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In New York State, the pressure is building for a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing. Last Wednesday, folk icon Pete Seeger and actor Mark Ruffalo joined health and environmental advocates to call for
legislation that would delay fracking until next year and buy more time for a growing movement to raise awareness about the dangers posed by the gas extraction method. Lawmakers in both parties have come out in support of the bill, which may reach the floor in coming days.

The issue gains urgency in the wake of yet another fracking site explosion. On Friday two workers were killed when a gas well in Indiana Township, PA caught fire. The incident occurred the day after an EPA hearing south of Pittsburgh drew over a thousand people, many of whom shared their own stories of water contamination, sick livestock, and worsening health problems.

Now all eyes are on Albany.

Folk icon Pete Seeger and actor Mark Ruffalo joined elected officials and environmental advocates in Albany on Tuesday to warn that a new method of gas extraction is destructive, unpredictable, and a threat to public health.

Ruffalo, a Sullivan County resident who recently appeared in the film “The Kids Are Alright”, held up a jar of water from a Pennsylvania town where hydraulic fracturing has contaminated the water supply. He warned that New Yorkers could suffer the same fate unless the state legislature takes action in the coming days.

Click here to see videos from the press conference!

When the Sundance award-winning film, Gasland, begins nationwide broadcast on HBO this Monday, the curtain will rise on Act II of the health tragedy wrought by the insurgent fossil fuel race to profit. This exquisitely crafted documentary feels like America's Nuremberg, as ordinary heartland citizens rise up to indict gas giants, who, they claim, have been on the loose since 2005, when former Vice-President Dick Cheney crafted the so-called Halliburton Loophole.