I wanted to share a poem and an article written by Stewart Acuff, one of the foremost labor organizers in the country, and former head of the AFL-CIO.  He has been a wonderful support to our family.  Both were published on "The Daily Kos." and if you click on the poem link (just below) you can watch the memorial video a good friend of ours made.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/02/04/1184530/-In-Memoriam-CJ-Bevins

CJ
One family’s loss seems a ripple
In a sea of grief and heartache
Yet this family a unit of love and a
Right relationship to our world
Misses part of its collective soul
CJ’s own hands built their shelter
And his heart sheltered their hearts
CJ ripped from them leaving a
Wound that cannot heal
By those who run too much of our lives
Who value money over love, people,
Humanity, our earth and take us and
Our people and loved ones who just
Did their jobs snatched from us
By those who care more for a
Green piece of paper than they do for
Us and ours who give love and
Use their hearts and hands to
Bless the rest of us and our world.
Rest easy, CJ, you are loved.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/06/05/1213859/-The-False-Choice-Jobs-vs-the-Environment

attribution: None Specified

This blog is cross-posted at StewartAcuff.com
I’ve heard Steelworkers President Leo Gerard say again and again, “We need to put an end to the lies, the myths, the hysteria, that say you can have either a clean environment or good jobs,” Gerard says. “You can have both, or you have neither.”
This is a maxim that must be applied to our economy today.
Right now, across the United States, we are drilling as much as 8000 feet below the surface for the dangerous process known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.”
“For each frack, 80 – 300 tons of chemicals may be used. Presently, the natural gas industry does not have to disclose the chemicals used, but scientists have identified volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene.” (www.gaslandthemovie.com)
Make no mistake natural gas is a very dangerous and volatile fuel. People like CJ Bevins can be and are killed in the drilling. Other workers, utility and fire fighters are killed in the delivery of the fuel. Entire underground aquifers from which our cleanest water comes are threatened with poisoning. If you think about it for just a moment, drilling below the surface of the earth and breaking apart the earth is a symptom of humanity’s arrogance toward our planet.
Meanwhile, we have a huge debate in America of whether to build a massive pipeline down the middle of America to carry the dirtiest oil in the world from Canada tar sands to refineries in Texas – essentially treating America as a developing country allowing its environment to be degraded and its people put to risk. It is called the Keystone XL pipeline. The refined oil would not be used or consumed here, but shipped to China and other countries.
The reason for fracking or the pipeline is not to put people to work, but to make billions for those who already have billions and only care about themselves.
The irony is stunning – an interstate bridge collapse in Washington State, a bridge collapse just a few years ago in Minneapolis, a D+ grade for our infrastructure from the American Society of Civil Engineers, crumbling roads and railroads, lack of investment in renewable energy such as wind and solar, and the necessity of rebuilding our electricity infrastructure and electricity transmission lines.
Let me end this post with this irony. Just miles from the corridor of the proposed pipeline could be a series of wind farms and wind turbines creating thousands of jobs for America instead of the rest of the world – safe, sustainable and renewable.

This is an article with a bit of info about the bill they are trying to pass in NY for Gas and Oil worker's safety.  We are in the article.  It's done by a local NPR reporter, Karen DeWitt.  Here is the link to the original article and the audio report:  http://wxxinews.org/post/dueling-fracking-filmmakers-visit-capitol

 

Nancy Bevins, with photos of her son CJ, who died in a gas drilling accident in NY, along with CJ Bevins son.      

Enlarge image

 

Dueling Fracking Filmmakers Visit Capitol

by Karen DeWitt

Dueling pro and anti fracking filmmakers held screenings and promotions for their films, as they await a decision by Governor Cuomo on whether fracking will go forward in New York. That could come by the end of the month.  As Karen DeWitt reports, at one point in the day ,  the two sides confronted each other in the halls of the Capitol.

 

Phelim McAleer is the creator of Fracknation, a film that claims to rebut charges made by environmentalists and  the popular anti fracking movie “Gasland”. He came to Albany to hold a screening of his film.

McAleer says he’s an investigative journalist who has worked for UK publications like The Financial Times and the Economist.

“I wanted to look at the science behind it , and also the truth behind it,” McAleer said. “That’s what’s been missing so far “.

McAleer says he has no stake in whether fracking goes ahead in New York, but wants the claims made by opponents to be more thoroughly researched by the media.
“Journalists need to treat big environment the same way they treat big business,” said McAleer. “The environmental movement is a vast, multi national globalist movement.”

McAleer says the environmental groups should be asked “the same difficult questions”.

Filmmaker Josh Fox, who made the movie “Gasland”, was also at the Capitol.  Fox attended a press conference with State Senator Tony Avella, who is introducing a bill requiring stricter worker safety requirements for gas drillers.
Fox released a trailer for his new film highlighting the worker safety concerns.
“My experience with dealing with this issue for the past four years is that the people who are most at risk, who are the most ground up by this industry, are the workers,” Fox said.

Also at the press conference, were Nancy and Charlotte Bevins. They are the mother and sister of CJ Bevins, who was killed in a drilling accident in Smyrna, New York in 2011. Bevins was working on a vertical gas drilling plant, which is currently allowed in New York, for a company contracted to the now bankrupt Norse energy.  CJ’s mother and sister say he died because of inadequate worker safety standards that included 15 hour days and longer and dangerous conditions, like trying to set up a new well on a  muddy, unstable site. Nancy Bevins says her life has been changed forever.

“When it’s time for bed, all I can picture is my son , sitting there, with no family around, in pain,” said Nancy Bevins.
Bevins died during the hour long ride to the nearest hospital, in Syracuse.
Senator Avella says if horizontal hydraulic fracturing is eventually permitted by the Cuomo Admisntration,  then there should be strict worker safety rules implemented as well.

At one point, the two opposing filmmakers met.  As “Fracknation” filmmaker McAleer was in the midst of an interview, he caught sight of Josh Fox, as the “Gasland”  filmmaker strode through the Senate lobby, accompanied by Nancy and Charlotte Bevins.

McAleer and others rose to confront him.
Fox refused to engage. He sought refuge in the office of the Senate Sargent of Arms, who called state troopers. They stood guard as Fox  and the two women as they got on a near by elevator.
Later, Fox explained why he refused to discuss the subject with the pro- fracking filmmakers.

“There’s been an extensive smear and misinformation campaign on behalf of the oil and gas industry that’s been going on since the film came out,” Fox said. “It has ranged from the hysterical to the ridiculous.”
McAleer and the others  say they were merely trying to engage in a discussion with Fox about the gas drilling process and dispute points made in his film Gasland

Tensions are high, as both sides wait to find out whether Governor Cuomo will go ahead with fracking.  If the State Department of Environmental Conservation is to allow a rule making process on fracking to conclude by the end of the month , it must first make public its generic environmental impact statement on fracking. It would have to do so in a special publication for state regulations that is due out on Wednesday.  However, earlier in the month, Cuomo’s environmental commissioner, testifying at a legislative budget hearing, cast doubt on whether the administration’s self imposed deadline of late February will actually be met, meaning that a decision on fracking could once again be delayed.