New research released today by the national advocacy group Food & Water Watch details the significant dangers of a new proposal by Southern Tier Solutions to circumvent New York’s decade-old fracking ban with a dubious CO₂ fracking scam. The research comes as state lawmakers rapidly advance a CO₂ Fracking Ban bill (A8866/S8357), supported by more than 90 organizations, to safeguard public health, safety and the environment. The bill passed the NYS Assembly last week.

Food & Water Watch Senior Researcher Oakley Shelton-Thomas said:

“Southern Tier Solutions’ desperate scheme to bring fracking back to a region where it is illegal is beyond absurd — it’s dangerous. A brand new company proposing an unproven technology across hundreds of thousands of acres is enough to raise eyebrows. Add to that the fact that this scam would put thousands of New Yorkers at risk of mass poisonings, water contamination, and earthquakes, and it becomes a serious threat necessitating immediate action. Governor Hochul and the NYS Legislature must ban CO₂ fracking now.”

Key findings include:

• Concentrated CO₂ rapidly displaces oxygen and can result in asphyxiation and mass poisonings that can be fatal. Impacts can be felt up to two miles away.
• CO₂ fracking wastewater potentially threatens drinking water with chemicals and radioactive materials that can cause cancer; disrupt the endocrine system; affect the nervous, immune, cardiovascular, and respiratory systems; and affect sensory organs.
• CO₂ fracking is more likely to cause earthquakes than hydraulic fracking.
• The scale of Southern Tier Solutions’ proposal would reduce quality of life through increased truck traffic and the buildout of multiple noisy compressor stations.
• CO₂ fracking would require 44 percent more energy than hydraulic fracking, creating significant new climate pollution. Food & Water Watch finds that powering direct air capture with natural gas, as Southern Tier Solutions proposes to do, emits more greenhouse gas than is “captured” by a factor of more than 3:1.