Rallying in Response to Paterson's Frack Veto

Blue ribbons were worn by Mark Ruffalo, and Craig and Julie Sautner at a press conference outside of Governor Paterson's office today to represent the sacredness of water. The conference was called after the governor's decision to veto the moratorium on fracking, which would have stalled drilling leases until May 15th. Instead, he issued an executive order, which more exclusively banned horizontal frack drilling, and not vertical Drilling. (Click for full text and video...)

December Frack Protests in NYC

Some fifty people protested outside a party of future Pennsylvannia governor Tom Corbett, other PA officials and campaign contributors at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel on the same day that NY Governor Paterson vetoed the moratorium bill and two days after the DRBC released regulations on Fracking in the Delaware Riverbasin, without waiting for study. In response to Paterson's decision, there will be another protest at his office tomorrow (Monday).

Paterson, who is one of the four state governors on the DRBC had urged the DRBC not to release regulations until further studies were done, but in a July hearing with the DRBC on this issue, there was no New York State representative. Paterson had stated recently that he understood the safety of Fracking to be uncertain, but he vetoed NY's moratorium and instead imposed an executive order, which temporarily bans new permits for Horizontal Drilling but not for Vertical Drilling because according to him, Vertical Drilling poses no known environmental threats and would cost jobs. But according to the face book invitation for tomorrow's protest, Vertical Drilling is another way of saying Verticle Hydrofracking, and is responsible for the damage done in Dimoch. According to Craig Michaels of Riverkeeper in a New York Times article, "The environmental community will be watching closely to assure that industry does not side-step environmental review by conducting an onslaught of vertical drilling and then converting those vertical wells to horizontal wells."

PROTEST TOMORROW
MONDAY DECEMBER 13th, 12 noon
NYC Office of Gov David Paterson
644 3rd Avenue (between 41st and 42nd)

This Saturday

This Saturday, join Amp Up! Network, Frack Action and Rain Forest Action Network (RAN) for a day of skills sharing, movement planning, and action.

Help plan the next 6 months as we strategize to beat hydraulic fracturing in New York State, plan a Water Justice action for the 1 year anniversary of the Gulf Oil Disaster, and build our state's presence at Powershift 2011 and Northeast Food and Justice Summit.

There will be pizza & vegan lunch included.

Later in the day, we'll join a protest against Hydrofracking in Midtown.

Time: Saturday, December 11 · 11:00am - 4:00pm
Place: 208 E 51st Street (between 2nd and 3rd Ave) 4th Floor

Frack Protest info: (we will go as a caravan)
When : Saturday, December 11th starting at 4:45pm
Where : 301 Park Avenue @ 49th Street, New York, NY.
The Sponsors: NYH20, Damascus Citizens and 13 Friends
PA Governor Tom “Corporate” Corbett along with many other politicians and corporations will celebrate corporate friendship between PA elected officials, campaign contributors, and PA state contract holders. (Formal wear is encouraged).

Facebook event
(invite friends)

"Action a Day Week"

According to Protecting Our Waters, this is an "action a day week." Allow us to add in our own:

1. Calling Gov Paterson (518 - 474 – 8390), to thank him for cautioning the DRBC on Fracking, but also to urge him to sign our own moratorium that would be in effect until May.

2. Besides the hearing in Trenton tomorrow on Fracking in the Delaware River Basin, which may be inconvenient, we can write to Philadelphia's Mayor Nutter, to tell the DRBC to hold off on Fracking. An automatic email template has been provided in an email by Protecting Our Water, but they also urge us to actually send letters. This emergency request followed an announcement by the DRBC (Delaware River Basin Commission) that it would release regulations on Fracking in the Delaware Watershed later this week.

Honorable Michael Nutter
City Hall
Office of the Mayor
Room 215
Philadelphia PA 19107

At the a DRBC hearing on July 14th, governmental representatives of NY did not show up, apparently because of budget constraints, and not only was half or so of the room filled with people who said they were for safe drilling, but the commission demonstrated a willingness to allow Fracking and even the disposal of treated Fracking Fluid in the Delaware Watershed. It appears likely that their regulations will be minimal and it is urgent that the mayor of Philadelphia, which is along the river, urge a moratorium so the EPA could conduct a complete study.

Photos: Delaware River Basin (google)

Saturday Actions:
3. Attend this Saturday's Youth Activist Training/Amp Up! Meeting with a guest from RAN (Rain Forest Action Network), from 11-4.

4. Hydrofracking Protest at 4:45PM Saturday at 49th & Park, organized by Damascus Citizens.

More info on Saturday to come.

NYPIRG Students Hold Vigil for COP16

After the third day of COP16, where government representatives once again are negotiating for the UNFCCC, NYPIRG (The New York Public Interest Research Group), which is comprised of student chapters throughout SUNY and CUNY, held a vigil across the street from the UN.





Students came out from various CUNY schools, some who are newcomers to this gigantic people's movement. Oxfam and Greenpeace organizers participated as well in discussing the concept of Climate Justice, that "non annex" countries are greatly more affected by Climate Change and could use financial help from "annex" countries, or wealthier nations, to survive.

Young Farmer Testifies Next to CEO

"The big guys know they're in trouble," said Stephen McDonnell, CEO of Applegate Farms, which employs 1000 farmworkers in South America. He spoke next to a young farmer and a Food writer on a panel hosted by Baruch College's Journalism department called, "Can Healthy Food Feed America," last night.

Applegate may relatively not be one of the "big guys," and what brought the man to the table may have been his interest in the Food Movement, especially the rise in buying from farmers markets, and eating more fruits and vegetables instead of meat even though his company is basically a meat business, however, they do not use artificial hormones on their animals.

The young farmer, on the other hand, in his mid twenties perhaps, works on a farm that breaks even, and is owned by a wealthy couple that launched the farm out of an interest in Sustainable Agriculture. He's one of a movement of young people that are taking up the challenge of being a Sustainable farmer.

The question: "Can healthy food feed America," of course wasn't totally, holistically examined in the short period of time, but the subject of various routes of changing the Food System and how students can be involved came up. Of course, David Orr, the young farmer provided the example of being the change, becoming the Local, Sustainable farmer.

Despite how much a movement actually grows of people purchasing Local, Organic and Humane Food, there will still be a crisis of local farmers falling off the map in Upstate New York. "New York State farmers ... only make half as much per acre as farmers in other parts of the country," says NYC Council Member Quin according to Gotham Gazzette (an article written by a student). The article also goes into depth about Ethical Food also coming into low income neighborhoods. But despite these awesome activist actions, these allocations of Healthy, Sustainable Food don't necessarily increase the production of this food. The Broken Food System, to a large degree, has brought us the Hydrofracking controversy, since farmland is most targeted by the Natural Gas Industry. Therefore, we need more young farmers and large systematic change that transfers subsidies from Industrial Ag to Sustainable Ag. And since a historic Food Safety Bill was just passed, there may be some hope in actually targeting the next Farm Bill or other Food Policies.

It came up in the discussion that one activist role that students in particular could take is through the Real Food Challenge, and attending the Northeast Food and Justice Summit of February 2011 in Boston, in which hundreds of students will attend. The RFC is a campaign launched by students in 2005 that unites students that want to transfer their own school's food money to Sustainable Food.