NY's fracking ban is pure evil — but Hochul refuses to lift it

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It’s been 12 years since then-Gov. Andrew Cuomo banned fracking in New York — a dozen years in which Southern Tier residents have had to watch their neighbors across the Pennsylvania state line prosper while their own towns rot. A decade-plus, also, where fracking’s supposed perils have completely failed to prove real anywhere. If Albany cared about reality, it’d lift the ban and enjoy the ensuing riches. If. Instead, folks in Chemung County can only envy those in Bradford County, Pa.

Both sit atop the Marcellus Shale, the largest natural gas field in America. Explore More Meet the FBI ‘shadow government’ that shut down the Hunter laptop story FBI agents finally facing accountability after trying to smother the Hunter Biden corruption scandal The wacky SoCal winter ritual that has my man sleeping in his car — tell me I’m not alone Bradford has reaped the rich rewards of the fracking boom as companies from around the country exploit Marcellus.

Chemung, which had started to share in the boom, has lost out since 2014. Bradford County and its municipalities collect over $10 million a year in payments from gas companies; individual landowners earn more in royalties from 1,500 wells. Fracking also powers up the local economy: Towanda, Pa., has a median household income of $61,000 and a county poverty rate of 13%. The figures for Elmira, across the border in New York: $43,000 and 30% in Chemung.

Towanda’s violent crime rate is roughly 60% below the national rate; Elmira’s, 52% above. High-school graduation rates are 15 points higher in Bradford; Chemung has a vastly higher rate of OD deaths. So . . . why ban fracking, again? The prophesied dire side effects — ranging from deadly air pollution and groundwater contamination to, yes, earthquakes — never showed. There’s not even a carbon-emissions issue: The gas is still coming out of the ground and emitting carbon as it powers the nation — New Yorkers just see zero benefit from it.

Bruce Blakeman’s vow to allow fracking is one big reason he means real hope for New York — and Hochul’s refusal another sign of how hopeless a leader she is.

Read the original article on nypost.com

What we found (1)

The Post Editorial Board argues for lifting New York's fracking ban, and that argument is not a finding. It sets one Pennsylvania town's figures against one New York city's, mixes town and county measures, and presents the gaps as proof of what fracking does, with no figures from before the ban.

Opinion piece: read for false claims of fact and for fairness to the people it names, not for its opinions.

Uses figures that mislead
Minor
“Towanda, Pa., has a median household income of $61,000 and a county poverty rate of 13%”
Why this matters
The editorial opens its comparison with the words "Fracking also powers up the local economy" and then gives one town's median income beside a county poverty rate. The next sentence sets these against Elmira's income and a 30% rate given for "Chemung".
The impression it gives
A reader takes the income and poverty gap between the two places as a measure of what fracking brought Bradford County and what the ban cost Chemung.
The context
The editorial compares a single town with a single city and switches between town and county levels within each pair. It gives no figures for either place before 2014, so nothing in it shows how much of the gap fracking explains. Its own line that Chemung "had started to share in the boom" points to a before-and-after comparison, which the editorial never makes.
How we know
- Elsewhere in the article“The figures for Elmira, across the border in New York”
- Elsewhere in the article“had started to share in the boom”
Show it in the article
“Towanda’s violent crime rate is roughly 60% below the national rate; Elmira’s, 52% above”
Why this matters
The editorial adds crime rates for one small town and one city to a list it introduces as evidence that fracking powers up the local economy.
The impression it gives
A reader comes away thinking fracking explains why Towanda is safer than Elmira.
The context
Nothing in the editorial links the crime figures to fracking or gives the rates before the ban. It is a comparison between two different places, offered as if it showed the effect of one policy.
How we know
- Elsewhere in the article“Fracking also powers up the local economy”
Show it in the article

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NY's fracking ban is pure evil — but Hochul refuses to lift it

Uses figures that mislead

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