New York

On Tuesday, New York Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Joe Martens gave testimony at a legislative budget hearing in Albany about the department’s staffing needs for 2012. The conversation turned to the DEC’s lack of a request for additional staffing that would be needed to oversee permits and drilling for shale gas should hydraulic fracturing finally, after four years, be allowed in the state. Once again, Martens’ language is very telling. His responses have moved away from “when” to “if” fracking will be allowed:

Read More “NY DEC Com. Joe Martens Now Says “If” Drilling is Allowed”

As part of the process to enact new drilling regulations in New York State, Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens appointed a Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel last July to make recommendations to the DEC on how to oversee, monitor and enforce new shale drilling regulations in the state (see this MDN story for background). An important part of the panel’s duty is to craft a new fee structure to generate state revenue from a potential gas-drilling boom. But the work of the panel has now ground to halt.

Read More “NY Fracking Advisory Panel Work Grinds to Halt”

President Barack Obama’s State of the Union address, in which he openly supports drilling for natural gas and the “safe” use of hydraulic fracturing, has given a glimmer of hope to landowners in New York State that perhaps the President’s support for fracking will finally end the moratorium on drilling in New York.

Read More “Obama Speech Gives NYers Hope that Fracking Will Soon Begin”

The fight to allow safe natural gas drilling to commence in New York State is being fought on multiple fronts. One of the most prominent groups standing up for landowner rights in New York is the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York (JLCNY). The group is in essence a “coalition of coalitions,” representing 38 landowner coalitions with an aggregate 800,000 acres of land in the Marcellus Shale.

The JLCNY issued the email below, outlining their opposition to yet another attack on drilling in the state—new legislation proposed by State Senator James Seward (Republican) that would tie up drilling in the state by allowing local municipalities to ban and regulate drilling within their borders.

Read More “NY Landowner Coalitions Push Back Against Home Rule Bill”

As predicted yesterday (see this MDN story), NY State Sen. Greg Ball, a RINO from Putnam County, introduced legislation into the Senate yesterday that would extend the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in New York until June 1, 2013. Fortunately not many of his colleagues in the Republican-controlled Senate agree with him, making passage of the bill unlikely.

Read More “Bill to Extend Fracking Moratorium until 2013 Hits NY Senate”

New legislation will be introduced in the New York Assembly today to extend the moratorium on fracking in New York State until either June, or “the end of” 2013, depending on the news source. MDN previously warned that this was coming (see this MDN story).

The bill will be introduced in the Assembly by Robert Sweeney, and likely will be introduced into the Senate by Greg Ball.

Read More “Bill Extending NY Fracking Moratorium Hits Assembly Today”

Although pro-drilling groups in New York are attempting to put a positive face on it, yesterday NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the state has not yet made a determination on whether fracking will be allowed. Not “when” it will be allowed, but “whether” it will be allowed. He said, “We haven’t made that determination.” His remarks in context were about whether the state will add funding in this year’s budget (being released today) for an estimated 140 regulators that would be needed if fracking were to begin.

At a minimum, it seems Cuomo is saying that fracking won’t be a resolved issue during this budget year, although his remarks are not exactly clear.

Read More “NY Gov. Cuomo Signals Drilling Not Likely to Happen in 2012”

The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed a 26-page critique of New York’s draft hydraulic fracturing regulations, known as the SGEIS, three hours before the filing deadline on Wednesday (a copy of the letter is embedded below). This is the same EPA that just started a multi-year study of fracking that’s not due to be completed until 2014. Funny how they can be experts on fracking now, although their plan for how to study fracking was only released two months ago and they’ve barely begun to study it (see this MDN story).

This is also the same EPA who decided there was no problem with drinking water in Dimock, then said there’s gaps in the data, decided to ship water to Dimock residents, recanted on the water shipments less than 24 hours later, and has been silent since. Yeah, that EPA.

Read More “EPA’s Judith Enck Critiques NY Fracking Regulations”