Common Cause/NY Says Delay Gas Drilling Another 6 Months
Common Cause/NY, a far-left organization, is the latest anti-drilling group desperately seeking a way to stop Marcellus and Utica drilling in New York State. Their tactic? Turn the already-generous 60-day public comment period (that hasn’t even started yet!) on proposed new drilling rules into 180 days—that is, let’s stretch out the comment period from two months to six months to give everyone who opposes drilling a chance to bleat and moan before local news cameras for the next six months on the off chance we can turn a few more people against this thing and finally kill it. That’s the so-called “non-partisan” approach of Common Cause.
From their press release:
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Even though New York still has not adopted new drilling regulations, and likely won’t until late this year, and even though drilling will not begin until 2012 at the earliest, New York politicians are lining up to dip their hands into driller’s and landowners’ pockets. The latest example is New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli who has proposed a bill to the state legislature to create a driller-funded pool of money (i.e. a new tax on drillers) to cover the cost of any future accidents that may (or may not) happen because of drilling.
The New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) leased 19,000 acres of state forestland to Chesapeake Energy and Fortuna Energy (now Talisman Energy) in 2006 to allow gas drilling. The deal provided state coffers with $9 million and the promise of 12.5 percent royalties on any gas produced. Those leases are due to expire Nov. 15 of this year, but Chesapeake has let the DEC know it believes the leases for its share (15,472 acres) should be extended, a legal phrase called force majeure, because of the moratorium that has been in place since 2008 on hydraulically fractured gas drilling. In a letter to the DEC, Chesapeake implied they will sue the state to extend the lease agreements if the state does not willingly agree to an extension.
Those opposed to Marcellus drilling in New York and Pennsylvania continue to use the court system in an attempt to either delay or outright ban drilling. The latest instance came just yesterday with a lawsuit filed in federal court in New York:
On May 31 of this year, NY Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman filed a lawsuit in federal court seeking to force the federal government “to commit to a full environmental review of proposed regulations that would allow natural gas drilling – including the potentially harmful "fracking" technique – in the Delaware River Basin” (
Once again New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Joe Martens has delayed the start of Marcellus gas drilling—this time by at least an additional 30 days, maybe longer. The “nearly” final draft drilling regulations, called the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS), were released on July 8 (originally supposed to be released July 1 as ordered by Gov. Andrew Cuomo). At that time, Mr. Martens said there would be a 60-day public comment period that would begin in August. Then the DEC would review those comments, tweak the regulations, and issue the final regulations sometime late this year.