“To frack, or not to frack? That was the question facing New York,” writes Jared Gilmour, staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor, in the January 17 article, “Is New York Governor’s ban on fracking grounded in science?”
The article explores New York’s decision, as well as opposing views on fracking’s health consequences. Some see no evidence of fracking’s impact on groundwater. Some blame the drilling process, rather than fracking. Still others, including New York’s acting Health Commissioner Howard Zucker, worry that the potential environmental risks are too great.
Gilmour quotes Barry Rabe, director of the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy. “Clearly this is where science becomes interwoven with politics,” Rabe tells the Monitor. “[New York’s] view is not the view that’s been reached in a number of other states.”
Barry Rabe is the J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Professor of Public Policy, Arthur Thurnau Professor at the Ford School, and director of the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP), and CLOSUP’s Energy and Environmental Policy Initiative. He holds additional appointments in the Department of Political Science, the Program in the Environment, and the School of Natural Resources and Environment at U-M and is a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
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