Once again the Park Foundation, a philanthropic organization started by famed media mogul Roy Park, continues to fund anti-drilling activities. The latest example is the announcement of nearly $6 million in new grants from the Park Foundation. Nearly $3.3 million are scholarships for Ithaca College students, class of 2017. Just over a half million dollars will go to organizations, projects and programs in Tompkins County.
An update on the two New York lawsuits recently decided in lower courts that upheld local municipal bans on hydraulic fracturing and gas drilling:
Residents who live in New York townships that can’t seem to wait to ban drilling should be aware of something. These bans are bans of all gas drilling, not just horizontal hydraulic fracturing. That’s what residents in Enfield (Tompkins County), NY found out on Wednesday at a meeting with the town attorney. The Enfield town board plans to vote to enact a one-year moratorium in late April or early May, and the moratorium is on vertical as well as horizontal gas well drilling.
Last week, New York State Supreme Court Judge Phillip Rumsey ruled that the Town of Dryden has the right to ban gas drilling within its municipal borders (see this MDN story). As MDN pointed out, this is “round one” in the fight for landowner property rights. The Supreme Court in New York is only one step above county court. The Court of Appeals is the highest court in New York State.
Others have weighed in on the Dryden decision, including the Dryden Safe Energy Coalition (DSEC), a pro- but very much safe-drilling group headquartered in Dryden. From the DSEC press release following the decision:
Yesterday, Tompkins County (NY) Supreme Court Judge Phillip Rumsey handed anti-drillers a first, and likely short-lived, victory. He ruled that the Town of Dryden, located near Ithaca, has the right to ban shale gas drilling. As with many legal issues, this one is complicated, so let’s take a look at the case, Judge Rumsey’s decision, and what happens next.
The Town of Caroline in Tompkins County, New York is about to pass a one-year ban on hydraulic fracturing. The question is, is it legal to do so? Attorneys who understand New York State’s oil and gas law say no.
Anschutz Exploration this week will file a lawsuit against the Town of Dryden (NY) to strike down the town’s recently passed ban on gas drilling. Dryden is a small township with two villages—Dryden and Freeville—located in Tompkins County, near Ithaca. Its land area is 94.2 square miles with some 13,500 people living there.
In New York, the state reserves the right to regulate the oil and gas industry and, according to state law, local municipalities are restricted to regulating road use with respect to oil and gas drilling. Dryden’s measure banning drilling (passed in August) is, according to the drilling industry, illegal. This lawsuit will challenge it.
Dryden officials argue that the state does not and cannot tell a municipality how it can regulate other industries, and the gas industry should be no different. It is a classical constitutional issue and both sides are watching this one closely.
Local governments in New York State that pass zoning ordinances to restrict or prohibit hydraulic fracturing and drilling for natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica Shales may find their actions overturned in short order.
Shaleshock Action Alliance, an anti-drilling group, recently sponsored a meeting at Tompkins Cortland Community College in Dryden, NY to discuss the potential negative consequences of horizontal drilling and hydrofracturing (a specific technique used in drilling for natural gas). Shaleshock’s expert speakers for the evening included two chemists and an endocrinologist. One of the chemists was Ron Bishop, a biochemist at SUNY Oneonta and someone who has worked with gas drilling companies and in construction. According to Mr. Bishop:
“Hydrofracturing is not the boogeyman under the bed; it is not going to hurt you,” Bishop said. “You’re more likely to have problems with transporting the 10 to 30 tons of chemicals to the drilling site.”*
Mr. Bishop’s concern is with the transportation of chemicals to drilling sites and the potential for accidents and spills. But the thing is, truckloads of the same chemicals go over our interstates every day, and travel down our rail lines every day. It’s true you don’t see trucks carrying these types of chemicals on back roads every day, but with proper precautions, there’s no reason why it can’t be just as safe on our rural roads as it is on our other transportation systems.
So Shaleshock’s own expert agrees—hydrofracturing is safe. Thanks for your candid honesty Mr. Bishop!
*Elmira Star-Gazette (Feb 23) – Marcellus Shale: Spills of drilling chemicals worry experts
NPR Morning Edition (Feb 23)
Natural Gas As A Climate Fix Sparks Friction
In a surprisingly balanced report by NPR, we learn of the infighting that is taking place in the Sierra Club, between the national organization and the state and local chapters. It seems the national organization believes natural gas and gas drilling are a good and acceptable alternative to coal. But local chapters are concerned about drilling’s effect on the the landscape and on water supplies.
Click through on the link above to read the transcript or listen to the four minute segment, which includes the Sierra Club attending a ribbon cutting ceremony at a plant at Cornell University to celebrate their conversion from coal to natural gas.
The Cornell Daily Sun (Feb 16)
University Denies Conflict of Interest
In an article about a potential conflict of interest for the Chairman of the Cornell Board of Trustees, Peter Meinig, we learn that Cornell is a major landowner in Tompkins County, NY, with some 11,000 acres—which is 4% of the land in the county. They also control the mineral rights to some 420,000 acres across the country, no doubt donated to the university by wealthy benefactors.
The question is, will Cornell decide to lease it’s land? No one knows. The Board of Trustees and the President have decided to wait on making any decisions about leasing until the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation finalizes the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement—the set of rules that will be used for all Marcellus drilling operations in the state.
The controversy is this: Mr. Meinig is the previous chairman of Williams Companies, a huge natural gas company that transports 12% of all natural gas in the U.S. Detractors say there is a built-in conflict of interest with Mr. Meinig voting or advising on the issue, even though he has no shares in Williams now. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Seems to Marcellus Drilling News that having an expert on the board advising the board, as long as there truly is no conflict of interest, would be a good thing.
Ithaca Journal (Nov 18):
Sustainable Tompkins awards mini-grants
People in the Ithaca, NY area should know that a local organization calling itself Sustainable Tompkins (www.sustainabletompkins.org) is helping to fund anti-drilling causes. They recently made a small grant of $370 to Shaleshock Citizens Action Alliance (www.shaleshock.org) to “produce newsletters reporting on industrial gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale and its effects on the Finger Lakes region.” That is, to fund the false and misleading propaganda that Shaleshock excretes. Unfortunately, New York State taxpayer money is one of the funding sources for Sustainable Tompkins. As a taxpayer in New York, I OBJECT. When will our politicians wise up and quit wasting money on these leftist organizations? Shame on Assemblywoman Lifton for securing funding for Sustainable Tompkins as a “member item” in the (soon to be bankrupt) New York State budget.