Will New York be the next natural gas capital of the country? Or, following the New York State Senate’s August 4 vote, the first state to put a moratorium on new gas drilling?
The Women’s City Club will bring you both sides of the story on Thursday, September 23 in a program featuring Dr. Jannette Barth, president of an economic research and consulting firm, and Paul Hartman, director of state government relations for Chesapeake Energy Corporation. They will discuss the pros and cons of hydrofracking. There will be time for a question & answer session at the end of their presentations.
Date: Thursday, September 23, 2010
Time: Registration opens at 12:00 p.m. Program begins at 12:30 p.m.
Venue: 33 West 60th Street (between Broadway & Columbus), 5th floor
To RSVP, email info@wccny.org or call 212-353-8070 x201 and provide your name, phone number and email address. This program is free and open to the public.
Across the country, energy companies have been purchasing rights from property owners to drill for natural gas on their properties. In New York, gas companies have been actively appealing to Albany to allow extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation that underlies parts of New York and three other states. Because of the depth of the Marcellus Shale, a controversial drilling method called hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, is required to extract the gas from the formation. Hydrofracking blasts rock apart with water, sand and chemicals, a process that requires millions of gallons of water.
Many concerns have been raised about the potential environmental and public health risks posed by hydrofracking, particularly since a portion of the proposed drilling area is in the watershed that supplies drinking water to 15 million people in New York City and surrounding counties. On the other hand, natural gas is generally cleaner and less expensive than other fossil fuels. Also, natural gas development could be a boon to New York’s economy, because the drilling companies would provide fees to property owners and to New York State.
Tags: energy, environment, gas drilling, program
