NY gas drilling law passed

Bill has vocal critic

By TOM KANE

ALBANY, NY - The New York State Legislature passed a law concerning gas drilling. The law addresses the spacing of drill sites and the distance horizontal drilling can reach before impinging on a neighbor’s land. The distance from a lot line for traditional wells was 660 feet; under the new law the distance for a horizontal well will be 330 feet.

The law will also speed up the process for drillers to obtain permits, because they would no longer have to go through the lengthy process of getting special-use permits as is the case now.

“Under the bill, as recommended by the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the process will be standardized and streamlined while establishing strict requirements to protect the environment,” said Senator Cathy Young, the sponsor of the bill.

The Senate voted on the new law on June 20; the Assembly voted on June 23.

But the law is controversial, according to some gas-drilling observers, especially Stan Scobie, PhD, a professor at SUNY Binghamton. Scobie is especially concerned that the law does not adequately address the matter of fracking, the process of forcing fluids into shale deep underground to free up gas trapped in the rock.

“The fracking technique causes essentially an earthquake underground,” Scobie said. The practice can siphon off gas from a neighbor’s well and therefore impinges on their rights, he said.

“Given the fairly mature science of fracking and the very strong position that two Texas courts have taken so far on the standing that trespass has occurred in these situations, it would be foolish of the New York legislature to pass legislation at this point, and in the form the bill is in now, that was tantamount to massive legalized theft,” Scobie said.

The Texas Supreme Court is considering a case of gas drilling, called the Garza case, and the possibility that the practice of fracking, as it is now practiced, infringes on the rights of neighbors.

“There is absolutely no necessity for this legislation to be passed now, or passed in haste, which appears to be the case at this time,” Scobie said.

Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther, a member of the NYS Assembly Committee on Environmental Conservation, the committee that prepares such legislation, voted against the legislation because she wanted people to have more time to study the issue.

The bill was initiated by Governor David Paterson, and he is therefore expected to sign it.