An environmental advocate who has been on the front lines in the fight against fracking for over a decade is urging Governor Kathy Hochul to reject a bill that would ban carbon dioxide fracking.
Walter Hang, president of the environmental database firm Toxics Targeting, has been saying the legislation that would expand the state's ban on hydraulic fracking to also include CO2 is "fatally flawed."
In his letter, Hang says the bill (S8357/A8866) does not define the use of carbon dioxide to extract oil and gas from Marcellus shale as a form of high-volume hydraulic fracturing.
"The use of carbon dioxide for oil and natural gas extraction must be clearly defined as High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing so that New York maintains strict regulatory control over carbon dioxide oil and gas extraction activities and can prohibit it."
Hang also says the bill does not address the loophole in the existing law which bans hydraulic fracking of 300,000 gallons or more of water.
Instead, Hang and other environmental groups are calling on Hochul to sign legislation banning all forms of high-volume hydraulic fracturing.
The proposed ban on carbon dioxide fracking was introduced in the legislature in February to stop the Texas-based company Southern Tier Solutions from using the method as an alternative to extract gas from Marcellus shale. Southern Tier Solutions is looking to lease hundreds of thousands of acres of land from residents in Broome, Tioga and Chemung counties.