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The Legislature once again urged a ban or moratorium on high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing in New York State—supporting bills pending in the State legislature that would, if enacted, support either a statewide ban on fracking or impose a two-year moratorium on it—and calls for the regulatory review process to begin again in light of apparent conflicts of interest.  The vote was 13-1, with Legislator Brian Robison voting no and Legislator Jim Dennis excused.

The measure cites apparent conflicts of interest on the part of several consultants employed by the State Department of Environmental Conservation in the development of the regulatory document, the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS), including its socioeconomic analysis, since they have been identified as members of the Independent Oil and Gas Alliance of New York, the leading advocacy group in favor of permitting gas extraction through fracking. The Legislature calls upon the Governor and State Legislature to enact the legislation that would ban fracking for natural gas in New York State and, in the absence of a ban, that legislation be enacted to place a two-year moratorium on the drilling practice in the state.  Due to the recently revealed apparent conflicts of interest, the Legislature’s action maintains that the current SGEIS process is “fatally flawed” and should be terminated and restarted from the beginning, and urges that the DEC conduct an independent, comprehensive study, as part of a new SGEIS process, that examines the costs, as well as the benefits, of fracking to local governments and communities, as required by the State’s environmental quality review law.

Legislator Robison questioned whether action by the Legislature now is needed, since the body has voted in the past to support a ban and a moratorium and whether the current action endorsing specific legislation is redundant.

Through an amendment advanced by Legislator Will Burbank, the action also expresses concern about a potential new unfunded mandate for counties that fracking may impose.  The New York State Association of Counties this week called upon the State to analyze costs local governments may face before any drilling starts, following a recent statement by Environmental Commissioner Joe Martens indicating that such costs cannot yet be analyzed because hydrofracking is not yet occurring in New York.

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