Hollywood Sends Anti-Fracking Message to Cuomo

1/16/2013 (Updated 10:59:10 PM)

The comment period on fracking has closed and many New York residents are anxiously waiting to see if Governor Cuomo will allow hydraulic fracturing. 

And environmental activists with Hollywood connections are also sending a message to Cuomo.

Area residents came out to the Unitarian Universalist Congregation in Binghamton Wednesday evening to view the documentary  Dear Governor Cuomo.

"It's totally in his hands. Fracking is completely in his hands," says Isaac Silberman-Gorn, Environmental Organizer, Citizens Action of NY. 

The film features singers, senators, and environmental biologists--all who gathered on the Governor's front doorstep in May calling for a ban in hydraulic fracturing.

And much of their protest is through song.

Just two weeks ago, the movie Promised Land debuted on the big screen.  The movie  stars Matt Damon as a drilling company agent trying to convince landowners in rural Pennsylvania to sell their land to a drilling company.

"Promised Land was a Hollywood drama.  It was focused on human stories, because that's what Hollywood does.  Well this is real life.  Five miles south of where we stand there is active drilling going on and there are people actively getting sick, and that's not ok," says Silberman-Gorn.

Area residents who came out to see this film say they hope Cuomo will not lift the moratorium.

"We've done a lot of research on it in the last five tyears and we are fully well aware of the facts that this industry is having problems everywhere it's drilling in the world," says Eileen Hamlin, Citizens Action of NY.

As far as celebrities lending their name to the cause-- residents say they are just people who will be affected by the environmental hazards of drilling.

"I don't think it really matters, they are people just like we are.  Everybody's the same.  It doesn't matter where they're from," says Kathleen Dickerson,resident of Johnson City.

"They can form their own opinions based on the facts.  They exemplify our message," says Silberman-Gorn.

In Binghamton, Ali Warner, Fox 40 HD News.



VIEW VIDEO