NY Hires Pro-Fracking Lobby To Conduct State Review

In another disgusting example of how corrupt our government has become, Food and Water Watch has just discovered Govenor Cuoma has contracted companies beloning to one of the New York’s biggest pro-fracking lobby groups to conduct the state’s review.

The review comes on the heals of an existing review which itself was written with the help of the gas industry.

Of course, the bias reviewed declared fracking safe despite the numerous documented dangers associated with the fracking including the introduction of toxic poisons into underground water supplies, the dumping of said poisons into rivers and streams, and the now confirmed findings that the fracking causes earthquakes.

As Food and Water Watch points out “This conflict of interest is devastating, and it casts doubt over the entire review process. What does this mean for you? In short, it means tax dollars went to companies that are actively lobbying for fracking in New York to determine whether fracking is safe”

Here’s a letter being distrubuted by Food and Water Watch urging citizens to activate to demand a truly independent review be done so the dangers of the practice can be addressed.

Dear Occupy,

It’s outrageous.

We just learned that Governor Cuomo contracted parts of his fracking review to companies that belong to the Independent Oil and Gas Association — one of the biggest pro-fracking lobby groups in New York. Tell Governor Cuomo to throw out his industry-biased fracking review today.

Think about what this means. Our state paid fracking industry consultants to study whether the state should allow fracking. This conflict of interest is epic in scope and clearly casts doubt on the entire fracking review process.

It’s time to call the Cuomo Administration’s review of fracking’s potential impacts what it is: a sham. Join me in demanding that Governor Cuomo throw out the existing review, written in part by the gas industry, and begin a genuinely independent look at fracking.

A truly independent study of fracking will show what so many of us already know: fracking is inherently dangerous and should be banned.

Tell Governor Cuomo his fracking review is a sham:
http://act.foodandwaterwatch.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=692

Thanks for taking action,

Alex Beauchamp
Northeast Region Director
Food & Water Watch

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Food & Water Watch is a nonprofit consumer organization that works to ensure clean water and safe food. We challenge the corporate control and abuse of our food and water resources by empowering people to take action and by transforming the public consciousness about what we eat and drink. 

Today’s call to action follows on the heels of a a scandal uncovered by a coalition of activists groups which halted a previous effort to streamline fracking into practice in New York by revealing a scandalous incestous relationship with the fracking industry.

NY Fracking Scandal: Seven Groups Demand Conflict of Interest Investigation of Cuomo Administration

New York could soon become the newest state in the union to allow hydraulic fracturing (fracking), the controversial technique used to enable shale oil and gas extraction. The green light from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo could transpire in as little as “a couple of weeks,” according to journalist and author Tom Wilber.  

That timeline, of course, assumes things don’t take any crazy twists or turns. 

Enter a press conference today in Albany, where seven groups, including Public Citizen, Food and Water Watch, Frack Action, United for Action, Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy, and Capital District Against Fracking, called for an Albany County District Attorney General investigation of the Cuomo Administration.

They are asking “whether Lawrence Schwartz, Secretary to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, has a conflict of interest between his stock investments and his involvement in the state’s decision on whether to allow high-volume hydraulic fracturing for shale gas.”

Schwartz – dubbed “the ringleader” of Governor Cuomo’s administration – potentially has what these groups describe as a legal conflict-of-interest. A months-long DeSmogBlog investigation reveals that Cuomo’s chief-of-staff actually has a direct financial interest in fracking going forward in New York state, potentially falling under the sphere of insider trading.  

Above and beyond Schwartz’s annual oil and gas industry stock holdings in corporations ranging from Occidental Petroleum, Williams Companies, ExxonMobil/XTO, and General Electric (GE) for the past decade, the Cuomo Administration has also held numerous meetings with lobbyists representing some of these same corporations dating back to when Cuomo assumed office in Jan. 2011, records obtained under New York’s Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) by DeSmogBlog reveal. 

Dirty Details: Oil/Gas Industry Stock Holdings, Meetings with Lobbyists from Same Corporations

The details are dirty, both figuratively and literally. 

A September 2012 investigation by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) examined Schwartz’s past three financial disclosure forms. That probe revealed that he had stock holdings of $1,000+ each in Occidental, Williams, Exxon/XTO, and GE in both 2010 and 2011, respectively. All four of these corporations possess a financial stake in Cuomo approving fracking in New York.

2009 saw much of the same, a year in which Schwartz had $1,000+ in his stock portfolio invested in GE, Williams, and Burlington Resources (purchasd as a subsidiary by ConocoPhillips in 2005).

DeSmogBlog followed in the footsteps of the EWG investigation by filing both an Executive Chamber FOIL request, as well a FOIL request to Schwartz’s former employer, the Westchester County Executive Office, asking for his financial disclosure forms dating back to 2002.

That latter request revealed that Schwartz has had stock holdings in the oil and gas industry dating back to 2002. At that time he was working as chief-of-staff to then-Westchester County Executive, Andrew J. Spano.

In 2002 and 2003, Schwartz had over $1,000 in stock holdings in Chevron and GE. Until 2001, Texaco – purchased in 2000 as a subsidiary by Chevron – was headquarted in Westchester. The Westchester County Executive Chamber did not possess Schwartz’s forms for 2004 or 2005. 

His 2006 filings reveal $1,000 or more in his stock portfolio invested in Burlington Resources, GE, and Williams Companies. 

Records obtained from Cuomo’s Executive Chamber also revealed that lobbyists from the very corporations Schwartz has thousands of dollars of stock holdings in have earned the ear of Cuomo in the form of exclusive meetings with his high-level aides.  

One case in point: Both in April 2012 and in Sept. 2012, Williams Companies lobbyists had meetings with Cuomo aides on the status of its proposed Constitution Pipeline, a joint venture between Cabot Oil and Gas, Piedmont Natural Gas and Williams Companies. That 120-mile long, 30-inch prospective pipeline, if approved, will carry gas produced in NY’s section of the Marcellus Shale to markets throughout the northeastern U.S.

The latter meeting was held between two Williams’ lobbyists – Tonio Burgos and John Charlson – and upper level Cuomo aides.

Charlson is a former public information officer for the New York State Division of Lottery who was fired in Jan. 2009 for not getting along with fellow employees. In retaliation for his firing, he illegally “eavesdropped on a confidential lottery conference call” and ”trespassed via computer to get 16 lottery e-mails,” the Post Star explained, summarizing a New York Inspector General report.

Charlson’s next job was serving as a corporate lobbyist with Tonio Burgos and Associates, New York’s Joint Commission on Public Ethics database reveals.

One of Charlson’s 14 current clients at the Burgos firm is United Water, Inc., “the second-largest private operator of municipal water systems in the United States,” according to a 2010 Food and Water Watch report. United Water is a subsidiary of global water privatizing giant Suez Environnement, the second largest water service corporation in the world.

Food and Water Watch explained in a March 2012 report that fracking on a global scale will almost certainly serve as a progenitor of a global water crisis. Another December 2011 FWW report revealed that water privatization corporations – which stand to gain economically if and when water ends up becoming a scarce global commodity - are hedging their bets on shale gas production.     

Burgos, the principal of Tonio Burgos and Associates and former aide to Andrew Cuomo’s father, Gov. Mario Cuomo (described by the Chicago Tribune in 1993 as his “patronage chief“), was identified in Jan. 2012 by The Wall Street Journal as “one of Mr. Cuomo’s closest outside advisers and top fund-raisers.” Like Charlson, Burgos also lobbies on behalf of United Water, Inc.

Burgos has already given $93,500 towards Cuomo’s 2014 re-election campaign, according to the National Institute on Money in State Politics‘ campaign finance database. Burgos’ firm also doles out big money to the Democratic Governors’ Association, forking over $110,000 between 2006 and 2012.

The records also reveal that the Cuomo Administration held several meetings with lobbyists working on behalf of ExxonMobil, another corporation in which Schwartz holds stock. 

NY Fracking Scandal: Conflict-of-Interest or Insider Trading?

The seven “fracktivist” groups signing onto the letter requesting the investigation concluded that under New York state law, Schwartz – and by extension the Cuomo Administration – may have a conflict-of-interest in the looming fracking decision.

In so doing, they cited N.Y. Pub. Off. § 74(3)(g), a law mandating that public officials must not make financial investments that would “create substantial conflict between his duty in the public interest and his private interest.” Cutting to the heart of the matter, the groups are seeking a thorough investigation as to whether the Cuomo Administration is breaking this law.

An issue that goes unraised in this letter: whether Schwartz is defying the spirit of the federal law that bans insider trading – the STOCK (Stop on Congressional Knowledge) Act - passed by the U.S. Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama in April 2012.

“The powerful shouldn’t get to create one set of rules for themselves and one set of rules for everyone else,” Obama said while signing the bill.

In New York, though, that appears to be the case, with 2016 Democratic Party presidential hopeful Andrew Cuomo and his administration playing by a different set of rules that may threaten the health and water supplies of New York citizens. 

This dreary picture has prompted the launch of a new website dedicated to chronicling the ongoing and growing scandal: NYFrackingScandal.com.

“NYFrackingScandal.com serves to put all of the worst offenses in the state’s review of fracking in one place. When you put it all together, it paints a pretty bad picture,” said Frack Action Executive Director, Julia Walsh in a press release. 

Some believe the scandal warrants a redux of the entire review process into whether or not fracking should be permitted in the Empire State.  

“New Yorkers must be assured that policy decisions are made on merit – and not because of the possibility of personal financial gain,” Tyson Slocum, Director of the Public Citizen Energy Program told DeSmogBlog. ”Given these financial holdings by key Cuomo decisionmakers, New York ought to review all aspects of the fracking review.”

Photo Credit: Shutterstock | tankist276

Attachment	Size
Schwartz 2006 Westchester Disclosures.pdf	1.21 MB
Schwartz 2003 Westchester Disclosures.pdf	2.14 MB
Schwartz 2002 Westchester Disclosures.pdf	2.14 MB
Executive Chamber FOIL Documents.pdf	2.09 MB
Press Release Albany County District Attorney Investigation.pdf	154.12 KB
Albany County Attorney General Conflict of Interest Letter.pdf	149.68 KB

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