NY regulators: Marcellus could generate 55K jobs
ALBANY – The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation opened a more than 90-day public comment period on its revised draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement, DEC Commissioner Joe Martens said yesterday. In addition, the agency will issue its proposed regulations governing high-volume hydraulic fracturing in early October.
“Throughout this process, DEC’s number one priority is to protect the state’s drinking water and environment in concert with exploring options to safely and efficiently extract the state’s natural gas. This will enable New York’s economy to benefit from this resource and the job opportunities that development is expected to bring,” Martens said. “We look forward to receiving comments from the public that will help inform the final conditions for high-volume hydraulic fracturing in New York state. The proposed environmental mitigation measures and the regulations that codify those measures go hand in hand. It makes sense to move forward with them together and hold simultaneous public comment periods and hearings.”
The department had originally set the comment period at 60 days, but said a final decision on the length as well as where to host public hearings would be announced when the document was released. The public comment period for the revised draft SGEIS began yesterday and concludes Dec. 12. The public comment period for the regulations will begin in early October and will run concurrently with the SGEIS public comment period.
Chenango County’s Economic Development Consultant Steven Palmatier said Commissioner Martens’ extension of the amount of time was “more than adequate.”
“Allowing everyone to voice their opinion one more time ... it had to be done,” he said.
The DEC plans to hold four public hearings in November. The hearings will be held in counties within the Marcellus Shale region, as well as New York City, but the exact dates and locations won’t be known until next month.
Under the public comment schedule, the public will have more than 150 days to review the proposed environmental mitigation measures in the draft SGEIS, which were released July 1, and more than 90 days to review the SGEIS sections and mitigation measures addressing socioeconomic, community character, visual, noise and transportation impacts. Once the comment period is complete, DEC will review the comments on the draft SGEIS and proposed regulations and prepare responses to be released with the final SGEIS. No permits for high- volume hydraulic fracturing will be issued until the SGEIS is finalized and DEC issues the required Findings Statement.
The draft socio-economic analysis of the impacts associated with high-volume hydraulic fracturing activities found that when the well construction rate is at its maximum level, total direct employment could reach 6,198 full-time equivalent workers under a low-development scenario and 24,795 FTE workers under the average-development scenario. These jobs are estimated to bring $419.6 million to $1.7 billion in earnings for the workers.
Construction jobs account for 4,408 to 17,634 FTE positions. These employment figures correspond to the annual construction of 413 horizontal and vertical wells under the low- development scenario and 1,652 horizontal and vertical wells under the average-development scenario. At the peak of development, operational jobs are expected to range from 1,790 FTE workers under the low-development scenario to 7,161 FTE workers under the average- development scenario.
The proposed drilling also could generate additional indirect employment in other sectors of the economy. Indirect employment is expected to range from 7,293 FTE workers under the low-development scenario to an additional 29,174 FTE workers under the average-development scenario with an additional $202.3 million and $809.2 million in earnings.
As far as the proposed job numbers released in the supplement, Chenango County’s Palmatier said they represent a large range based on how fast the development takes place.
The revised draft SGEIS proposes new mitigation measures to address impacts to communities and local governments. A significant mitigation measure is to limit simultaneous construction of well pads and wells in proximity to each other. DEC will consider this measure in consultation with local governments to lessen cumulative impacts. This approach would help mitigate impacts on local community character, as well as cumulative noise, visual and traffic impacts.
Some of the proposed mitigation measures include requiring drillers to: limit traffic through detailed transportation plans outlining the proposed number of trucks, truck routes and times of day of truck operations; take advantage of topography, noise barriers and special permit conditions; use screening, relocation, camouflage or disguise, non-reflective materials and controlling off-site migration of lighting.
Heather Briccetti, acting-president and CEO of The Business Council of New York State, called Wednesday’s announcement “a clear path forward for the exploration of the Marcellus Shale, that will result in an irrefutable economic opportunity for the people of New York.
“Working through the established ample public comment period and the DEC advisory panel the Business Council will endeavor to ensure that extraneous requirements upon this sector will not hinder the safe and timely development of natural gas,” she said.
Meanwhile, several hundred environmental activists and homeowners packed the sidewalks outside a natural gas industry conference in Philadelphia yesterday and called for a moratorium on drilling, which they said was contaminating water, making people sick, harming animals and creating a public health hazard.
The boisterous “Shale Gas Outrage” rally was organized by a coalition of environmental, political and labor groups.
Food & Water Watch’s Executive Director Wenonah Hauter said hyrdraulic fracturing is becoming a “very contentious and urgent environmental and public health issue.”
She called the oil and gas industry “shameful” for “seeking to horse trade environmental regulations on the false premise that it will create jobs.”
“Even though President Obama is under fire to stimulate the economy, deregulating oil and gas drilling won’t necessarily create jobs. What it will do is increase oil industry profits and pose an unacceptable risk for our nation’s water resources, which are absolutely vital to our economy.”
The Marcellus is a vast rock formation beneath Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, New York and portions of other states that’s believed to contain one of the biggest deposits of natural gas in the world. Nearly 4,000 wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania over the past few years, with tens of thousands more planned.
To reach the gas, drillers combine horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing, a technique in which millions of gallons of water, along with sand and chemical additives, are injected at high pressure to crack open gas-bearing rock.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is also studying the issue.
“Throughout this process, DEC’s number one priority is to protect the state’s drinking water and environment in concert with exploring options to safely and efficiently extract the state’s natural gas. This will enable New York’s economy to benefit from this resource and the job opportunities that development is expected to bring,” Martens said. “We look forward to receiving comments from the public that will help inform the final conditions for high-volume hydraulic fracturing in New York state. The proposed environmental mitigation measures and the regulations that codify those measures go hand in hand. It makes sense to move forward with them together and hold simultaneous public comment periods and hearings.”
The department had originally set the comment period at 60 days, but said a final decision on the length as well as where to host public hearings would be announced when the document was released. The public comment period for the revised draft SGEIS began yesterday and concludes Dec. 12. The public comment period for the regulations will begin in early October and will run concurrently with the SGEIS public comment period.
Chenango County’s Economic Development Consultant Steven Palmatier said Commissioner Martens’ extension of the amount of time was “more than adequate.”
“Allowing everyone to voice their opinion one more time ... it had to be done,” he said.
The DEC plans to hold four public hearings in November. The hearings will be held in counties within the Marcellus Shale region, as well as New York City, but the exact dates and locations won’t be known until next month.
Under the public comment schedule, the public will have more than 150 days to review the proposed environmental mitigation measures in the draft SGEIS, which were released July 1, and more than 90 days to review the SGEIS sections and mitigation measures addressing socioeconomic, community character, visual, noise and transportation impacts. Once the comment period is complete, DEC will review the comments on the draft SGEIS and proposed regulations and prepare responses to be released with the final SGEIS. No permits for high- volume hydraulic fracturing will be issued until the SGEIS is finalized and DEC issues the required Findings Statement.
The draft socio-economic analysis of the impacts associated with high-volume hydraulic fracturing activities found that when the well construction rate is at its maximum level, total direct employment could reach 6,198 full-time equivalent workers under a low-development scenario and 24,795 FTE workers under the average-development scenario. These jobs are estimated to bring $419.6 million to $1.7 billion in earnings for the workers.
Construction jobs account for 4,408 to 17,634 FTE positions. These employment figures correspond to the annual construction of 413 horizontal and vertical wells under the low- development scenario and 1,652 horizontal and vertical wells under the average-development scenario. At the peak of development, operational jobs are expected to range from 1,790 FTE workers under the low-development scenario to 7,161 FTE workers under the average- development scenario.
The proposed drilling also could generate additional indirect employment in other sectors of the economy. Indirect employment is expected to range from 7,293 FTE workers under the low-development scenario to an additional 29,174 FTE workers under the average-development scenario with an additional $202.3 million and $809.2 million in earnings.
As far as the proposed job numbers released in the supplement, Chenango County’s Palmatier said they represent a large range based on how fast the development takes place.
The revised draft SGEIS proposes new mitigation measures to address impacts to communities and local governments. A significant mitigation measure is to limit simultaneous construction of well pads and wells in proximity to each other. DEC will consider this measure in consultation with local governments to lessen cumulative impacts. This approach would help mitigate impacts on local community character, as well as cumulative noise, visual and traffic impacts.
Some of the proposed mitigation measures include requiring drillers to: limit traffic through detailed transportation plans outlining the proposed number of trucks, truck routes and times of day of truck operations; take advantage of topography, noise barriers and special permit conditions; use screening, relocation, camouflage or disguise, non-reflective materials and controlling off-site migration of lighting.
Heather Briccetti, acting-president and CEO of The Business Council of New York State, called Wednesday’s announcement “a clear path forward for the exploration of the Marcellus Shale, that will result in an irrefutable economic opportunity for the people of New York.
“Working through the established ample public comment period and the DEC advisory panel the Business Council will endeavor to ensure that extraneous requirements upon this sector will not hinder the safe and timely development of natural gas,” she said.
Meanwhile, several hundred environmental activists and homeowners packed the sidewalks outside a natural gas industry conference in Philadelphia yesterday and called for a moratorium on drilling, which they said was contaminating water, making people sick, harming animals and creating a public health hazard.
The boisterous “Shale Gas Outrage” rally was organized by a coalition of environmental, political and labor groups.
Food & Water Watch’s Executive Director Wenonah Hauter said hyrdraulic fracturing is becoming a “very contentious and urgent environmental and public health issue.”
She called the oil and gas industry “shameful” for “seeking to horse trade environmental regulations on the false premise that it will create jobs.”
“Even though President Obama is under fire to stimulate the economy, deregulating oil and gas drilling won’t necessarily create jobs. What it will do is increase oil industry profits and pose an unacceptable risk for our nation’s water resources, which are absolutely vital to our economy.”
The Marcellus is a vast rock formation beneath Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio, New York and portions of other states that’s believed to contain one of the biggest deposits of natural gas in the world. Nearly 4,000 wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania over the past few years, with tens of thousands more planned.
To reach the gas, drillers combine horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing, a technique in which millions of gallons of water, along with sand and chemical additives, are injected at high pressure to crack open gas-bearing rock.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is also studying the issue.
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