APOV: Is the New York Legislature for sale to gas interests?
http://thedailynewsonline.com/opinion/editorials/article_a20ac396-51c9-11e1-a85d-0019bb2963f4.html
Officials in Albany will soon decide whether or not to authorize horizontal hydraulic fracturing, a controversial gas drilling process, in the state. While citizens have written thousands of letters to the governor and the Department of Environmental Conservation protesting the health and environmental risks associated with fracking, the gas industry has been busy writing checks to Albany decision makers.
A new report by Common Cause NY, titled, “Deep Drilling, Deep Pockets: Expenditures of the Natural Gas Industry in New York to Influence Public Policy,” covering the period 2007-2011, exposes backroom politics at work.
National Grid, the largest distributor of natural gas in the northeast, and the largest single pro-fracking contributor to New York legislators, paid out more than $275,000, followed by Con Edison, another gas transmission firm, at $214,000. A third gas transporter, National Fuel, headquartered near Buffalo, handed-out more than $193,000. These big spenders want to keep gas flowing through their pipelines. The drillers, represented by the Independent Oil and Gas Association of NY, anted-up $25,210 for the legislators.
Statewide, the gas industry paid out more than $1.2 million with almost $154,000 ending up in Gov. Cuomo’s bank account. Senate and Assembly leaders, Dean Skelos and Sheldon Silver took in $24,000 and $2,750, respectively. The gas industry is apparently counting on big contributions to the governor and senators to fend off trouble.
In the Rochester area, Sen. George Maziarz, R-Newfane, chairman of the senate energy committee, received over $38,000 in gas industry contributions — more than any other legislator in the entire state — followed by Sen. Michael Nozzolio, with a seat on the senate rules committee, with $33,300. Other senators cashed in as follows: Michael Ranzenhofer, R-Clarence, $21,175; and Patrick Gallivan, R-Elma, $5,350.
Members of the Assembly did less well. Stephen Hawley, R-Batavia, received $3,250, and Daniel Burling, R-Warsaw, a member of the environmental conservation committee, $2,150.
If cash payments from the gas industry to lawmakers with the power to regulate how they do business is not, legally, a bribe, it’s a close call. In return for the money, gas-friendly legislators not only work to kill unwanted bills, they also give their financial patrons access to the law making process and, in effect, allow industry insiders to help write the state’s gas drilling rules. Most Americans believe these payments corrupt the democractic process and tilt the playing field against the people and in favor of the drillers.
What’s at stake? More than a dozen fracking-related bills are waiting for action in the Legislature. One would allow towns to enact ordinances that prohibit fracking. Another would increase the disposal requirements for toxic drilling wastes from simple industrial to hazardous materials. Last year this bill passed the Assembly but died in the Senate. A third bill would prohibit fracking anywhere in the state.
The people have spoken with letters; the gas industry with money. Who will our public leaders in Albany listen to?
Ronald Fraser, Ph.D., lives in the town of Colden, and is a member of the town's environmental planning board.
