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KATONAH, NY A crowd of people overflowed out of the meeting room at the Katonah Village Public Library and into an adjacent room where they listened to experts give testimony on hydrofracking.
Senator Greg Ball hosted the hearing on hydrofracking on Tuesday that provided a platform for industry experts to explain the benefits and risks of the controversial method of hydraulic fracturing in New York.
Several state senators joined Ball at the hearing, including Sen. Liz Krueger and Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins.
Both commented on the lack of industry professionals to accept the invitation by Ball to attend the hearing and speak in defense of fracking.
If they got nothing to hide, why do they never show up? Krueger said. She also said that she was not convinced that there was a safe way at the moment to conduct hydraulic fracturing and was therefore not in support of it.
Sen. Stewart-Cousins echoed Kruegers skepticism at the lack of industry professionals that showed up.
The fact that theyre unwilling to come to tell us how everything improved makes me suspicious, Stewart-Cousins said. I want to be educated and assured.
Economist Jannette Barth spoke at the hearing on the economic effects hydrofacking could have on the state of New York, saying that the region would be worse of in the long run. She cited that the areas of agriculture, tourism, hunting and fishing would be dramatically damaged by fracking, as well as the areas infrastructure, which would cost tax payers money to repair.
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