Statewide NY

Breaking News: The fight over fracking in New York is about to go very local—down to the township level. The New York Times is reporting that Gov. Andrew Cuomo will soon announce a plan that will allow hydraulic fracturing in a few select counties in New York, most of them along or near the border with Pennsylvania. His plan will limit hydraulic fracturing to only those counties AND townships within those counties that actually want drilling—at least for “the next several years.”

Why limit it? To “reduce the risk of groundwater contamination.” And because he’s trying to placate both sides of the fracking debate. His environmentalist supporters are going to abandon him if he doesn’t at least make some moves to appease them.

Fait accompli. The anti-drillers will not view this as a victory, but it is—for them. This plan buys anti-drillers another two years or more to continue agitating and demagoguing the issue of hydraulic fracturing and mount wave after wave of protests at town board meetings. It’s about to be an interesting couple of years for those of us who live in New York and support drilling (not that the past four long years have been boring).

Read More “Breaking: NY Will Allow Fracking in Select (Few) Locations”

Apparently the anti-drillers found comments they did not like in the back and forth email correspondence between the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). MDN reported yesterday on a story by Gannett about emails between the two agencies they acquired under the Freedom of Information Law (see this MDN story). MDN noted there are some interesting tidbits in the emails, but nothing earth-shattering. No new revelations.

But apparently the anti-drillers disagree. They found things they definitely did not like, and they’re making noise about it. Here’s a statement issued by the anti-drilling group Frack Action:

Read More “Anti-Drillers Show Their True Colors in DEC/EPA Email Fracas”

Over the weekend, the Gannett News Service ran a story in several of its newspapers and TV stations in New York State detailing the contents of emails that have flown back and forth between the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on the topic of hydraulic fracturing in New York over the past four years. A copy of the emails is embedded below.

There’s really nothing earth shatteringly new in the emails. Some interesting tidbits perhaps, but all of it now ancient history and not worth being hot and bothered about.

Read More “NY DEC and EPA Emails – Interesting, Not Earth Shattering”

Several bills that deal with hydraulic fracturing are making their way through the legislature in Albany, but with only eight days left in the legislative session for 2012, it’s not at all assured any of them will pass. The bills range from stricter control of fracking wastewater to an outright ban on fracking in the state—and everything in between.

Read More “Fracking Bills in NY Legislature See Movement”

A new partisan effort is under way to pressure New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to just keep the hydraulic fracturing moratorium in place for another year, and another year, and another year…

This effort is to get elected officials throughout the state to sign a letter which asks Cuomo to keep the moratorium in place, “until analyses have thoroughly and properly evaluated the potential health, economic, and cumulative environmental impacts on local communities.” Of course that very analysis has been going on now for four years, so may we presume another four years or more is what they’re asking for?

So far, the “letter” (which is really a website with a form on it) has 306 signatures (as of June 7) from elected representatives—everything from town clerks to county legislators to mayors—virtually of them Democrats.

You can find the letter and the list of signatories (people you should vote out of office), here: //www.nyelectedofficials.org/.

An AP story that appeared over the weekend attempts to make the case that Pennsylvania is so far ahead in the natural gas game that New York shouldn’t even make an attempt to allow fracking. The opening paragraph compares the situation to a runner with a huge lead in a foot race—PA will dominate natural gas for years to come.

The logic of the AP writer goes like this:

Read More “AP Story: NY Should Give Up on Drilling Before It’s Begun”

Finally, one thing that Joe Martens has said publicly that MDN fully agrees with. Martens, for those new to the drilling debate in New York, is the Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation—the organization that is tasked with regulating oil and gas drilling in the state. Martens is also the former long-time president of the Open Spaces Institute, an organization dedicated to stopping development of land. Strange choice by Andy Cuomo to run the organization tasked with developing the state’s land. But whatever.

Here’s what Martens said at a conference yesterday in New York City:

Read More “NY DEC Chief Martens Says Fracking Can be Done Safely”

Tired of New York municipalities passing ill-advised bans on fracking, and hoping to increase the chances that landowners will be “first in line” for permits when they are finally issued, a group of landowners in New York have launched a campaign to get municipalities to pass a non-binding resolution that they will not enact a ban on fracking—and it’s working.

Read More “NY Towns Pass Resolution They WON’T Ban Fracking”