vote to protect my hometown, which I so passionately love.

On Monday, June 4, more than 280 local elected officials from 34 counties across New York State called on Governor Cuomo to continue the fracking moratorium and to do additional study before a decision is made whether to allow fracking. Their request, which they delivered in the form of a letter to the Governor, crosses political lines and comes from elected officials from more than half of New York State’s counties.

At a press conference in Albany, elected officials shared issues of concern to municipalities and released their letter to Governor Cuomo. They spoke about how the Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) review of fracking has significant shortcomings. To address their concerns, a number of studies are needed before – not after – any decision is made about fracking and before fracking commences anywhere in the state.

Read more about Elected Officials to Protect New York.

Belo Horizonte, Brazil

June 17, 2012

Distinguished colleagues,  my name is Dominic Frongillo, from Caroline, New York, in the United States. I am here representing the citizens of my town, who, like so many others, are pursuing a vision for sustainable future. We are the second municipality in New York State to use 100% wind power, and are building a local food and clean energy economy. We have joined with other local governments, higher education, nonprofits, and businesses to collaborate to pursue sustainability  in our region through the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative.

Now, we find ourselves fighting to protect our community from unsafe hydraulic fracturing extraction of natural gas. I’m proud to have witnessed an unprecedented democratic outpouring – fully half of our citizens petitioned our council and then voted in our November election 2-to-1 to ban dangerous hydraulic fracturing in our community and instead move towards a sustainable future. It’s the largest citizen movement in our town’s history. Our story is one of thousands of stories playing out in communities around the world.

I am one of several young municipal leaders here in Belo Horizonte participating with the ICLEI FutureCityLeaders initiative. We are pleased to participate and meet many of you. We have heard the challenges we face are urgent. ICLEI Deputy Secretary General Gino van Begin said, as humanity experiences ecological overshoot in our resource consumption, going from one and a half planets down to one planet will be far easier than going from three planets down to one planet. We also must challenge ourselves to go further, for example, pursuing not just carbon neutral cities but carbon negative cities.

As local governments we are called to lead the world’s transition to a sustainable future. Cities have an opportunity to create the full vision for a just, thriving, inclusive, and sustainable world. We have the responsibility to expand our vision and mission. We need bold, integrated thinking from visionary mayors and staff, who see what is possible and will lead us boldly towards a full vision of sustainability. That’s why I would propose we hold our next World Congress in Bhutan, a nation that developed the Gross National Happiness Index to measure what matters: social progress and quality of life.

Throughout these sessions, I have been struck that we are uniquely positioned as local governments. Our cities and towns are open and responsive. Even at our World Congress, we see a diversity of participants from citizens, researchers, NGOs, and businesses. We are open to civic participation. We are responsive to our citizens and the challenges we face. We are where the action is happening. We are leading the world into Rio and beyond.

I’m grateful that there is an organization like ICLEI which connects us and brings us together. Our World Congress is not just a conference, but is sustaining, growing, and strengthening a movement — a global movement of people, acting through their local governments, responding to our common global challenges.

Jeb Brugmann encouraged us to see our cities as “productive cities.” A productive city grows not only food, water, energy — it grows engaged, active citizens. With the scale of our challenges, we cannot succeed alone. We need to unleash the human potential within our cities.

We must not only design, plan, and legislate for sustainability, we must educate, engage, and motivate for sustainability.

We must ensure that we are catalyzing and supporting participation of the full diversity of institutions, innovations, and actors that are needed for theses dramatic transformations.

It is not only future generations which are at stake. Many of our citizens and cities are now being impacted every day by poverty, malnutrition, ecosystem degradation, lack of opportunity, and lack of inclusion. We must not only work on behalf of future generations; but see the future is now. Half the world is under 25 years old. This generation is already living through the consequences of the extractive, exploitative economy, and will continue to do so throughout our lives.

We now see our planetary transition to a just, sustainable future will be a multi-generational journey. As Jeb Brugmann recounted, the founders of ICLEI “started our careers being audacious revolutionaries.” The cohort who has provided leadership is now growing older and wiser. We must now engage and partner with the next generation of revolutionaries and innovators who will carry our work forward.

This means not just asking young people what they want, but engaging in dialogue about the full range of challenges we face.

We’ve heard inspiring examples of multi-generational democracy. Betty Tabanda from the Philippines, shared that in her city, youth ages 15 to 18 elect a city councilmember from their age who is an equal partner in setting policy, with full voting rights and salary. In the United States, in the last seven years, we have see the number young elected officials grow from seven to over 700 from all 50 state.  Now, 16 of those young elected officials are running for U.S. Congress. Not only are young leaders the leaders of today, young local government leaders of today will be the provincial and national government leaders of tomorrow.

We need your help to build this network of emerging leaders in our local governments. Invite the young leaders in your cities to participate in this network to build relationships, share innovations, and strengthen our collective leadership for our cities and nations.

Thank you. Thank you for your commitment and service to your communities and the people you represent.

Let us have the courage to challenge ourselves and those around us to take even more bold action to pursue our vision of a just, inclusive, thriving, safe, and abundant world for all.

Dispatch from South Africa climate negotiations

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I am writing from a village in rural Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa.

It’s a sunny and windy day, chickens pecking in the grass amid thatched huts and farm plots. To the west are the rolling foothills of the dramatic Drakensberg Mountains.

The fast-paced U.N. climate negotiations seem a world away. I left Durban late yesterday, as high-level government ministersfrom 190 counties made last-minute compromises on a global climate deal.

Highlights:
- Climate talks near deadlock
- U.S. youth ejected for statement
- Press briefing on hydraulic fracturing
- Fracking is “the next Tar Sands”
- Traveling in South Africa

Climate Talks Near Deadlock

As the international climate talks wind down, negotiators convened late Saturday to determine the process in the final hours.  As of this writing, the future of the Kyoto Protocol, which is still the only world treaty on greenhouse gas emissions, remained in jeopardy.

You might ask, “After 17 years of negotiating, why can’t the world agree on cutting global emissions to avoid the worst impacts of our changing climate and promote sustainable development for all?”

Perhaps it’s the process. GDP-boosting dirty energy, industry, deforestation, and agriculture are central to the talks, and most negotiators are given directive to protect economic interests in their countries. It’s like a high-stakes game of geopolitics. Many are now wondering if national governments, beholden to such powerful economic forces, can truly negotiate for the best interests of their people.

The setting for these talks highlights tragic injustices: Africa experienced colonialism which profited wealthy polluting countries, and has done virtually nothing to cause the climate crisis.  Also, as droughts worsen and oceans rise, observers say we’ve already doomed the world’s poorest and most vulnerable peoples — many in Africa – to bear the first and worst impacts. A slogan emerged at the conference, “these talks are responsible for 200 million deaths.”

U.S. Youth Ejected for Statement

As the negotiations continued into the second week, the world’s most powerful nation, the United States, was accused of blocking the talks. Reports surfaced that the U.S. sought to delay climate action until 2020 — far too late to reverse the worst impacts of climate disruption.  Criticism mounted as vulnerable nations said that the U.S. was putting narrow, short-term interests ahead of humanity, saying “America is committing the world to a suicide path.”

This set the stage for an incident on Wednesday which drew international media attention. In the main plenary hall, during a speech by top U.S. envoy Todd Stern, Abigail Borah, a young American with SustainUS (of which I am an alum), stood up and boldly took the floor.

In front of the hundreds of assembled delegates she read a statement, saying that the U.S. negotiators had lost the legitimacy to speak for the American people. She said, “I am speaking on behalf of the United States of America because my government cannot. I am scared for my future. 2020 is too late to wait. We need an urgent path to a fair, ambitious, and legally binding treaty.” [1]

As she finished her statement, world delegates erupted into sustained applause.  In contrast, when Todd Stern concluded his remarks, the room was quiet in a silent rebuke. Abigail was quickly escorted out by U.N. security and ejected from the conference for disrupting the proceedings. Nonetheless, it appeared to put the U.S. on the defensive, with Todd Stern denying that the U.S. was blocking action, but later ambiguously endorsing a European proposal to quickly restart the climate talks.
Abigail’s courageous stand was featured in the New York Times. [2]

Press Briefing On Hydraulic Fracturing

My mission in Durban was to raise awareness on the links between hydraulic fracturing and climate change. Yesterday, at a press conference with representatives from Canada and Germany, we spoke with international media on the climate and community impacts of hydrofracking in the Americas, Europe, and South Africa. Over twenty reporters attended, including Amy Goodman from Democracy Now! [4]

Our message: hydrofracking is not only bad for our water and health, it’s bad for our climate.

Although the talks are focused on reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, a new U.N. report stresses that the climate-killer gas methane is even more urgent to deal with than CO2. [3] Also this year, the EPA reported one-sixth of U.S. climate pollution is methane from natural gas; and gas the U.S.’s single largest source of methane – double what was previously thought. [5]

Hydraulic fracturing will substantially increase these emissions. We reported on updated research from Professor Robert Howarth at Cornell University, which finds that due to massive methane leakage and energy-intensive production, hydrofracking is worse for the climate than conventional gas and even coal. [6]

Fracking Is “The Next Tar Sands”

Hydraulic fracturing in shale gas would release massive amounts of climate-killing methane that is now safety miles underground. Before I left for Durban, Professor Howarth told me, “preventing unconventional gas extraction could be the number one thing we could do in the short term to control growth of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.”

According to Patrick Bonin, with Quebec Association Against Atmospheric Pollution, expansion of hydrafracking is happening in Canada as well, saying “we are seeing the same rush to develop shale gas as we did with tar sands.”  Indeed, in a memo leaked in October, Canada’s top environmental minister, Paul Boothe said shale gas was a ‘game changer’ and the ‘next big oil sands,’ referring to the vast Canadian fields of subsurface oil. In September, activists in the U.S. successfully delayed the construction of the Keystone XL pipeline that would carry dirty Tar Sands oils through America’s heartland.

It’s clear: after Keystone XL, stopping fracking is the next big target for climate action. It’s our biggest and easiest opportunity to stop a huge new source of climate-killing emissions in the U.S. and several other countries.

Despite President Obama, industry, and even major environmental groups still calling gas a “clean transition fuel,” we have momentum.  Fighting fracking has growing, diverse grassroots support. Thousands of activists across the U.S. and world are working to fight fracking in their communities, and several states and nations have already banned it.

It’s time we stand up and say no to fracking, for our water, our health, and our climate.

Travelling In South Africa

After an epic week, I will take several days to travel in this beautiful country. It’s been a dream of mine to travel in Africa ever since I choose to put on hold serving in the Peace Corps to serve my hometown community in upstate New York. Our first stop has been visiting my good friend Farah, who has been serving in the Peace Corps here for two years, building capacity in a nation which has seen many changes since the end of Apartheid in 1994.  It fills me with hope that in our rapidly changing world, people find courage to pursue their dreams and make a difference.

In solidarity,
Dominic Frongillo

—
1. Abigail Borah’s statement and more information about SustainUS: www.sustainus.org/home/629-abigail-borah-removed-from-plenary-hall

2. New York Times article on Todd Stern’s address: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/science/earth/us-climate-envoy-seems-to-shift-position-on-timetable-for-new-international-talks.html?_r=1

3. Link to the press briefing on hydraulic fracturing: http://unfccc4.meta-fusion.com/kongresse/cop17/templ/play.php?id_kongresssession=4695&theme=unfccc

4. UNEP/WMO (2011).  Integrated Assessment of Black Carbon and Tropospheric Ozone:  Summary for Decision Makers.  United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organization.  Nairobi, Kenya.

5. EPA (2011a).  Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks:  1990-2009.  April 14, 2011.  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington DC.

6. Howarth, R. W., R. Santoro, and A. Ingraffea.  In Press.  Venting and leakage of methane from shale gas development: Comparison of emission estimates and consequences for global warming.  Climatic Change.

p.s. BONUS:  a fun moment from my travels (in addition to chatting with Dave Mathews in Johannesburg!) was on Friday morning after our press conference. A colleague and I inadvertently found ourselves in a closed-door meeting with high-level ministers and top negotiators from 26 of the world’s most powerful countries. It was fascinating to see the delicate diplomatic precision in their speaking, which very few non-governmental participants have the opportunity to witness. At one point, Todd Stern, the top envoy for U.S., looked around and realized that no ally nations were present, and said, “I am feeling rather alone here.”  Ministers in the room laughed at the irony of his statement, given the increasing isolation of the U.S. in the talks.

Why I’m Going

Like everywhere on the planet, here in upstate New York we’re feeling the impacts of our changing climate. While the South faces record droughts and West faces record wildfires, this year we faced unseasonably high temperatures, a tornado, and the second 100-year flood in 5 years. Binghamton and Owego are recovering after heavy rains led the Susquehanna to overflow its banks, causing millions of dollars in damage to historic downtowns.

On top of this, we face another gathering storm. Despite significant opposition, New York’s Governor Cuomo is poised to allow hydrofracking to drill for gas beneath our state using millions of gallons of water and toxic chemicals. To add to evidence that fracking damages our health, environment and local economy, research is mounting that the practice is contributing to global climate change.  I’m headed to the Durban negotiations to raise awareness on the links between hydrofracking and climate change.

Fracking with Our Future

Although promoted as “natural” and “clean,” the gas we burn for energy turns out to be dirtier than we thought.  Buried in underground deposits formed millions of years ago, this gas is mostly methane, a climate-killing gas that’s 100 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in trapping heat when released into the atmosphere. New EPA studies show that drilling, piping, and burning fossil gas now accounts for a whopping 17% of all planet-heating pollution in the U.S.

Fracking is even worse for our climate than conventional gas drilling. Research by Cornell’s Professor Robert Howarth is finding that, due to methane released and energy-intensive drilling practices, greenhouse gas pollution from “fracked” gas is dirtier than even coal.

Our county planning department estimates that one (that’s right, one) fracking well pad* would release more heating-trapping pollution than our entire 100,000-person county would in one year! Fracking would completely overwhelm the hard work of our governments and institutions to lessen our impact on the global climate.

Conclusion: along with its other serious impacts, fracking worsens our already changing climate. Yet President Obama, gas industry reps, and even major environmental groups are still calling gas a “clean transition fuel.”

The Fight is On

What does all this mean? Fracking will be the next front in the fight to keep a livable future for all. We know we need to transition away from dirty fossil fuels and towards a genuine clean economy that creates good, local jobs in industries like energy efficiency and solar, geothermal, and wind power.

But the gas industry is fighting hard; it’s spending tens of millions on a media campaign to convince Americans that fracking forgas is “safe” and “clean.” (Have you seen the ads?)

As Bill McKibben said last year at the U.N. climate negotiations in Mexico, “what the climate fight comes down to is everyday people (our heroes) organizing themselves against powerful corporate barons who want to keep a good thing going for themselvesfor a few more years.”

Yet, I am hopeful. We have seen how people-power can trump corporate power; including the recent White House protests that prompted President Obama to put the dirty Tar Sands oil pipeline on hold.

People Power

One of these everyday heroes is Aaron Snow.  A tall and outgoing 27-year old, Aaron is a seventh-generation farmer whose family has been farming in Caroline since 1816. Passionate about local agriculture, Aaron returned from the Peace Corps in Tanzania to start Tompkins County’s first creamery in half a century.

Last year, when Aaron learned that hydrofracking threatened his farm, he went door-to-door to organize his neighbors to protect our land, air, and water from fracking.  Inspired, he chose to run for Town Council on a platform of protecting Caroline and banning hydrofracking.

Last month, in a stunning election, Caroline voters elected Aaron and other pro-ban candidates by historic 2-to-1 margins. It’s a clear message: no to dirty energy extraction and yes to building a clean economy that creates lasting prosperity for all. Similar elections happened in several nearby towns, including Dryden, which was sued by the gas industry for banning fracking.

These are just a few of the people-powered movements emerging across New York and the nation that give me hope. While at the U.N. climate talks next week, I’ll be sharing these stories with government delegates and grassroots organizers, and will work to bring the message about hydrofracking to the climate negotiations.

Dominic Frongillo

*Note: the original version of this dispatch contained an error in which the word “pad” was omitted from this sentence. Total greenhouse gas emissions  from one 8-well pad over the life of the wells were calculated to be equivalent to one year’s worth of community emissions from Tompkins County.

In June, I was invited to the White House in Washington, D.C. and met with President Barack Obama and senior advisors. I shared the outpouring of concern that Caroline citizens are voicing about the potential impacts on our town of fracking, a gas extraction method involving the underground injection of millions of gallons of water and chemicals. Incredibly, in the largest petition in Caroline’s history, over half of our town’s voters have urged the town to ban fracking.

It’s been inspiring to see similar stories unfolding in communities across our state and country; citizen campaigns have prompted 52 municipalities to ban fracking, including Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Syracuse. But energy companies are fighting back. Our northern neighbor, the Town of Dryden, is gaining national attention for the Town Council’s courageous stand against fracking and a gas company lawsuit.

From Occupy Wall Street to West Virginia mountain tops, people are rising up to transition away from the dirty energy that is threatening our health, polluting our politics, and jeopardizing our future.

That’s why tomorrow I am traveling back to D.C. to join thousands of others in encircling the White House to urge President Obama to stand up to the dirty energy lobby and keep his promise to “end the tyranny of oil” — starting with halting the Tar Sands XL Keystone Pipeline.

And we not stopping there. Last Saturday in Ithaca, 600 volunteers delivered an energy-saving light bulb to 12,000 households in a single afternoon. Inspired by “Lighten Up Caroline,” it was New York’s largest-ever distribution effort of its kind and will bring two-thirds of a million dollars back into our local economy.

Warm wishes,
Dominic

Tuesday October 4, 2011

Caroline, New York

I grew up at the bottom of dusty dirt Bailor Road in Caroline. My parents taught me the importance of stewarding our land as we walked along the road picking up the cans and bottles that other people threw out their car windows.

At Caroline Elementary School, our class would walk behind the school to the banks of Six Mile Creek, where we caught crayfish, and I was taught to value clean water.

When I was away at school, I watched Caroline put together its Comprehensive Plan, which gave everyone the opportunity to shape the future vision for the town — literally written by citizens.

When I graduated from school, I was getting ready to go overseas to join the Peace Corps.  One night — it was right here in this room — I was asked not to leave, but to serve my town; that I was needed here.  I chose to stay, and I am so grateful to be serving our town with all of you.

We are gathered tonight to affirm that we are one town, that we choose the future not just as individuals but as a community.

This is Caroline. We are small quiet town, we know our neighbors, we value both our independence and our community.

Two hundred years ago, Caroline was a rural agricultural town with a vibrant local economy. We were self-reliant. Creameries and mills were powered by the waters of Six Mile Creek.

Times have changed. We are losing our young people to bigger cities.  Farmers are nearing retirement with no one to take their place. Residents are facing rising food costs, healthcare costs, taxes, and energy costs.  Food pantry attendance has tripled in the last three years.

We are a rural town. We work hard. We volunteer, we give our time. When called, we serve. We don’t ask much – just that we can go to bed at night without worrying about the health and safety of our kids.  We don’t expect government to solve all our problems.  But also we know it isn’t enough for just some of us to proposer; that with our value of independence, there comes a deep sense of common responsibility.  It’s a deeply held belief that we as a community are responsible to help out our neighbors when in need that makes our town work.

There are those who say we are divided community — that there are old-timers and newcomers, a rich Caroline and a poor Caroline, a rural Caroline and an urban Caroline.  But I say there are not multiple Caroline’s, we’re one town.  There are old-timers in town that want to pass on a clean environment for future generations. There are newcomers in town who volunteer their time with the church and food pantry and struggle to make a living off their land.

We are not going to let outside forces divide this community; we are not going to let the gas companies or anyone else drive a wedge and pit poor versus rich, newcomers versus old-timers. We are stronger united, as one town, standing as one community, facing our increasing uncertain future together.

Tonight we face an issue causing us to reflect deeply on who we are as a town.

Over this several-month process we have seen democracy in action. We have heard many voices, and we are mindful of those who are not present.  I am grateful to citizens who have eloquently articulated what is at stake on all sides of this issue and what we must consider in our deliberations.

Eight years ago, we started a four-year process to draft our first Comprehensive Plan adopted by the Town Board, in which we articulated the vision we wanted for our town. We held 11 public meetings and conducted a town-wide survey, and – overwhelmingly — people said they love our town the way it is, and that we, as a government, should take steps to protect it.

Our Plan was literally written by citizens. Volunteers on three workgroups from broad cross-section of our community compiled all the input to write our Plan.  Here’s what we expressed in the vision we want for our town 20 years from now: a safe, affordable place to call home, a vibrant local economy with locally-owned small businesses that enhance our rural town, clean water and air, healthy forests and farmland, and a revitalized farming community for future generations.

Gas drilling on the scale being proposed would fundamentally alter the character of our town. It’s not compatible with the Town of Caroline we know and it’s the opposite direction we chose for our town.

Allowing this scale of industrial activity in our community would not only violate the letter of the law which requires that our land-use policy is based on our Comprehensive Plan, it would violate the spirit of the vision we expressed — and betray the four-year community process that invited every citizen in shaping what we wanted our community to be like.  And the petition before the Town Board confirms this.

Allowing gas drilling, when we had an opportunity to act in congruence with our community’s plan is the height of irresponsibility and the height of disrespect to our participatory democratic process  – when we said citizens in our community had a voice in shaping our future.

I want to respond to some who claim that fracking will make us energy independent – it’s not true; that’s just gas industry propaganda.

We’re not going to use the gas drilled here; it will be sold overseas and shipped to countries that are banning fracking but still allowing their companies to come in and drill in our backyard.

We don’t need this gas. In Alaska, oil companies are flaring off gas, burning it off, instead of recapturing it when they drill for oil.

The benefits of the sale of this methane gas beneath us go to enrich faraway, already-subsidized corporate shareholders – they don’t care about our energy independence or and they don’t care about being patriotic.

Let’s face it. We live in a dirty energy economy.  And the impacts of 150 years of fossil fuel burning are now hitting home with 100-year storms now happening every 5 years, and record drought, floods, storms, and tornados happening right here.

When I first learned about climate change and how it was threatening my hometown, I traveled to Indonesia, to Denmark, to the United Nations. And there I learned that we are part of a much larger story; that around the world, dirty energy extraction is disrupting communities, corrupting our political and economic institutions, deteriorating our atmosphere, and putting our children’s lives at risk.

Tonight, let’s start changing the story, in Caroline. Here, now.

Let’s develop real energy independence for our community that benefits everyone.

Let build a clean energy economy that is by Caroline residents, for Caroline residents.

Let’s create energy efficiency in homes.  Let’s develop our own energy resources that are clean and renewable, like the wind, sun, heat from the ground, small hydro — returning to power homes and businesses from the waters of Six Mile Creek–, and biomass with our abundant grasses and shrubs.  Let’s develop whole, new clean energy industries.

Many of you have not heard that — as the proposal submitted to the Regional Economic Development Council by Cornell Cooperative Extension — in the Southern Tier alone, upgrading homes and businesses for energy efficiency would leverage over $1.2 Billion in private capital, promote the growth of over 150 energy efficiency contracting businesses, create more than 4,000 jobs and provide savings for nearly every household in the region with cumulative savings of over $150 million per year staying in our pockets.

It’s up to local government to protect us.  The gas companies have been given exemptions at every level: international, federal, state. Local government is the only collective venue left strong enough for citizens to protect themselves.

Contrary to what some tonight have said, we have a responsibility to our citizens to protect the health and welfare of our community.

We are responsible as a Town Board for representing everyone. The five of us sitting at this table represent and must be advocates for everyone who is affected by our decisions, even if they are not present today – and this includes children and future generations.

When one-half of registered voters in Caroline request the Town board to do something, it is our responsibility to make a courageous attempt to honor their request and to be their advocate and try every available option.

This resolution tonight is not a ban on drilling – it’s to simply investigate whether it’s possible.  We haven’t even done the research.  Let’s pay an attorney. Let’s pay multiple attorneys.

We face uncertainty. We don’t know what the state’s final regulations will be around preemption in ECL 23-0303, or if Dryden’s law will hold in court, or if Caroline ourselves would be sued.

What we do know is we have received a petition signed by half of registered voters in this community — with 71% of people approached signing — requesting we be their advocate.

Just as the impacts of household decisions can extend beyond borders of private property, the impacts of our town policy extend beyond the town’s borders.

Caroline is the watershed for the City of Ithaca.  Other towns bordering the watershed — Danby, Dryden, and the Town of Ithaca — have all banned.   If the bans hold up in court, and Caroline allows fracking, and despite have “safe operators,” a chemical spill contaminates our water, do you really think that the Town of Caroline would not be sued by the City of Ithaca, Ithaca College, Cornell University, Cayuga Medical Center, or all who draw their water in streams and lakes fed by Six Mile Creek for failing to take every reasonable measure to protect their water supply when we had the chance?

If we are to risk, I would risk that we placed the health of our citizens over avoiding lawsuits from foreign corporation.  I would risk that we placed the concern for the downstream effects of our actions over the potential for trickle-down money to some in our community.  I would risk that we placed the potential for future generations of our farmers to till healthy soil over the potential for future generations of farmers to ask why no one buys food produced in their contaminated soils.  I would risk we advocate for our citizen’s right to choose their future over decisions by ceding home rule to Albany.   Lastly, if I were to risk, I would risk that we used this moment to recommit to our vision for community we are proud to leave for the next 20 and for the next 200 years.

In the end, that’s what this vote is in about: an opportunity to recommit what is most important to us as a community.

This resolution calls on us as elected leaders to do our due diligence; to seek the best legal advice from as many attorneys as necessary to protect the health and welfare of our citizens.

And this resolution is about hope.

Hope that every farmer for another seven generations can earn a decent living on their land.

Hope that our kids can play outside without fear.

Hope that we create work that contributes to our community.

Hope that a shy kid from the woods can be given the opportunity to serve his community.

Hope that we can meet whatever challenges come our way.

On behalf of past, present, and future Caroline citizens, I cast my vote for investigating every available means to protect our town, our water, air, community, roads, housing values, safety, farmland, rural hillsides, local economy, and our democracy.