New Study Says Gas Drilling in NY Will Create 54K Jobs
A private study on the socio-economic impacts shale gas drilling is projected to have in New York State shows hydraulic fracturing will create some 54,000 jobs and result in $2.5 billion in economic activity. The report, titled “Economic Assessment Report for the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement on New York State’s Oil, Gas, and Solution Mining Regulatory Program,” was commissioned by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and researched and written by Ecology and Environment Engineering, P.C. A full copy is embedded below.
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Last week, New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli made a pitch for taxing the gas drilling industry in New York to create a pool of money that can be used to clean up accidents that may occur. As MDN pointed out (
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.