Landowner Coalition Statement on Rumored Cuomo Fracking Plan

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The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY), a coalition of coalitions representing over 70,000 landowners, issued a statement about the unannounced/announced plan by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to allow hydraulic fracturing in five counties in New York—in a limited fashion—for the next two years. Their statement in full is embedded below.

The short version is: We’re trying to get clarification and determine what’s what, and we’re not going to criticize the governor until we hear more, and certainly not based on a newspaper article.

Good for the JLCNY. They’re taking the high road and we applaud them. However, MDN has no such restraints! We think Cuomo’s plan stinks because it denies landowners outside the Lucky Five counties (Broome, Chenango, Chemung, Steuben and Tioga) from participating. And make no mistake, the NYT article is accurate about Cuomo’s intentions. MDN has no doubts that this will be “the plan” going forward.

However, as we’ve previously stated, if this plan is what it will take—limited to five counties for two years, 50 permits initially—then let’s do it and move on so landowners in other counties can eventually benefit too. Otherwise it’ll be another two years from now and we’ll still be arguing about it!