Upstate New York Luxury Real Estate

When New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was running for reelection in 2012 he said he was concerned about the poor economy hurting residents in upstate New York, particularly those living along the state’s southern border with Pennsylvania. Residents of Broome and Bradford counties in particular could peer across the border and see residents of Pennsylvania’s Susquehanna county living better, paying less in taxes, and enjoying the economic benefits of the fracking boom.

Cuomo briefly considered lifting the state’s de facto ban on fracking in those counties as a way to give their residents a chance to enjoy some of those benefits.

But only briefly.

Political reality entered the picture. Opponents of fracking followed Cuomo everywhere during his reelection campaign with signs and chanting and general verbal complaints that he would even consider such a thing. In December 2014, Cuomo folded, making permanent the state’s “temporary” ban on fracking. He side-stepped any personal responsibility for the decision by blaming his advisors who allegedly knew more than he did because they were experts: "I am not a scientist. I’m not an environmental expert. I’m not a health expert. I’m a lawyer. I’m not a doctor. I’m not an environmentalist. I’m not a scientist. So let’s bring the emotion down and let’s ask the qualified experts what their opinions [are]."

One of those experts was Dr. Howard Zucker, Cuomo’s acting state health commissioner, whose ties to the Left are long, strong, and abundant. An adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law School, he served in the Health and Human Services (HHS) agency during the George W. Bush administration. He served as assistant director of the United Nations’ World Health Organization, is a member of the insider-controlled Council on Foreign Relations, and served as a “high-level expert” on public health for NATO.