The Independent Oil & Gas Association, (an industry group that supports gas drilling) has filed a complaint with New York state's Joint Commission on Public Ethics, asking that it investigate whether Artists Against Fracking (a group that includes a number of A-List celebrities) is violating the state’s lobbying law.
The complaint is based on an AP story that found that Artists Against Fracking and its members, including Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney, Robert DeNiro, Mark Ruffalo, Lady Gaga, Anne Hathaway, and Sean Lennon among others, aren't registered as lobbyists and therefore didn't disclose their spending in opposition to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to remove gas from underground deposits.
"The public has been unable to learn how much money is being spent on this effort, what it is being spent on, and who is funding the effort," said Brad Gill, executive director of the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York. "I understand the power of celebrity that this organization has brought to the public discussion over natural gas development, but I do not understand why this organization is not being required to follow the state's lobbying law."
Artists Against Fracking spokesman David Fenton, however, contends that the group and its individual members don't have to register as lobbyists.
"As private citizens, Yoko and Sean are not required to register as lobbyists when they use their own money to express an opinion and there's also no lobbying requirement when you are engaged in a public comment period by a state agency," he states.
Artists Against Fracking, was created last year by Ono and Lennon during the Cuomo administration's review to determine whether to allow hydraulic fracturing to remove gas from vast underground shale formations in southern and central New York.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo continues his review as public opinion has shifted from initial support based on the promise of jobs and tax revenue from drilling in economically depressed upstate New York to mixed feelings because of concerns over potential environmental and health effects.
Seven months after Artists Against Fracking was formed, the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute on March 20 found that New York voters were for the first time opposed to fracking, 46%-39%.
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