BINGHAMTON – The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York took offense to a press conference held Monday that demanded another extension on the comment period for the revised regulations regarding shale gas drilling.
“It is nothing more than the latest in a series of delay tactics which has dragged on for more than four years – costing taxpayers millions of dollars and preventing progress in our region,” wrote JLCNY spokeswoman Susan Oliver in a release this morning.
Only a few days are left – through Jan. 11 – for the public to send in their comments on the proposed permitting rules that will control how high volume hydraulic fracturing is done in New York State. The DEC and Gov. Andrew Cuomo are widely expected to allow businesses to develop the state’s energy holdings within the Marcellus and Utica shale formations in late February or early March.
Drilling opponents are pressing the governor to extend the deadline by another two months after Friday’s deadline. A group of 115 elected officials contend that a previous health impact analysis that found fracking safe was created by the state health department in secret and is being withheld from residents. Some, primarily in downstate regions, have threatened to take legal action against the state if an additional review period is not granted.
Multiple hearings, comment periods, write-ins and rallies have resulted in hundreds of thousands of people being heard since the state pulled the plug on shale drilling in 2008. The New York State Department of Health has already reviewed the public health impacts of hydraulic fracturing, and a current review by the DOH’s Commissioner and a panel of independent experts was meant to update the work that has already been done by the DEC and Health Department.
“New Yorkers have waited long enough. It’s time to end the delay tactics, put politics aside, and move on to creating the environmental and economic benefits natural gas development will bring our region,” Oliver said.
Rochester town Supervisor Carl Chipman said there is likely to be a lawsuit if an additional 60-day period is not granted to review the health study.
“If they don’t allow a comment period on it, I think it could be a violation of (state) Administrative Law,” he said. “I think you will see litigation because of it against the state of New York, and how is it going to look when elected officials are suing the state because they don’t think they did the right thing? If I violate the Open Meetings Law, I hear about it very, very quickly.”
Walter Hang of Toxics Targeting in Ithaca, who has been a leading voice for the opposition, said, “Until you have fulfilled our public participation requests, we ask that you put on hold DOH’s health impact analysis, review/assessment, and make sure that DEC adopts neither a final Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement nor a shale gas revised rulemaking proposal.”
The mission of the JLCNY, of which the Chenango County-based Central New York Landowners is a member, is to foster, promote, advance and protect the common interest of the people as it pertains to natural gas development though education and best environmental practices. The Cuomo administration said in late spring that the DEC would limit drilling permits to the deepest areas of the Marcellus, and only in towns that agree to it. The deepest areas are in the southwest New York regions of Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Steuben and Tioga counties.
The majority of townships in Chenango County where the formation is deep enough to safely drill have signaled that they are open to the DEC’s regulatory authority. Some municipalities have updated their zoning regulations and others have implemented new road use agreements.