ALBANY – The New York Senate put water safety first and passed a nine-month moratorium on drilling in the abundant natural gas reserves held within the Marcellus Shale.
In a vote of 48-9 late Tuesday night, gas and oil companies would be restricted from engaging in a process known as hydraulic fracturing of all shale formations through May 15, 2011. Opponents fear the horizontal drilling technique could endanger drinking water, but the industry says it has been done safely for decades and has the potential to make the United States a world leader in natural gas production.
The setback is yet another delay for multinational oil energy corporations who are already drilling in the Appalachian Basin’s mile deep Marcellus strata in other states. New York Governor David Paterson has held them at bay since directing the Department of Envirnomental Conservation to rewrite the rules for hydrofracturing. The drafting process has so far taken two years.
Hydrofracturing breaks apart shale by forcing millions of gallons of water mixed with sand, soap and chemical additives that some experts say may have the potential to damage the drinking water supply. More than 17 million people from Philadelphia to New York City draw their water from upstate areas that have been targeted for exploration.
The bill, which still must make its way through the Assembly and onto the Governor’s desk for signing, will allow for more comprehensive study, its backers say.
“The side effects of this process are extraordinarily costly and personally devastating, as families across Pennsylvania and other states have learned after rushing into drilling. On top of the economic and health concerns, there are considerable safety hazards within the untested drilling process; earlier this month a well in Pennsylvania exploded taking two lives. In May, an explosion at another well took another life,” stated a Senate press release issued yesterday morning after press time.
Senator Antoine Thompson, a Democrat from parts of Erie and Niagara counties and chairman of the Senate’s Environmental Conservation Committee, said, “In a recent round of hearings, the DEC received more than 14,000 comments on this issue. More time is needed to digest those comments and make an informed judgment if adequate safeguards can be put in place to allow hydro-fracking while still protecting our valuable and irreplaceable fresh water. The decisions we make on this issue will determine the economic and environmental vitality of communities across the state for decades to come. In light of the Gulf of Mexico drilling disaster, my colleagues and I believe that a 10 month delay to get it right is prudent and necessary.”
Brian Conover of Norwich, and chairperson of the 174,000 acre strong Central New York Landowners Coalition, said he was “tremendously disappointed” with some senators who, he said, jumped over in favor of the moratorium. Speaking in particular of Senator James Seward, who represents a large portion of the coalition’s coverage region, Conover said he hoped the Republican had switched sides for the short-term moratorium only.
“I hope this isn’t an indication of where these people are going to be next May 16,” he said.
“I don’t want our coalition to feel defeated. We’re all waiting on the DEC still. The (new rules) aren’t expected until January. It’ll take several months after that, at least, for permits to be issued. I don’t know that this moratorium is going to have an effect,” he said.
Seward said this morning that he has always been in favor of safe drilling, and with his vote on the moratorium, remains so.
“I recognize the tremendous economic benefits for our region that would come from drilling and it’s good for ending our dependence on foreign oil. But there are some risks involved. I want the DEC to take all the time that they need to develop the appropriate rules and regulations so that this can be done safely.”
Seward said he wouldn’t have supported far stricter bills proposed to the state’s legislature that would have pushed the moratorium out for several years.
“I vehemently disagree that my vote was oppositional,” he said. “I don’t see how nine months more kills the industry. It gives breathing room to DEC and local governments can get their acts together to prepare.”
Drilling for gas using fracking has proven to be environmentally safe, said Brad Gill, executive director of the Hamburg, New York-based Independent Oil and Gas Association, which includes Chesapeake Energy and Talisman Energy Inc. New York will miss out on new jobs, tax revenue and drilling fees, he said.
“Reason, science, logic and economic opportunity has lost out to a calculated campaign of misinformation and ignorance,” he stated.
On the federal level, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun a $1.9 million safety review of hydraulic fracturing, to be completed in 2012. Hydraulic fracturing was exempted from federal regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act in 2005, but environmental groups hope the new EPA study will lead to federal oversight of the process rather than leaving it to the states.