After laying out this elaborate battle plan, Wood concludes with what activists may read as a challenge. The anti-fracking movement, he believes, "is grappling with the consequences of its successes, struggling to maintain momentum after winning tighter regulation, moratoriums and bans."
Frack Action's Armstrong disagrees, pointing to larger and more frequent rallies in New York. "Momentum is on our side, polls are on our side, the science and truth are on our side, and New Yorkers know that we are going to win."
By winning, Armstrong means a statewide ban on fracking. New York, which he says has been the anti-fracking movement's "catalyst," currently awaits Governor Andrew Cuomo's final decision on whether to lift the ban on fracking following a five-year moratorium. Forty-three percent of state residents oppose the process, while only 39 percent support it, according to a March Siena Poll, and the majority of both the state assembly and senate recently came out in favor of extending the moratorium.
Wood's report is an attempt to use the industry's resources -- primarily money -- to regain the upper hand in important decisions like this one. But, if studied closely, it could also help the anti-fracking movement plan its next steps.
Katrina Rabeler wrote this article for YES! Magazine, a national, nonprofit media project that fuses powerful ideas with practical actions. Katrina is a native New Yorker who wrote her senior thesis on hydraulic fracturing, and is an editorial intern at YES!
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