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hydraulic fracturing

Dryden's drilling ban holds water in court (so far)

By Lissa Harris
2/22/12 - 9:49 am

Yesterday, advocates of town "home rule" won a key legal battle in the ongoing statewide debate about hydraulic fracturing. A Tompkins County state Supreme Court judge ruled that a gas drilling ban passed by the town of Dryden could stand.

Jon Campbell, a Gannett reporter who has been following the gas drilling issue closely, has the story, along with the full text of judge Phillip Rumsey's decision.

Campbell writes that Rumsey based his decision on older case law involving mining:

Judge Phillip Rumsey found that a clause in the state’s oil and gas law that gives regulatory power to the state does not prohibit municipalities from banning gas drilling or using its zoning laws to prohibit it. He cited case law that allowed a town to issue zoning regulations for the mining industry, and said the “supercedure clauses” in the state laws governing the mining and gas industries serve the same purpose.  Read more

Delaware County IDA chief calls watershed drilling ban "property rights theft"

By Lissa Harris
2/21/12 - 4:16 pm

Map of area showing a proposed ban on gas drilling in or near NYC watershed land and infrastructure.

Above: A map of areas that the New York City Department of Environmental Protection is seeking to place off-limits to gas drilling, in upcoming regulations by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Last week's member email from the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce included a link to a fiery op-ed from Jim Thomson, who chairs the county's Industrial Development Agency.  Read more

New York State split down the middle on fracking

By Lissa Harris
2/21/12 - 2:38 pm

In the LA Times today (and other papers across the country) is a feature story about how the hot-button issue of hydraulic fracturing is dividing neighbor from neighbor in upstate New York.

And brother from brother: Reporter Neela Banerjee illustrates just how potent the issue is with a lede about Pete and Jack Diehl, two dairy-farming brothers in their 60s who own land together in Callicoon.  Read more

Sidney debates gas drilling moratorium

By Lissa Harris
2/13/12 - 12:29 pm
See video

Above: A video of a public hearing held in Sidney on Feb. 9, regarding a proposed moratorium on gas drilling and heavy industry in the town.

The meeting went on nearly four hours, and, according to attendees, drew over 100 people from the town of Sidney as well as the surrounding region to testify either for or against the wisdom of enacting the ban. No decision on the legislation has yet been made by the town board.  Read more

Tonight: Public hearing on proposed Sidney gas drilling moratorium

By Lissa Harris
2/9/12 - 12:03 pm

 

The Delaware County town of Sidney will hold a public hearing on the town's proposed moratorium on gas drilling and heavy industry tonight (February 9) at 7pm, at the Sidney Civic Center on 21 Liberty Street.

Gas drilling has been a contentious issue throughout the region. But it has been particularly fierce in Sidney, where an October 2011 meeting in which the town board voted to allow a gas pipeline to be built erupted in chaos. The pipeline will supply gas to a manufacturing plant operated by Amphenol, the county's largest employer, and its supporters claimed that building it was critical to keep Amphenol from relocating elsewhere.  Read more

New York State in no rush to drill for gas

By Lissa Harris
2/8/12 - 12:16 pm

A New York Times headline yesterday: "After Early Gallop, Albany Slows to Crawl in Making Decision on Gas Drilling."

Reporter Mireya Navarro points to an accumulating pile of evidence that New York State's government is a good deal less enamored of hydraulic fracturing than it was a year or two ago. There is no money for gas-drilling regulation in Gov. Andrew Cuomo's 2013 budget. Department of Environmental Conservation officials are bogged down under tens of thousands of critical public comments on their draft regulations. A new state advisory commission on gas drilling has cancelled several meetings, and is currently on hiatus.

But the most telling bit of reporting is probably a quote from Southern Tier state senator Tom Libous, who has been an ardent supporter of gas drilling. From the New York Times's story:  Read more

"Gasland" filmmaker arrested for trying to film public hearing in Congress

By Julia Reischel
2/2/12 - 12:13 pm
See video

Above: Fox being handcuffed during a House of Representatives hearing in Washington, DC, on February 1, 2012. Video posted by Earthjustice.

The Huffington Post and Politico have the news that anti-gas-drilling activist and filmmaker Josh Fox was arrested on Capitol Hill on Wednesday. Fox is an influential voice in the debate over the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, which is poised to become legal in New York.  Read more

DEC gets "unprecedented" number of comments on gas drilling report

By Julia Reischel
1/12/12 - 8:53 am

The public comment period for the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) about hydraulic fracturing in New York State closed yesterday with more comments than any other state environmental issue ever.

New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens issued a statement yesterday about the high volume of comments about high volume hydro-fracking that hinted that the public's input will be reflected in the final version of the document:

There has been an unprecedented response to this issue with tens of thousands of comments submitted. All comments are being carefully considered as we develop the final rules and conditions for high-volume hydraulic fracturing ... We expect additional improvements will be made to the 2011 draft based on the comments submitted during this comment period.

Fault lines in fracking opposition

By Julia Reischel
1/10/12 - 12:22 pm

Peter Applebome, the Our Towns columnist at the New York Times, has a nuanced article out this week about how the controversial issue of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has split the environmental movement down the middle, particularly in the Catskills.

Applebome explores the fact that mainstream environmental groups like the Sierra Club have not called for an outright ban on natural gas drilling in New York, and that a bunch of relatively scrappy, regional groups like Catskill Mountainkeeper, Frack Action and Catskills Citizens for Safe Energy have arisen to do so instead. Here's one of the most extreme anti-fracking points of view in the story:

Claire Sandberg was one of the two founders of Frack Action, which started up in 2010 largely because some antifracking activists worried that established environmentalists seemed resigned to living with gas drilling.  Read more

The Catskills get their own DEC hydrofracking hearing - by doing it themselves

By Julia Reischel
1/9/12 - 8:53 am

Above: Video coverage of Saturday's "people's hearing" by videographer Jessica Vecchione.

On Saturday, a coalition of anti-fracking groups organized a "people's hearing" to accept public comments about hydraulic fracturing from Catskills residents.

The hearing was planned to fill a gap: The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation didn't organize an official public comment meeting in Delaware, Schoharie or Otsego counties last November, when it held several public forums its draft Supplemental Generic Draft Impact Statement (SGEIS) on natural gas drilling. (The nearest official DEC meeting was held in Loch Sheldrake, in Sullivan County, about hours away for Delaware and Otsego residents.)  Read more

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