Chemung County Chamber of Commerce excluding public from forum – but the gas industry reps can say as much as they want

Mar 17
2010

Citizens for Healthy Communities

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:  March 17, 2010

March 19th Chemung Economic Forum Comes Under Fire
Chemung County Chamber of Commerce’s March 19th Economic Forum on natural gas drilling in the Southern Tier, to be moderated by Chemung County Executive Thomas Santulli, is being criticized for prohibiting the public and including presentations dominated by the gas industry and its supporters.  Although the Forum, scheduled for Friday, March 19 at 7:30 am at the Holiday Inn-Riverview in Elmira, was advertised as open to the public, many people who called for reservations to the event were turned down.

“When I called on March 3, I was told that the Forum was sold out,” said David Walczak of Bath, “but others who called for tickets to the breakfast were told that the event was only open to members of the Chamber.”

The scheduled speakers at the forum are heavily biased toward the gas industry.  They are natural gas industry officials from Chesapeake Energy Corp and Schlumberger, Inc., a representative of the Pennsylvania College of Technology who has spoken out extensively in support of hydraulic fracturing drilling of the Marcellus Shale and someone from Cornell University.

“If the Economic Forum was merely a private Chamber of Commerce meeting, they would certainly have every right to exclude non-members,” said Mark Schlechter, a resident of Steuben County, ”but the participation of the County Executive, and possibly other elected officials, turns the Forum into a public event.  The actions of the Chamber and the County Executive in excluding concerned members of the community raise questions about what will be discussed at the Forum and, more importantly, what decisions will be made by our elected leaders about gas drilling in our region.”

There is currently a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, known as “fracking”, in New York State due to concerns about the environmental and economic effects of the drilling and plans to build a Schlumberger gas drilling service facility in Horseheads are on hold pending a State Supreme Court ruling on the issue.  A number of organizations have formed in area counties to raise public awareness of the hazards of injecting and storing millions of gallons of toxic-laced water into the ground and of the numerous examples of water contamination, air pollution and noise and odor complaints in other states where fracking has occurred.

“If public policy is to be set through closed forums such as the one moderated by our County Executive, then the public has a right to know what is being said and which elected officials are in attendance,” said Patricia Ladley, a Chemung County resident. ”This issue is too important to the health and economic well-being of our communities for us to be excluded.”

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