Fracking decision may affect local areas

JASON SUBIK , The Leader Herald

Local officials in Fulton and Montgomery counties are closely watching a case in New York state's highest court that could overturn six local bans on shale gas development using hydraulic fracturing.

New York state's seven-member Court of Appeals is considering two cases simultaneously, in which a midlevel appellate court unanimously concluded last year that state oil and gas law doesn't trump the authority of local governments to control land use. The final decision is expected to either uphold or eliminate the ability of local governments to ban hydraulic fracturing, the controversial process known as fracking, which uses chemical-laced water injected at high pressures into natural gas wells to free deep rock deposits of natural gas. About 170 municipalities in New York state have passed local moratoriums on fracking, most of them outside of the region where shale gas is most abundant: New York's piece of the Marcellus Shale formation along the Pennsylvania border.

Six local municipalities have banned fracking: Dolgeville, Minden, Oppenheim, Palatine, the town of St. Johnsville and the village of St. Johnsville. Copies of the local moratoriums, along with a complete list of the municipalities that have banned fracking in New York state, are available at the website, www.foodandwaterwatch.org.

About 40 other New York towns have passed resolutions supporting gas development.

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