Accountability-Central commentator on the "New York State Shale Gas Lottery": Hey You Never Know ®

(3BL Media / theCSRfeed) New York, NY - October 11, 2011 - As New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo prepares to open the door to shale gas extraction, one commentator reminds us that the slogan for the New York Lottery is:  "Hey, You Never Know."® In Part I and Part II of posts on Accountability- Central (www.Accountability-Central.com) , Michael P. Benard, featured "fracking" commentator on the Governance & Accountability Institute "A-C" website notes that the slogan takes on new meaning as, by any definition, fracking is a heavy industrial activity that will have wide ranging impacts on citizens and communities. 

According to Benard, those impacts include:

Where will drilling and ‘frac’ water waste end up? 

How do we prevent gas migration (thermogenic) which can contaminate water wells & acquifers?

How do we protect community infrastructure such as roads with all of the required heavy truck traffic moving in and out of shale drilling areas?

From where comes the 2-9 million gallons of water required to ‘frac’ every well?

How do we protect private property rights since the plan is to focus this heavy industrial activity on private land – and New York State has a compulsory integration law on the books (a variation of eminent domain)?

Michael P. Benard is featured commentator on Governance & Accountability Institute (www.ga-institute.com )’s public access website, Accountability-Central (www.Accountability-Central.com ). He contributes to the site as its “fracking” analyst in his column, “Voices from the Shale.”

In Part I  of his post, Benard asks:  Does the state have specific plans for disposing of the toxic water and drilling waste that will be created by hydraulic fracturing industrial operations?

In part II of his post Benard delves deeper into a myriad of questions as the state moves closer to approval of shale gas extraction.

In both posts, Benard brings in 30-year energy veteran James "Chip" Northrup, formerly an ARCO executive and later owner, operator and investor in offshore/onshore drilling rigs. Northrup wrote a letter in July to New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens and a key point made by Northrup in this missive was that "New York State agencies are unprepared for horizontal hydrofracking."

Benard in part II of his piece questions how the state proposes to regulate what will be a new activity of fracking -- if approved -- on private land when the New York DEC has publicly acknowledged that it does not currently have the resources to monitor this activity.

Comments from the public are being accepted by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation until December 12, 2011 on a revised Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement ( for more information http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/75370.html

For further details and Benard’s complete and footnoted column, please access his stories in Part I  and part II.

Mike Benard is a property owner in Pennsylvania and a former gas lease owner; and he is founder of Spectra Energy Watch, a property rights blog that deals with the energy industry.  Link: http://www.spectraenergywatch.com/blog   Mr. Benard held the top communications post at Kodak as Director of Communications and Public Affairs and Vice President for more than a dozen years, until his retirement in 2006. (He had worldwide responsibility for internal and external communications, government affairs, community relations, corporate contributions, and management communication).

A top line briefing on fracking from Accountability-Central editors may be accessed here:

Mr. Benard’s initial commentaries may be accessed here:

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