Dear President Obama Page #10

in New York state's history.

(Mark)

New York State

sits over the largest

shale gas reserve in the US

and industry was desperate

to start drilling.

But it ran into an unexpected

patch work coalition

of citizen's groups

that did not want

to see the mostly agricultural

state industrialized

Governor Andrew Cuomo

was caught in the middle.

Pushed hard by both sides.

Especially the well-funded

oil and gas lobbies.

The fight was waged

for several years

while a grassroots revolution

was taking hold.

I'm overjoyed, overjoyed today

to join such an enormous

crowd of New Yorkers

who've come out today

because we don't want

fracking in New York.

And on a day when all eyes

in the state turn to Albany

and turn to Governor Cuomo

and his state of the state

we're here to remind him

that we won't accept fracking

and that the movement

to ban fracking will never stop.

We won't stop

until Governor Cuomo

protects our health

and our environment

by keeping fracking

out of the state.

The movement to ban fracking

and embrace renewable energy

is one of the fastest

growing movements in the nation.

And the whole nation is watching

what happens here in New York.

So, why are all

these people here?

Because we love New York!

We love our communities.

'We love our farms

and our forests.'

And we do not want

that destroyed by fracking

and a greedy industry.

[crowd cheering]

[indistinct chanting]

I can remember well

organizing the first rally

uh, outside of our state capitol

to ban fracking when

we had a few hundred people.

You can literally see

the numbers grow

from just a few hundred

to a thousand,

to three thousand and-and on.

And so, over the course

of time we just continued

to see the more the people

learned about fracking

the more people

were opposed to fracking.

(Cuomo)

Uh, last issue is fracking.

Uh, I've been asked about

fracking about 14,600 times.

I am not a scientist.

Uh, I'm not

an environmental expert.

I'm not a health expert.

So, let's bring the emotion down

and let's ask the qualified

experts what their opinion is.

Would I live in a community

with HVHF

based on the facts I have now?

Would I let my child

play in the school field

near by?

Or my family drink

the water from the tap

or grow their vegetables

in the soil

after looking

at the plethora of reports

as you see behind me

and others that I have

in my office?

My answer in no.

This land is your land

This land is my land

From California

To the New York Island

From the Redwood Forest

To the Gulf Stream Waters

This land was made

to be frack free

New York is frack free!

[cheering]

Today is a great day

for New Yorkers

and people across this country

because today,

New York has a ban on fracking.

[cheering]

I woke up this morning

proud to be a New Yorker.

A state in which we speak

and government listens.

They listened to the science

'and they made a decision

based on the facts.'

So, thank you, Governor Cuomo,

for being such a leader.

My son was eight years old

when I decided to take all

of my skill set as a scientist

and throw it into this fight

um, he's now

going into high school.

And every time I came to Albany

and came home, he would

ask me the same question

"Mom, did you ban fracking yet?"

'So, yesterday when I heard

this announcement'

'I called my son in school'

and I said, "Elijah,

ask me that question.

You always ask me when I come

home from Albany. Just ask me."

And then he asked me

and I said, "Yeah, we did it.

We did it today."

Speaking personally, proud to

have worked with everyone here.

We were here in 2009

with Mark Ruffalo

and Pete Seeger which was really

the kind of kickoff

of that campaign

and that infused the spirit

of the grassroots part

of this whole campaign

and this whole coalition.

And without that energy,

grit, determination, and guts

we wouldn't be here today

at all.

'This is a momentous victory.'

'Don't forget that.'

And we beat

an extraordinarily rich

extraordinarily

powerful adversary.

'They're right now,

the same adversaries'

'they're gonna try to fight us'

'as we move forward

on renewables.'

They're trying

to kill wind in Washington.

They're trying

to kill solar in Washington.

They tried to kill solar

in this state but they failed.

But you know somethin'?

We beat them then,

we beat them yesterday

we'll beat

them tomorrow as well.

[cheering]

(Mark)

Though it didn't come easily

New York is currently the only

shale gas bearing state

with a ban on fracking.

Looking back decades from now

the battle fought here

maybe remembered

as the first great victory

in the clean energy revolution.

We all need and use energy.

And options to fossil fuels

are growing fast.

Including wind, solar,

geo-thermal and hydro.

Iowa for example,

produces 27 percent

of its energy from wind.

California's electric car fleet

is powered by energy

from the sun.

Towns from Texas to New York

have gone off the grid

often because it makes

economic sense

as well as being good

for the environment.

More jobs are being created

in renewable energy industries

than in oil and gas extraction.

There'll be so much growth

in clean and renewable energy

and the cost will come down

as a result.

There'll be a natural

transition and elimination

of the use of coal,

oil, and gas.

We do you think

that we can have a transition

to a hundred percent renewable

energy for all purposes

by 2050.

Renewables have been ready

since the 1990s.

I worked on the renewables

program in the 1990s

and we called places

like the Midwest

the Saudi Arabia

of wind power.

There's still a lot

of basic research.

Fundamental physics.

Quantum mechanics

going on in the solar area.

Physics is on our side.

(Sandra)

It's really time

to come up with an economy

that is the equivalent of the

iPhone for our energy system

rather than keep relying

on the old coal, oil and gas

which is like

the rotary dial phone.

I think there's nothing sacred.

It's all gonna change.

What's the process

whereby we get from, uh

an economy that's 85%

dependent on fossil fuels

to an economy that's 85%

dependent on solar and wind?

See, right now it actually

takes coal, oil, and natural gas

to build solar panels

and wind turbines.

If we have the research

and development

then over the course

of a decade or two decades

we could build

the industrial capacity

to produce renewable energy

without fossil fuels.

[instrumental music]

Fossil fuels

have become the basis

for our entire way of life.

And you don't make

an overall energy transition

without time

and thought and investment.

We never had

a major change in technology

in this country without

some government participation.

Whether you're talking

about the railroads

nuclear power, electrification

the internet

all of these things took

massive government spending.

And the only way

you can get that to happen

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