Two Fracking Links

1. There are reports that NY Governor Cuomo interfered with an economic impact report on fracking.  That is a danger of economic impact studies, unfortunately.

Excerpt:

Several area residents interested in hydrofracking had mixed reactions Wednesday about a recent news report that found that a federal study commissioned by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration was edited or delayed before it was published.

2. A registry may be created to track fracking-related health complaints

In 2011 the Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission recommended a registry to collect health data from people living nearing fracking operations. Three years later that registry has yet to be created, and a state Senate panel says such a database is an important step toward tracking and responding to public health complaints related to gas drilling.

State Sen. John Yudichak (D-Luzerne) says individual health studies are fine, but the state needs to develop data that covers all parts of the commonwealth.

I agree with an organization doing this in theory, but the anti-fracking community could so easily abuse this system for their benefit.  If you're an anti-fracking advocate, it would pay to quietly get groups of people to report health complaints that are consistent with the alleged issues fracking could cause.  

Then, when bans or tax policy issues come up, you'd be able to rely on data for your decisions.  It's faulty data, but the public likely wouldn't know.  

Economists don't like hypothetical surveys because of potential bias.  The same bias could easily come into play here which could lead to bad policy decisions.