Breaking: NY Court Upholds Local Town Frack Bans

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Winston ChurchillIt is a day of disappointment, but also a day of resolve, for landowners in New York State. Yesterday, the NY Supreme Court Appellate Division in a 4-0 decision ruled towns have the right to ban hydraulic fracturing and natural gas drilling. MDN has previously chronicled the long fight against a simple majority of three town board members unilaterally stripping away the rights of all property owners in a township to allow natural gas drilling. The matter came to a head when lawsuits were filed in two of those cases, the towns of Dryden (Tompkins County, near Ithaca), and Middlefield, (Otsego County, near Cooperstown)–seeĀ Town Frack Ban Cases Heard in NY Supreme Court Appellate Division for important background information.

The 77,000-member Joint Landowners Coalition of New York, whose lawyer, Scott Kurkoski, represented a JLCNY member in the Middlefield case, has responded to the loss (below) by saying they intend to appeal the decision to the next, and highest, court in New York–the Court of Appeals. MDN has a copy of the court’s decision (embedded below), reaction from the near-orgasmic anti-drilling eco-nuts, and our view of what it all means for the future of drilling in NY…

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