NORWICH – A large scale gathering of the county executives, municipal lawmakers and landowner coalition leaders from Central New York is what’s needed to get state representatives to focus on the upside potential of the natural gas resources that lie beneath the surface here.
Despite two years of reaching out through communications lines, educational seminars, and county-level resolutions calling attention to taxation issues, those who follow the natural gas industry say the region’s representatives simply aren’t harnessing the economic potential that the energy source presents for lifting up Central New York’s economy.
Chenango County Natural Gas Committee members presented the idea for such a gathering Tuesday in response to another invitation to discuss exploration issues with Madison County lawmakers and planners from the Town of Lebanon. The two groups united earlier this month, the result of which was a draft resolution opposing a New York State “severance” tax on gas well production. Both county boards later adopted the resolution, respectively.
Any tax imposed on wells should directly benefit the communities that bear the costs for repairing roads damaged by testing and drilling vehicles and for potential emergency safety and environmental management services, the resolution states.
Municipal leaders from Lebanon and the Town of Smyrna, where much drilling has already taken place and the number of permits has more than doubled in the past year, led a drive two years ago for an “enhancement” tax that would be based on meter readings with revenues distributed at the local level.
Neither tax has become law, but local industry followers say it’s only a matter of time before Albany proposes a severance tax again. The more politically powerful downstate politicians, they fear, will eventually take the bulk of revenues away from Central New York where the natural gas originates.
Yesterday, the Chenango County Natural Gas Committee discussed a much larger meeting, one that would draw decision-makers from six or seven counties to discuss the following: the regional nature of the issues, taxation, the state’s Article X power plant siting regulations and economic development. New York State representatives will be invited to attend, and should, they said.
“I find it curious. We don’t hear our region’s legislators saying to everyone: ‘Look, we’ve got the Dominion, we’ve got the Millennium, and we’ve got all this gas in the middle.’ Why aren’t they talking about this opportunity of a lifetime?” said Smyrna’s James B. Bays.
The natural gas company Norse Energy, Inc. of Norway already has numerous wells in production in Chenango and Madison counties via their pipeline connected to the Dominion transmission line in the north. And eventhough market prices have dropped considerably, the company continues to seek easements to build a similar pipeline south to connect to the Millennium in Broome County.
Eventhough New York State Department of Environmental Conservation drilling permits into the abundant Marcellus Shale won’t be considered until August now (nearly six months later than anticipated), natural gas companies continue to eyeball the area for the riches beneath the soil. Landowner groups in the Southern Tier recently reported a renewed spark of interest from American energy conglomerates interested in leasing tracks of land.
“We need to use our gas for electricity and keep the money here,” Farm Bureau President Bradd Vickers said. New York should permit new power plants to generate natural gas into electricity as well as fill its storage tanks with natural gas from New York rather than from Texas, Louisiana and other gas producing states.
The committee agreed yesterday to request that the agendas of the Chenango County Planning and Economic Development Committee and Planning Board regularly discuss economic development ideas that could result from natural gas production. They suggested rail development and utilizing the former Procter & Gamble facility in the Town of Norwich for water storage or treatment purposes.
“The time is ripe to do all we can do with economic development and with Albany to get these things fixed. We are going to miss an opportunity to send a very powerful message down there,” Bays said.
“We need to pull together our political clout and make sure everyone knows we are pro-drilling,” said Town of Columbus Supervisor George Coates.
In his invitation for another joint meeting, Town of Lebanon Supervisor James Goldstein suggested a discussion of taxation and economic development in hand with more specific regulatory and environmental issues, including additional leasing, seismic testing and drilling oversight; water testing and wastewater storage requirements; public safety oversight; well spacing and compulsory integration oversight and better disclosure; and the needs for increased staffing and oversight of the DEC.
Members of the Chenango County Gas Committee stressed that New York State itself should pursue leasing state lands for drilling. New York owns 36 percent of the state and is the largest landowner in Chenango County.
“This is public land. New York State ought to be leasing it and receiving a fair recompense for what’s here,” said committee Chairman Peter C. Flanagan, D-Preston.