New York

Yesterday, all eyes were on New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and his second “State of the State” address, delivered in Albany. The popular governor has walked a tightrope on the issue of hydraulic fracturing, but after yesterday’s speech, MDN wonders if he’s fallen off that tightrope.

Since his inauguration in 2011, Gov. Cuomo has seemed to be on the side of allowing gas drilling, but then, good politicians “seem” to be on everyone’s side at one point or another. Gov. Cuomo was due to address the issue of fracking in yesterday’s speech. In fact, there’s a short 125 words dedicated to it under the subtitle of “Hydraulic Fracturing in the Southern Tier.” The interesting thing is, he left that section out when he delivered the speech—he never uttered the words. Here’s what he was going to say:

Read More “NY Gov. Cuomo Dumps Reference to Fracking in Big Speech”

In the ongoing struggle to start gas drilling in New York State, those who oppose it, including State Senator James Seward of Oneonta (a RINO), are trying a new tactic. That new tactic is to take the fight local, in town by town, by using “home rule” laws. But they have a hurdle to jump first: New York State law currently does not permit local municipalities to regulate oil and gas drilling.

Read More “Anti-Frackers in NY Target Cuomo with Home Rule Legislation”

New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens continues the delay and stall tactics he’s become known for on the issue of shale gas drilling in the state. The latest Martens delay came this week when he asked an outside consulting firm—Ecology & Environment—to take a closer look at costs fracking would create for local communities.

Read More “NY DEC Joe Martens – Another Week, Another Delay in Fracking”

An opinion column in today’s New York Post aptly nails the situation on gas drilling in New York State. In fact, the title says it all, “Fracking in NY: death by 1,000 stalls?” MDN has been a Johnny-one-note on this topic with our assertion that Joe Martens, Commissioner of the NY Department of Environmental Conservation and the man whose job it is to get drilling going in the state, is intentionally delaying drilling because he doesn’t want to see it happen. The Post agrees.

The Post column says, in part:

Read More “Gas Drilling’s Death by 1,000 Stalls in NY”

As I reported yesterday, I attended the Nov. 30 New York City hearing convened by the Department of Environmental Conservation on proposed new draft drilling regulations called the SGEIS, or Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (see MDN story here). I arrived at the TriBeCa Performing Arts Theater about 10:30 am to wait in line. Upon arriving, there were maybe 75 people in line. I immediately spotted my friend Bill desRosiers, field director with Energy in Depth – Northeast Marcellus Initiative who invited me to stand with him and his colleagues in line. Normally I don’t jump lines, but since there were perhaps 20 people between Bill and the end of the line, and the theater holds 1,000, I decided to stay and hang out.

Little did I know that our little group of pro-drillers was about the only group of pro-drillers that would attend the morning session. A few more showed up to be sure, but almost all of those who attended the morning, and according to accounts I’ve read for the evening session too, were against Marcellus Shale drilling. As I joined Bill (and later friends Tom Shepstone and Rachael Colley, also from EID-NMI), we were surrounded by anti-drillers. In fact, this gentleman was standing immediately in front of us, pointing his sign toward the street:

Read More “Further Reflections on the Nov 30 NYC DEC Hearings”

Yesterday was an interesting experience for MDN editor Jim Willis, sitting in the NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) hearing in New York City. The hearing was the last to be convened by the DEC to accept public comments on new draft drilling regulations proposed by the DEC that will allow high volume hydraulic fracturing to commence in New York State (ie allow shale gas drilling).

The crowd at the TriBeCa Theater in lower Manhattan was almost all anti-drilling—the vast majority were from New York City, were Democrat, and were boisterously loud against fracking. They believe it cannot and should not (indeed will not) ever be allowed in New York State. As Josh Fox, creator of the Gasland movie said during his comments, he believes talking about “how” drilling can be done safely is the wrong premise. He believes the argument should be about “whether it is done at all”. And many echoed his sentiment.

Read More “Final NY DEC Hearing in NYC – Surreal”