New York joins a small but growing conglomeration of states and cities which have instituted bans on fracking, including an astounding decision by the city of Denton, in North Texas, about fifty miles from where I live. The bans are highly significant and give me a shot of optimism here at year end especially because citizen activism has played such a huge roll in these bans. I can remember watching Mark Ruffalo on T.V. a few years back elucidating the health dangers of fracking in his native upstate New York, and truthfully, I thought he was a voice in the wilderness---but his involvement changed things.

Involvement is nurtured by attitude and attitudes are changing---which gives me hope. People are realizing that this earth is all we have and after we have plundered it, drilled it, scraped it, mined it, destroyed the water, and cut all the trees, we are done here. People whose drinking water is contaminated and whose ambient air is not fit to breathe are now becoming environmentalists in the most effective way possible--political action and voting,   

I think of an environmentalist as a person who has stood all alone somewhere on this planet off the beaten path, looked into a deep sky, fully taken in the sensory and emotional thrill of it, and had a soft current flow through his body just trying to comprehend his place in the Universe.The Universe has become personal.

When a child has asthma and is breathing in dust, this thing we exist in, the environment, becomes personal and the parent is connected to it in a profound, new way. Attitudes change when things get personal. One looks into the mirror and says to himself---o.k., this is the day I do it, this is the day I change. Governor Cuomo has changed and signed off on the ban. The fracking companies can go elsewhere---but not, for now, in Denton.

The city of Denton has been sued by energy interests, those corporations who are people, who argue the ban is unconstitutional. This is the same crowd which is corrupting the Attorneys General offices around the country---anything the Feds do is unconstitutional, give the locals back their rights, and down the line of freedoms of the local populace. Well the locals have spoken and in a historically curious arrangement the folks in conservative North Texas are aligned with all those liberals up in New York. So now the energy interests want to trample the good people of Denton in the name of constitutionalism---to which the people there have a saying---"Whatd'ya?---that's some kind of chutzpah, pard."

The Texas Railroad Commission weighed in on Denton's fracking ban, stating, "...we are going to continue permitting up there because it's our job". Christopher Guith of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce alluded to Denton and bans in 21 other states: The Industry has been caught with its pants down"---a statement which I suspect represents an epiphany Guith experienced when all alone in the outback.

The fracking industry has been operating with little regulation and has created major environmental and health problems for ordinary people who are working and raising families. Good people have looked the fracking demons in the eye and concluded that the line has to be drawn somewhere. The bans are good news and I think of them as a kind of bonus in what has otherwise been a very tough year. Congratulations to New York State and the city of Denton,Texas.