Opinion

Frack away, Gov. Cuomo

The Issue: Governmental delays preventing hydro-fracking in economically depressed upstate New York.

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Hydrofracking is a long-established recovery technology (“Frack, Andrew, Frack,” Editorial, Sept. 16).

The first hydrofracking experiment was performed in 1947, and thousands of wells have been fracked since then.

Yet the technique is only now being questioned. It’s clear that the reason is not the technique, but that stopping it will suit the agenda of environmentalists who do not want oil and gas drilling.

Problem wells are due to sloppy or unethical frackers who cut corners on cementing the well bore to seal off the water table from the oil and gas, perhaps to save money. Regulation and inspection of fracking is the solution, not banning the practice.

Wayne Olson

Suffern

Gov. Cuomo likes the Adirondacks so much that he’s heading back next weekend with a gang of his cronies to try to find ways of encouraging tourism in the depressed area.

Somebody had better tell Cuomo that he has his priorities backwards.

Who wants to visit hard-pressed and increasingly depopulated towns?

First you build the region up, then they will come. Get the fracking going, and jobs will materialize. Population will grow, along with businesses. That is how you increase tourism.

You don’t need a small mob to run up to the Adirondacks at taxpayer expense to figure this out. It can be done from your own desk.

Michael Sara

Matawan, NJ