story of direct action behind fracking ban in New York

Did Somebody Say Direct Action? What’s Missing from the Victory Narrative

by Sasha / Earth First! Jour­nal

We have heard a lot about what stopped the frack­ing boom in New York after Gov­er­nor Cuo­mo banned it last week.

While some insist that fal­ter­ing prices that did the gas boom in, oth­ers cred­it the sev­en-year legal bat­tle with stopped the prac­tice. The run­ning nar­ra­tive is that it’s a com­bi­na­tion of grass­roots polit­i­cal involvement—going to pub­lic hear­ings, sub­mit­ting com­ments, and doing eco­log­i­cal stud­ies. But there’s anoth­er ele­ment peo­ple aren’t talk­ing about as much.

What we don’t hear about is the intense blos­som­ing of direct action that has gen­er­at­ed a net­work of sev­er­al Earth First! groups who have been work­ing dili­gent­ly to shut down frack­ing oper­a­tions and nat­ur­al gas infra­struc­ture for the last six years. This move­ment spans a gamut of tac­tics, from protests to block­ades to oth­er escapades. It has been upset­ting busi­ness as usu­al, cost­ing the cor­po­ra­tions mon­ey and the politi­cians cred­it.

In short, it’s work­ing.

EF! in the Mix

The Mar­cel­lus Shale Earth First! Net­work sprung into action soon after the first wells start­ed get­ting test­ed, and rapid­ly assem­bled sev­er­al groups around the Mar­cel­lus, includ­ing Hud­son Val­ley EF! (HVEF!) and Fin­ger Lakes EF! (FLEF!), which have been active in direct action strug­gles.

In May of this year, Hud­son Val­ley Earth First! (HVEF!) dis­rupt­ed the 9th annu­al North­east Pow­er and Gas Mar­kets Con­fer­ence in New York City, send­ing home the mes­sage that frack­ing would not be accept­ed in the state.

Oth­er groups involved have been Susque­han­na Val­ley EF!, Genessee Val­ley EF!, and Occu­py WELL Street.

“This cam­paign has been going on for almost two years, but now it’s get­ting seri­ous,” said April Rogers, a mem­ber of HVEF! “If trucks show up, we’ll be there to stop them!”

Indeed, two years before the dis­rup­tion in NYC, HVEF! stopped con­struc­tion on a com­pres­sor sta­tion in Min­isink, NY, along the Mil­le­ni­um Pipeline.

EF! has been engaged in this move­ment since the Newswire has been in exis­tence, protest­ing out­side of pub­lic hear­ings, draw­ing a spot­light with out­ra­geous actions, and grow­ing the move­ment.

In Win­ter of last year, MSEF! went on an exten­sive tour of New York and Penn­syl­va­nia, spread­ing the good word about direct action against frack­ing after a cru­cial vic­to­ry defend­ing the Loy­al­sock State For­est from frack­ing in Penn­syl­va­nia.

As the col­lec­tive put it at the time, “MSEF! is a cre­ative and grow­ing move­ment, and shar­ing our strug­gle with oth­ers around PA and NY made it clear that the cam­paign to defend the Loy­al­sock is one that will unite many peo­ple.”

Pri­or to halt­ing frack­ing in the Loy­al­sock, MSEF! engaged in a pro­longed cam­paign against the Ten­nessee Pipeline through a lock­down, two con­sec­u­tive treesits, and a two-week road block­ade matched with a nine-day treesit.

The MSEF! net­work also shut down frack­ing oper­a­tions in the Tiadaghton State For­est ear­li­er this year and block­ad­ed frack­ing trucks in the Moshan­non State For­est in 2012.

Despite tremen­dous resis­tance, frack­ing in Penn­syl­va­nia is still going on, and activists con­tin­ue to work to shut it down.

The Infra­struc­ture Fight Still Needs Sup­port

While the EF! net­work has been hold­ing action camps and engag­ing in a num­ber of cam­paigns, per­haps the largest of the area’s anti-gas strug­gles has been the We Are Seneca Lake cam­paign.

In a three-week block­ade this Novem­ber, 19 peo­ple were arrest­ed halt­ing con­struc­tion of Crest­wood Midstream’s gas stor­age facil­i­ty on Seneca Lake.

Just this month, more than 100 peo­ple attend­ed a demon­stra­tion out­side of the court where the arrest­ed were being arraigned. That day, nine more peo­ple were arrest­ed lock­ing them­selves to the gates of Crestwood’s facil­i­ty.

This came after a peace­ful block­ade in March which saw the arrest of 12 activists. Three more were arrest­ed at their tri­al in April.

In total, some 92 peo­ple have been arrest­ed in the move­ment to halt the Crest­wood facility—a rous­ing cam­paign that is ongo­ing and needs your sup­port!

If the move­ment against gas trans­port and stor­age is still rag­ing in New York, its vis­i­bil­i­ty has thrown the spot­light on the con­tro­ver­sial prac­tice of frack­ing as well. Chesa­peake EF! is involved in the ongo­ing cam­paign against frack­ing exports in the Mary­land Cove Point facil­i­ty, and oth­er cam­paigns con­tin­ue to build steam.

Move­ment Builders

The vic­to­ry in New York is a key move­ment builder, because it helps us rec­og­nize the com­po­nents that make them hap­pen, and focus on the cam­paigns that need sup­port with greater num­bers and resources.

Direct action is just one piece of the larg­er puz­zle to stop indus­tri­al exploita­tion and destruc­tion of land and liveli­hood. And, with com­mu­ni­ty rights move­ments, legal bat­tles, and protest move­ments, it’s win­ning.

It is impor­tant to note that these actions have tak­en place not just in New York, but in Penn­syl­va­nia and New Jer­sey, as well. This is a biore­gion­al strug­gle, and claim­ing suc­cess in New York is not the end. The move­ment to stop frack­ing won’t stop at legal bat­tles; it relies on the vig­i­lance of com­mu­ni­ties impact­ed by the unsafe prac­tices, and it will con­tin­ue to expand through­out the Mar­cel­lus Shale until all frack­ing oper­a­tions are shut down once and for all.

No Com­pro­mise!