Cuomo Dithers and Towns Like Gerry, NY Pay the Bill
Not only has NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s dithering and refusal to make a decision on whether or not to allow horizontal hydraulic fracturing in the state materially harmed tens of thousands of landowners and farmers in the state (not to mention all of those who would have had high-paying jobs in the industry), it’s also harmed taxpayers in places like Gerry (Chautauqua County), NY. Because Cuomo dithered and Norse Energy went bankrupt, a division of Norse, Norse Pipeline, also went bankrupt because the gas wasn’t available to run through their pipeline in places like Gerry. That pipeline was sold to Emkey and a court has just re-adjusted the assessment of that pipeline’s value–from $2,616,444 to $320,439, causing Gerry to lose $2,305,368 of its tax base. Not only that…
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We won’t bother to chronicle, once again, the long fight in New York State over the right of a town board with 3-5 members deciding that every resident in a township will lose the right to use their property the way they want to (even though property ownership is sacrosanct under the U.S. Constitution). In the People’s Republic of New York, the mob rules. The rule of law is out the window. And so, a few New York high court judges who want to retain their posts under Gov. Andrew Cuomo, decided nobody really reads the Constitution anymore anyway–and that local town boards (not individual landowners) will now decide whether or not shale drilling will take place (see 
New Yorkers continue to react to the dismissal of a court case brought by the 70,000-member Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY) and Norse Energy against state officials to force them to release six-year-delayed fracking regulations (see 
On Friday two major stories developed involving Norse Energy. You may recall Norwegian-based Norse Energy rolled the dice and placed all their bets on shale drilling in New York State, leasing some 180,000 acres, of which 130,000 acres are in the Marcellus and/or Utica Shale region. Never in their wildest dreams did Norse believe it would take six years or more for the state to allow high-volume hydraulic fracturing. Things started to go downhill for Norse when landowners sued to say Norse did not have the right to continue the leases indefinitely (beyond five years) because of New York’s tardiness in approving fracking (see 
This is BIG news: It seems we haven’t heard the last from Norse Energy–the Norwegian-based driller that just over a month ago converted from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, or “keep the creditors at bay while we reorganize,” to Chapter 7, or “sell off the furniture and turn off the lights” (see 
It’s a sad day for New York landowners–for everyone really. Norse Energy has converted from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which means the courts protect you while you regroup, to Chapter 7, which means break it all up and sell off the pieces to the highest bidder. Norse has now literally, as well as figuratively, shut off the lights and closed the door behind them. The remaining eight employees of Norse have just been let go.