NY DEC Signals Support for Seneca Lake Propane Storage Project
A little good news coming from New York State for a change. The state’s Dept. of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has “quietly” given its support to the Crestwood Midstream plan to use a depleted salt cavern along the shores of Seneca Lake to be used as a propane storage facility. We’ve written about this before–about the very safe plan to use it in this manner, and about protesters like Sandra Steingraber who seem to enjoy trips to the county jail for blocking the facility, repeatedly (see Steingraber, 2 Others Sent to Jail for Refusing to Pay Fine). In February an “issues conference” was held before an administrative law judge where testimony was given by both sides–Crestwood Midstream and anti-drillers. The anti-drilling side is being funded by the odious Earthjustice and National Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The DEC has sent a brief (full copy below) saying, in essence, (a) those against the project haven’t proven this facility would bring about environmental Armageddon, as they say it would, (b) some of the loonies opposing it don’t even have standing to oppose it, and (c) no more hearings are required. The only continuing reservation we have, and the reason we’re not celebrating just yet, is that the person who will make the ultimate decision is the head of the DEC, the anti-drilling Joe Martens, a man deeply in the pocket of Big Green…
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New York State’s anti-drilling Dept. of Environmental Conservation Commissioner, Joe Martens, is doing his best to concoct a litigation-proof Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS). The SGEIS is the document that will find too many “troubling” aspects of fracking to allow it in New York. Except there’s potentially a loophole coming in the SGEIS, if press reports can be believed. Fracking WILL be allowed IF it uses under 300,000 gallons of “liquid”–the liquid most likely being water. (A typical well takes 5-8 million gallons of water to frack.) The NY loophole of using up to 300,000 gallons of liquid leads pro-drillers like MDN to muse: Is there an alternative liquid, other than water, that can be used to frack a well economically at under 300K gallons? What if the substance is foam and not liquid–is foam exempt from the 300K gallon cap? Or how about this: Can a driller use 299,999 gallons of water to frack a well and get enough gas out of it to break even and wait until the idiot we have in office now (Gov. Andrew Cuomo) is gone and go back later and re-frack the same well once the 300K gallon restriction is lifted? Hey, it’s fun to speculate. We’re not trying to foster false hope, but we do wonder if there’s a loophole in the SGEIS that can be exploited so landowners and drillers (the good guys) can beat extremist environmentalists like Cuomo, Martens and Yoko Ono (the bad guys)…
A court case decided earlier this week by New York’s Court of Appeals (NY’s highest court), will, in our opinion, have a profoundly negative effect on oil and gas development in the state, forever. Or until another court case overturns it (which seems very unlikely). The case, as its core, is about the question of whether or not state action or inaction constitutes an extraordinary action, in essence an Act of God outside of the control of parties who sign a contract. Years ago landowners signed leases to allow oil and gas drilling, often for a few bucks and acre, long before Marcellus and fracking were common, household words. Then came delay after delay in New York–from the governor–and eventually a more or less semi-permanent ban on fracking. Energy companies argued that the leases they had signed could be extended until the day they are allowed to drill in the Marcellus because of “force majeure”–the concept that due to circumstances beyond our control we could not drill as we intended during the original term of the lease, usually five years. The NY Court of Appeals on Tuesday decided that the state preventing drilling does not qualify as force majeure after the original five-year period of a lease (full copy of the decision below). If the original lease was extended for some reason and then the driller was prevented from drilling during the extended time due to state laws preventing it, it’s not force majeure in the eyes of the “wise” justices in Albany…