Lenape Resources Inc., a small independent oil and gas company located in western NY, and its president John Holko, have “guts.” The Town of Avon, NY (Livingston County) where Lenape has a good portion of its operations voted last year to ban fracking. The poorly written law violates existing New York State law which says towns can’t regulate oil and gas drilling. It also was so broadly written it affects conventional/vertical drilling as well as unconventional/horizontal drilling. Lenape has used vertical fracking in Avon for decades (for background, see Fracking Ban in NY Town Closes Conventional Wells Too). Lenape shut down operations in Avon and sued to have the ban overturned.
Unfortunately, in March an “acting” judge in a lower court decision (misleadingly and quirkily called “Supreme” Court in NY) supported Avon’s illegal law (see Third NY Town Wins Court Approval to Ban Fracking). Lenape has received overwhelming support from the oil and gas industry and landowners, so they’ve decided to appeal the lower court ruling to the next level up in an effort to resolve this mess for all drillers in NY:
