IOGA NY Becomes “Adversarial” – DEC Must Revise Fracking Rules

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frenemies Although the latest public comment period for proposed new drilling rules in New York officially closed on Jan. 11, we’re just now learning about the “comments” (more like a treatise) made by the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York (IOGA of NY) to the Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC), filed on the closing day of Jan. 11.

Many of IOGA of NY’s members are small and medium-sized drillers, and according to IOGA, the DEC’s latest draft of proposed drilling rules simply go too far for smaller drillers. They also say some of the new proposals are illegal. IOGA of NY provided a detailed, 119-page response/critique to the DEC which outlines chapter and verse the changes they believe must be made to the proposed new rules from the DEC before fracking in New York would be viable. A copy of the entire 119-page response is embedded below.

According to Brad Gill, Executive Director of IOGA of NY, if the DEC does not change their latest version of proposed rules, it will be “extremely difficult, if not impossible, to site a well pad in New York State.” He also said that although IOGA has had a good working relationship with the DEC throughout this entire 4 1/2 year process, this time around IOGA is taking an “adversarial” position.

Hopefully the DEC torched the over 200,000 form letters Sandra Steingraber’s anti-fracking robots submitted in a publicity stunt and is instead spending its valuable time reviewing IOGA’s proposed changes. The DEC only has a few weeks left, with a Feb. 27 deadline to release the new rules and a closer Feb. 13 deadline to officially publish the new rules to the public.

Here’s the IOGA of NY response/critique to the DEC, filed on Jan. 11: