BINGHAMTON – The leader of a joint coalition of Southern Tier landowners soundly objected to another delay in the process for completing New York’s regulations for natural gas exploration.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation announced a one-month extension yesterday for the public to comment on the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement. The move is a continuation of the existing four-year ban on permitting wells that would require the process known as high water hydraulic fracturing in order to release gas from fissures in shale formations.
Dan Fitzsimmons, president of the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York, Inc. (of which the Norwich-based Central New York Landowners is a member) said he was disappointed that the DEC extended the comment period into the New Year.
“The DEC continues to show preference to various special interest groups while ignoring the needs of landowners - a decision that is not without consequence. Every day the process is delayed results in a loss of income for landowners and communities who have held on as long as possible in desperate economic times – despite high taxes, depressed agricultural profits, few jobs and little opportunity,” Fitzsimmons said.
Landowner advocates for safe drilling and anti-hydraulic fracturing protesters, including New York officials and Hollywood stars, have been battling it out for Governor Cuomo’s attention this week. Protesters want Cuomo to ban hydraulic fracturing in New York State primarily because they fear that chemicals in energy company’s fracturing solutions and the subsurface formation water and solids themselves will contaminate the state’s drinking water supplies. Millions of downstaters rely on upstate’s unfiltered reservoirs.
The DEC opened a 60-day period of public comment in August, later extended it to by 90 days and on Wednesday again announced a 30-day extension. The last day to submit a comment was Dec. 12, but is now Jan. 11, 2011.
A spokesman for New York’s energy industry said the Governor’s extension is in fact a continuation of the existing four-year ban on economic opportunity for Upstate New York.
“Billions of dollars in economic impact to New York and its citizens are at stake. And these benefits do not come at the expense of environmental protection,” Brad Gill, executive director of the Independent Oil & Gas Association of New York. “With more than one million wells safely hydraulically fractured in the United States, the nation’s oil and natural gas industry has a stellar record of safety and compliance with required environmental standards.”