Maurice D. Hinchey is a Democratic Congressman representing New York's 22nd Congressional District, which spans eight counties from the Hudson Valley to the Finger Lakes region. Born on Manhattan's Lower West Side in 1938, he was raised there and in Saugerties, and now resides in Hurley. Prior to being elected to Congress in January 1993, Hinchey served 18 years in the New York State Assembly, including 14 years as Chairman of the Committee on Environmental Conservation. While Chairman of the Environmental Conservation Committee for the Assembly, the committee conducted a successful investigation into the causes of "Love Canal," the nation's first major toxic dumpsite. He also successfully led the fight—first in Albany and later in Washington—to force the cleanup of PCBs from the Hudson River. Now serving in his ninth term in the U.S. House of Representatives, Hinchey is a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, which allocates funds in the federal budget. He has long been an advocate for the economic and environmental health of New York. One of his many accomplishments was the 2007 establishment of The Solar Energy Consortium (TSEC), an industry-driven, nonprofit organization that aims to create green jobs and a major solar energy industry cluster in New York. Congressman Hinchey is also very involved in the issue of gas drilling in New York. He has told the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) that he has serious environmental and health concerns about drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale formation, large parts of which are in New York. He has urged the DEC, to take a series of concrete steps before further drilling should be permitted in New York. MetroGreenBusiness.com spoke with Congressman Hinchey about gas drilling and other issues shortly before his keynote speech at the Forum on the Future of Gas Drilling in New York State, held at SUNY New Paltz on March 8.
