State regulations to allow natural gas hydrofracking in New York’sdepressed Southern Tier region are being held up by Governor Cuomo, who says he wants more study of the health effects of fracking. However, writes Robert Bryce of the Manhattan Institute in today’sNew York Post, “if he’s truly interested in public health, the governor must also put a freeze on wind-energy projects in New York until theirhealth impact can be gauged.”
From Bryce:
To date, the state has assumed that oil and gas drilling is “guilty (dirty) until proven innocent” but wind-energy development is “clean.” Indeed, if New York is to meet its renewable-energy target — to obtain 30 percent of all electricity from renewables by 2015 — several thousand new wind turbines will be needed.
But about two dozen New York towns have already passed rules banning or restricting wind-energy development, and more will come if turbine construction takes off.
It’s not simply that wind projects can be ugly. Health officials from Canada to Australia and the UK to New Zealand are seriously examining the effect that wind-turbine noise has on humans.
Meanwhile, another report today suggests that New York’s wind bubble may have burst.
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