Sunday, May 27, 2012

COMMUNITY EVENT: People's Hearing on Fracking


A People’s Hearing on Fracking
will be held on June 2, 2012

at the Burchfield Penney Art Center and Buffalo State College
www.peopleshearing.com
from 10am-4:30pm.
The event is FREE and open to the public.
Please see the event web site for a full schedule of events, links, and bios of speakers and artists.


A People’s Hearing on Fracking is bringing Buffalo’s amazing artistic and cultural community together with WNY’s hard working environmental community to create an informational, fun, and culturally significant event. The goal is to create a synergy that will draw as many people as possible to engage in clean water issues. Live stream video will immediately carry the proceedings to a world stage.

There are three components to A People’s Hearing on Fracking:

Featured Speakers and Workshops:
An exciting variety of speakers and workshops are available for public attendance and participation. Nationally recognized speakers include Ruth Breech of Global Community Monitor, Dr. Jill Kriesky from the University of Pittsburgh’s Graduate School of Public Health, Bill Belitskus of the Allegheny Defense Project, and former energy insider James “Chip” Northrup. New York State speakers and presenters include Jim Anderson of Citizen Action, Larry Bennett of Ommegang Brewery, Sarah Buckley of POWR, Jay Burney of the Learning Sustainability Campaign, Robert M. Ciesielski of the Sierra Club, Joseph Heath Esq. the Chief Counsel for the Onondaga Nation, Dr. Stephen Cleghorn, Luella Kenney, and Rita Yelda of Food & Water Watch / WNY Drilling Defense, as well as event host Bruce Fisher, Director of the Center for Economic and Policy Studies at Buffalo State College.

The Hearing:
A People’s Hearing on Fracking will give Western New Yorkers a chance to publicly state their views in a way that was denied to this region by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation during the DEC’s Fall 2011 draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement on fracking. The DEC held four public Hearings downstate, but none were held in Western New York. A People’s Hearing on Fracking will provide WNY the Hearing the DEC should have provided! There are forty 3-minute public speaking slots scheduled between 1:30 and 3:30 in the Burchfield Penney Auditorium. Transcripts from the Hearing will be delivered to elected officials at all levels of government: local, state, national, and international. (Note that there will video testimony options if more than 40 people sign-up to speak.) People can sign-up on-line prior to the event.

Music, Cultural and Artistic:
This family-friendly day will include children’s crafts and science experiments, as well as live music and theatrical performances. Featured artists will include the 12/8 Path Band, David Kane & nimbus dance, Nancy Parisi, Michele Costa, the crack horse, and Clandestina. There will also be a children’s book nook by Burning Books, and Nichols School environmental students (lead by their teacher Josh Ring) presenting science demonstrations on the effects of fracking.


Food will be available at the Burchfield Penney Café.
Please encourage people to come and let WNY’s true voice on this life or death issue be heard!


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