Press Connects - Guest Viewpoint: Ban Fracking, Build Clean Energy

Op-Ed

By Howie Hawkins

The race for governor is a referendum on fracking. I am the only candidate for governor now on the November ballot who wants to ban fracking and build 100 percent clean energy by 2030.

New York stands at a fork in the road to its energy and economic future. We can choose a 21st century upgrade to clean energy that protects our climate, improves our environment and builds a sustainable prosperity. Or we can continue to rely on a 19th and 20th century fossil-fueled system that will leave us battered by climate change, poisoned by pollution, technologically backward and economically depressed.

If Gov. Andrew Cuomo wanted to ban fracking, he would have done it by now. Instead, he sits on the fence, waiting for the election to be over. If he wins re-election by a big enough margin to turn to his presidential ambitions, he likely will approve fracking in order to conform to the national Democrats' pro-fracking consensus.

Republican Rob Astorino wants to frack New York. But he must know fracking harms our air, water and health, because as Westchester County executive, he signed a law to ban fracking waste from being treated in his own county.

One hundred percent clean energy by 2030 is feasible in New York with solar, wind, energy efficiency, energy storage and smart-grid technologies that are commercially available today, according to a study by Cornell and Stanford scientists, engineers and economists. It would create 4.5 million construction and manufacturing jobs during its 15-year buildout. For the 2020-30 decade, the new clean energy sources will cost less than half of what the obsolete fossil and nuclear sources will cost.

Clean energy is the centerpiece of my platform for sustainable prosperity, A Green New Deal for New York. It seeks to guarantee the foundations of decent standard of living for all: a living-wage job, a good education, universal health care, affordable housing and a sustainable environment.

We pay for the Green New Deal by restoring the more progressive taxes and revenue-sharing that New York had in the 1970s. Ninety-five percent of us would get a tax cut, while the state would have 20 percent more revenues. With increased revenue-sharing and a state single-payer health plan, the state would pay for its unfunded mandates on local governments, enabling us to cut our highest-in-the-nation property taxes and still fully fund our schools and municipal services.

I hope to have your vote on Nov. 4.

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