CLA to state: Show us the money
The Catskill Landowners Association issued a press release today stating their opposition to any ban on gas drilling in the New York City watershed that does not include compensation for Catskills landowners.
“The Catskill Landowners Association views natural gas exploration and development as a right vested in land ownership, not something that can be legislated away on a whim,” Catskill Landowners Association President Robert Bishop said.
They join state senator John Bonacic in calling on NYC, many of whose elected officials are opposed to drilling in the watershed, to pay for a ban as though it were a regulatory taking.
From the other side of this issue: Sullivan County resident Liz Bucar, who has a look at the legal history of regulatory taking and links it with a growing trend toward corporate personhood in the courts.