Property Owners Association comments on dSGEIS

By Noel van Swol

Letter to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

In view of recent developments, I wish to add the following statement to my previous testimony in favor of the proposed new Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) regulations, which the Sullivan-Delaware Property Owners Association totally supports.

1. We oppose New York City’s attempt to prevent gas drilling in the New York City watershed or anywhere else in New York State. The Times Herald-Record of December 24, 2009 says, “The DEC says a ban would be illegal since about 70 percent of the land owned in the watershed is privately owned. ‘[It] would limit the mineral rights of private property owners,’ DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis said in testimony before the state Assembly.” We totally agree with Commissioner Grannis’ comments. If New York City does not want gas drilling in the Catskills, it should be prepared to pay every affected property owner $6,000 an acre or more (which is the current market price) for their drilling rights, plus added compensation for lost royalties.

2. The Sullivan-Delaware Property Owners Association opposes Congressman Maurice Hinchey’s call for an additional 90-day comment period. These regulations have been studied to death. Your 809-page document imposes the toughest regulations in the United States, if not the world. It is time to get on with it, approve those regulations and begin the permitting of pending drilling applications such as those of Chesapeake Energy in the Town of Hancock, Delaware County, NY.

3. An article in the New York Post of October 20, 2009 titled “NYS: drill, baby, drill!” says, “given the perilous state of the New York economy, a drilling boom in the New York portion of the Marcellus Shale will mean job creation. How many jobs? Hard to tell, but Pennsylvania officials think that drilling has helped create nearly 100,000 jobs in their state. Marcellus Shale activity could be worth upward of $25 billion for the Keystone State over the next decade.” This also holds true for New York.

4. At the recent Jeffersonian Dinner in Sullivan County, I told Attorney General Cuomo that oil and gas drilling is the only thing which can balance the budget of New York State. The potential for new taxes generated by the Marcellus Shale could be in the billions.

Your 809-page document is a monument to the hard work and professionalism of the DEC. Let us get on with the job of building this new industry which can make New York State and New York City energy independent by eliminating the need for importing Middle East oil.

(Noel van Swol is the founder of the Sullivan-Delaware Property Owners Association.)