The signers, frustrated by New York State's long delay in issuing natural gas drilling regulations, are apparently mad as hell, and they're not gonna take it anymore:
The Southern Tier of New York State has been treated as a sacrifice zone by those other New Yorkers who would restrict us from developing our natural gas resources and revitalizing our economy. Those resources are ours and we are entitled to use them to save our farms, our families and our future. We, therefore, as residents of Broome, Chenango, Chemung, Delaware, Steuben and Tioga Counties, petition the legislature for the rights of Southern Tier counties to secede from the State of New York and join with the Northern Tier of Pennsylvania to be part of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Read more
Two towns in New York City's Catskills watershed passed bans on gas drilling on Tuesday: Andes, near the Pepacton Reservoir in Delaware County, and Olive, near the Ashokan Reservoir in Ulster County. Both Andes and Olive had previously passed temporary moratoriums on the practice.
Because of their overlap with the watershed that supplies New York City's drinking water, neither town was likely to see gas drilling, at least in the near future. But both had large citizen movements in support of passing a ban, in case the Department of Environmental Conservation reverses its current stance against drilling within the New York City watershed. Read more
The latest move from the DEC extends the agency's timeline for finalizing its hydrofracking regulations for another 90 days. Public comment on the current draft will be accepted from December 12, 2012 through 5pm on January 11, 2013.
Tonight's federal scoping hearing for the proposed Constitution Pipeline, slated for 7pm to 10pm at the Foothills Performing Arts Center in Oneonta, is expected to draw a crowd. The hearing was scheduled by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in response to local demand for a hearing close to Delaware and Otsego County residents who may be affected by the pipeline.
An organizer of a grassroots group battling the proposed Constitution Pipeline said Tuesday that landowners opposed to the natural gas transmission system are expected to turn out en masse tonight for a hearing federal regulators are holding on the $750 million project... Read more
Above: Noel van Swol, in a screenshot from a 2011 YouTube video from Energy In Depth's Northeast Marcellus Initiative. In the video, van Swol cites the Anti-Rent Wars as a precedent for the pro-gas-drilling movement in upstate New York, and tells an interviewer, "We are not an economic colony of the Delaware River Basin Commission, New York City, Philadelphia or Trenton. We own this area. We have property rights."
Noel van Swol, a 70-year-old Long Eddy man who was well-known in the area for championing pro-drilling activism and other causes, died in a car accident Monday. The Times Herald-Record reports:
The Long Eddy resident was retuning from a pro-gas drilling rally in Albany when he apparently went into a diabetic coma while driving and went off the road and crashed not far from his home, said his mother Tuesday morning.
“He was a wonderful son,” said his mother who was too distraught to speak after answering the phone. Read more
With speculation flying about what the state's next move on hydraulic fracturing will be, the spotlight is on New York's Southern Tier, where the richest Marcellus Shale gas deposits lie.
Richmond's story doesn't dwell on all the Albany insider baseball going on about when the state will act on hydrofracking, and what the plan will look like. Instead, he talks to ordinary people in Deposit, and what gas drilling means to them: Read more
Above: Detail from a map showing over a dozen alternate routes proposed by the Constitution Pipeline Company. Full map embedded below. Source: Constitution Pipeline website.
Wednesday, September 12 6:30 to 8:30 pm Best Western Cobleskill 121 Burgin Dr., Cobleskill, NY
Thursday September 13 6:30 to 8:30 pm Holiday Inn Oneonta 5206 State Highway 23, Oneonta, NY
The Constitution Pipeline is a planned 121-mile natural gas pipeline that will bring gas from Susquehanna County in northern Pennsylvania to the Iroquois and Tennessee pipelines in Schoharie County. Read more
Above: Detail from a map showing the proposed route of the Constitution Pipeline. If built, the Constitution Pipeline will transport natural gas from northern Pennsylvania to existing pipelines that pass through Schoharie County. Source: Constitution Pipeline website.
Want a chance to talk to the company planning to build a 120-mile natural gas pipeline across the northwestern edge of the Catskills? Here's your chance: The Constitution Pipeline Company will host open-house meetings in Delaware and Schoharie Counties this week.
Highland supervisor Andrew Boyar told the Watershed Post today that the town has been working on the law for several years.
"We were one of the first to be inspired to consider doing a ban on fracking or industrial use," Boyar said. "We're not the first to get to the finish line because we had to do our comprehensive plan, which was linked to the 2010 census."
In March of this year, Boyar said, Highland passed its updated comprehensive plan, paving the way for a local land use law that dealt with gas drilling. Read more
In the last year, several towns in Sullivan County have passed resolutions banning or imposing a moratorium on gas drilling within town borders. Last week, according to news accounts in the River Reporter and Sullivan County Democrat, the town of Delaware rolled out a welcome mat for gas drillers.
On Wednesday, June 20, the Delaware town council voted 4-0, with member Cindy Herbert abstaining, in favor of a resolution declaring that any landowner in the town who wishes to lease has the right to do so.
Be it hereby resolved that any landowner or entity that owns the rights to minerals within the corporate bounds of the Town of Delaware has the right to determine how they exercise and protect their mineral rights in accordance to the laws of the State of New York and to the laws of the United States of America. Read more
