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Fight over fracking lingers in New York
ALBANY, N.Y. — When New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration first said it would ban large-scale hydraulic fracturing, it was hailed as a victory for vocal environmentalists and fracking opponents and a stunning defeat for the natural-gas industry.
Now, 10 months later, gas companies are still weighing whether to sue ahead of a fast-approaching deadline. And fracking critics aren’t taking any chances, even as some shift their focus to other states and different sectors of the energy industry.
“New York’s ban has really been embraced by not only the advocacy community, but elected officials around the world — from the local, state and national level,” said Julia Walsh, an organizer with New Yorkers Against Fracking and Frack Action. “If it’s not safe for New York, it’s not safe for ‘X’ country or ‘X’ state.”
Cuomo’s administration first announced Dec. 17 that it would move to ban high-volume hydrofracking, the much-debated technique using water, sand and chemicals to help access natural gas in underground shale formations. The announcement marked the beginning of the end of a nearly seven-year review process that spanned two governors and three environmental commissioners.
Since then, New Yorkers Against Fracking, the coalition of like-minded groups that shadowed Cuomo at events and campaign stops across the state, has remained active, with some of its leaders traveling to other states — and even other countries — to speak about the successful push against drilling in New York.
The Park Foundation, an Ithaca-based philanthropic fund, has also continued to fund state-based anti-fracking efforts despite the ban, including a $125,000 grant to New Yorkers Against Fracking earlier this year.
Overall, the foundation awarded more than $700,000 in grants to fracking-related causes from January through June across the country, including to efforts in North Carolina and California. An $80,000 grant went toward the making of the third installment of Gasland, the documentary series that casts fracking in an environmentally negative light and helped bring national attention to the technique.
On the other side of the oft-contentious debate, trade groups representing the natural-gas industry face a key Oct. 27 deadline to file what’s known as an Article 78 claim, which is used to challenge a judgment or action by a state agency.
Should they file the document in court, it would challenge the validity of the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s “findings statement” — the 43-page document that formally put the ban into place on June 29.
If they let the deadline pass, they forfeit their right to file an Article 78 claim. Separately, pro-fracking groups could also consider a lawsuit claiming damages from lost oil and gas rights, though similar efforts have been unsuccessful thus far.
So far, the industry has held its cards close, declining to say whether a lawsuit is on the way. But API New York, the deep-pocketed American Petroleum Institute’s state chapter, hasn’t ruled anything out, whether it’s a challenge to the findings statement or some other legal avenue.
“We are considering our options,” said Karen Moreau, executive director of API New York. “All options are still on the table.”
The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York, a Binghamton-based organization representing landowners who had hoped to lease their gas rights to energy companies, had previously sued the Cuomo administration in an unsuccessful attempt to force a decision on fracking prior to the ban.
But unlike its previous legal effort, the coalition has not been raising funds for a possible lawsuit this time around.
“Various groups are looking at a variety of options,” said Scott Kurkoski, the coalition’s attorney.
Other fracking supporters are looking at ways around the ban, which only applies to fracking operations using more than 300,000 gallons of water.
Tioga Energy Partners, a limited liability company, has filed an application with the state Department of Environmental Conservation seeking approval to use a propane-based, waterless form of fracking to help access gas in the Tioga County portion of the Marcellus and Utica shale formations.
Propane-based fracking isn’t covered under the state’s ban. But approval of the permits is far from a foregone conclusion: The DEC could order an environmental review similar to the one that tied up high-volume, water-based fracking in New York for more than seven years before Cuomo’s administration decided to ban it.
Walter Hang, an Ithaca-based organizer and owner of environmental database firm Toxics Targeting, has focused his efforts on stopping the propane-fracking applications.
The state’s fracking ban, he said, should be widened to include fracking with more than 5,000 gallons of any substance, not just 300,000 gallons of water. He’s urged his mailing list, which has thousands of recipients, to call Cuomo’s office and nudge him on the matter.
“Shale fracking really hasn’t been prohibited, and I’m not convinced that the actual prohibition has so many giant loopholes that the industry could frack any time it wants to,” Hang said. “Waterless alternatives aren’t included in any way, shape or form.”
Campbell is a reporter for Gannett’s Albany (N.Y.) bureau
The battle over fracking in New York may not be over
ALBANY – When Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration first said it would ban large-scale hydraulic fracturing, it was hailed as a victory for vocal environmentalists and fracking opponents and a stunning defeat for the natural-gas industry.
Now, ten months later, gas companies are still weighing whether to sue ahead of a fast-approaching deadline. And fracking critics aren’t taking any chances, even as some shift their focus to other states and different sectors of the energy industry.
“New York’s ban has really been embraced by not only the advocacy community, but elected officials around the world -- from the local, state and national level,” said Julia Walsh, an organizer with New Yorkers Against Fracking and Frack Action. “If it’s not safe for New York, it’s not safe for ‘X’ country or ‘X’ state.”
Cuomo’s administration first announced Dec. 17 that it would move to ban high-volume hydrofracking, the much-debated technique using water, sand and chemicals to help access natural gas in underground shale formations. The announcement marked the beginning of the end of a nearly seven-year review process that spanned two governors and three environmental commissioners.
Since then, New Yorkers Against Fracking, the coalition of like-minded groups that shadowed Cuomo at events and campaign stops across the state, has remained active, with some of its leaders traveling to other states -- and even other countries -- to speak about the successful push against drilling in New York.
The Park Foundation, an Ithaca-based philanthropic fund, has also continued to fund state-based anti-fracking efforts despite the ban, including a $125,000 grant to New Yorkers Against Fracking earlier this year.
Overall, the foundation awarded more than $700,000 in grants to fracking-related causes from January through June across the country, including to efforts in North Carolina and California. An $80,000 grant went toward the making of the third installment of “Gasland,” the documentary series that casts fracking in an environmentally negative light and helped bring national attention to the technique.
On the other side of the oft-contentious debate, trade groups representing the natural-gas industry face a key Oct. 27 deadline to file what’s known as an Article 78 claim, which is used to challenge a judgment or action by a state agency.
Should they file the document in court, it would challenge the validity of the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s “findings statement” -- the 43-page document that formally put the ban into place on June 29.
If they let the deadline pass, they forfeit their right to file an Article 78 claim. Separately, pro-fracking groups could also consider a lawsuit claiming damages from lost oil and gas rights, though similar efforts have been unsuccessful thus far.
So far, the industry has held its cards close, declining to say whether a lawsuit is on the way. But API New York, the deep-pocketed American Petroleum Institute’s state chapter, hasn’t ruled anything out, whether it’s a challenge to the findings statement or some other legal avenue.
“We are considering our options,” said Karen Moreau, executive director of API New York, the state chapter of the American Petroleum Institute. “All options are still on the table.”
The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York, a Binghamton-based organization representing landowners who had hoped to lease their gas rights to energy companies, had previously sued the Cuomo administration in an unsuccessful attempt to force a decision on fracking prior to the ban.
But unlike its previous legal effort, the coalition has not been raising funds for a possible lawsuit this time around.
“Various groups are looking at a variety of options,” said Scott Kurkoski, the coalition’s Vestal, Broome County-based attorney.
Other fracking supporters are looking at ways around the ban, which only applies to fracking operations using more than 300,000 gallons of water.
Tioga Energy Partners, a limited liability company, has filed an application with the state Department of Environmental Conservation seeking approval to use a propane-based, waterless form of fracking to help access gas in the Tioga County portion of the Marcellus and Utica shale formations.
Propane-based fracking isn’t covered under the state’s ban. But approval of the permits is far from a foregone conclusion: The DEC could order an environmental review similar to the one that tied up high-volume, water-based fracking in New York for more than seven years before Cuomo’s administration decided to ban it.
Walter Hang, an Ithaca-based organizer and owner of environmental database firm Toxics Targeting, has focused his efforts on stopping the propane-fracking applications.
The state’s fracking ban, he said, should be widened to include fracking with more than 5,000 gallons of any substance, not just 300,000 gallons of water. He’s urged his mailing list, which has thousands of recipients, to call Cuomo’s office and nudge him on the matter.
“Shale fracking really hasn’t been prohibited, and I’m not convinced that the actual prohibition has so many giant loopholes that the industry could frack any time it wants to,” Hang said. “Waterless alternatives aren’t included in any way, shape or form.”
What’s next
- Gas-drilling supporters have until Oct. 27 to file a challenge to the state’s ban on high-volume fracking.
- Fracking opponents from New York are hoping to spread their successful strategy to other states and countries.
- A pair of applications for propane-based fracking in Tioga County remain pending with the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Can ‘waterless fracking’ in New York sidestep Cuomo’s ban?
ANOTHER DECISION LOOMS: New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced at a cabinet meeting last December a ban on high-volume hydraulic fracturing. But a county in the state’s Southern Tier has applied for two applications to drill using another fracking method.
The administration of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has shown no signs of backing off the statewide prohibition on hydraulic fracturing the Democrat announced at the end of last year.
But a collection of landowners in one of the most economically depressed areas in the Empire State hopes the Cuomo administration will give it the OK to drill without using conventional “fracking” techniques, in the hopes of reaching some of the vast natural gas deposits in the Marcellus Shale formation.
“This is the evolution of this kind of technology,” said Adam Schultz, attorney for Tioga Energy Partners LLC, a collection of five farm families in Tioga County in what’s called the Southern Tier of New York.
Hydraulic fracturing is the process of sending highly pressurized water and chemicals from a well site deep into the ground to break up shale and rock formations to capture oil and natural gas.
But the Snyder Farm Group, based in Barton, wants to do something different: Replace the water with a propane gel that, along with sand, loosens the rock to get to the gas.
By doing so, the group says it avoids the Cuomo administration’s ban on “high-volume hydraulic fracturing,” which means using 300,000 gallons or more of water.
“The state specifically excluded this technology from the ban,” Schultz told Watchdog.org. “We’re not doing the high-volume hydraulic fracturing.”
Schultz said Tioga Energy Partners has applied for two permits from the New York Department of Environmental Conservation to drill one vertical well 9,500 feet.
This “stratographic well” would study the site’s geologic makeup and, if the results are positive, the drill-bit would then turn horizontally 3,700 feet into the Marcellus Shale formation — provided the department signs off on the applications.
The gas would be collected on 53 acres jointly owned by the five farming families.
Officials from Barton have come out in favor of the plan and the Tioga County Legislature passed a resolution giving its full support.
Schultz said his group is cautiously optimistic the DEC will approve the permits.
“It’s an interactive process,” Schultz said. “DEC officials have handled it very professionally. … When you look at all the advantages and you look at the regulatory setting for this, I think we stand a very good chance.”
Watchdog.org sent an email and followed up with a phone call to DEC, asking about the status of the two applications, but did not receive a response. In August, DEC said in a statement there is no firm timeline on making a decision.
Walter Hang, president of Toxics Targeting, an environmental database firm in Ithaca, is dead-set against what’s been called the “waterless fracking” proposal in Tioga County.
“I think it should absolutely not be allowed in New York,” Hang told Watchdog.org. “There’s no question it’s dangerous. Propane is flammable and potentially explosive.”
But Hang also said the Snyder Farm Group has a chance of getting its applications approved by the DEC because the fracking prohibition Cuomo signed “has a giant loophole” when it comes to defining what is and is not allowed.
“We need clarification right now,” Hang said.
Tioga County and the Southern Tier are going through tough times.
Binghamton is the largest city in the Southern Tier and between 1990 and 2011, the metropolitan area suffered a net loss of more than 10,000 jobs.
Along with the five other core counties in the Southern Tier, Tioga County has fewer jobs today than in 2000.
“This (waterless fracking proposal) is the one thing in Tioga County going for us,” Kevin “Cub” Frisbie of the Snyder Farm Group told WBNG-TV in August. “This is the one thing that can create jobs, create a tax-based revenue increase, so that negates the property taxes off of everybody. So everybody, whether they are at a well site or not, they will [get a boost] from an increase in tax revenue.”
“Every indication is that this is a very serious event that is being proposed,” Hang said. “And they are working very, very hard to get the approval.”
Some officials from neighboring counties are closely watching what happens in Tioga County.
“People here are hopeful that the DEC will approve that,” said Carolyn Price, town supervisor for Windsor and president of the Upstate New York Towns Association. “If they stop this, what hope do landowners have?”
“It’s a good process,” said Dan Fitzsimmons, executive director of the Joint Land Owners Coalition of New York and a fierce critic of the Cuomo administration. “Environmentally, it answers all the problems. It cuts trucking down to less than a sixth of what they would be with water. You don’t have the water issues. You don’t have the chemical flow-backs to deal with, no earthquake problems then. It just answers everything.”
Not to anti-fracking activists such as Hang.
They’ve already mobilized opponents to the Tioga proposal and are trying to put pressure on the Cuomo administration through a number of tactics, including petition drives.
“The governor is going to face a firestorm of criticism if he allows this to go forward,” Hang said.
“If people sit back and take a look at the facts and the need for energy and recognizing there are pros and cons to supplying that energy from any source, including solar and wind, this is a very efficient and safe and environmentally friendly way to do so,” Schultz said. “And it should be encouraged.”
Can ‘waterless fracking’ in New York sidestep Cuomo’s ban?
Oct. 8, 2015: New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announces New York's involvement in the Under 2 MOU coalition in New York. (AP)
The administration of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has shown no signs of backing off the statewide prohibition on hydraulic fracturing the Democrat announced at the end of last year.
But a collection of landowners in one of the most economically depressed areas in the Empire State hopes the Cuomo administration will give it the OK to drill without using conventional “fracking” techniques, in the hopes of reaching some of the vast natural gas deposits in the Marcellus Shale formation.
“This is the evolution of this kind of technology,” said Adam Schultz, attorney for Tioga Energy Partners LLC, a collection of five farm families in Tioga County in what’s called the Southern Tier of New York.
Hydraulic fracturing is the process of sending highly pressurized water and chemicals from a well site deep into the ground to break up shale and rock formations to capture oil and natural gas.
But the Snyder Farm Group, based in Barton, wants to do something different: Replace the water with a propane gel that, along with sand, loosens the rock to get to the gas.
By doing so, the group says it avoids the Cuomo administration’s ban on “high-volume hydraulic fracturing,” which means using 300,000 gallons or more of water.
“The state specifically excluded this technology from the ban,” Schultz told Watchdog.org. “We’re not doing the high-volume hydraulic fracturing.”
Fracking Proponents Undaunted
A portion of land in the Town of Barton, near Tyler Hollow Road, sits near the site of the proposed natural gas well. The gas collection will take place beneath a 53-acre plot. This photo was taken in August.
(Photo: KELLY GAMPEL / Staff Photo)
The propane fracking technology seen as the key to unlock the Marcellus Shale in Tioga County has been shelved by its developer.
Despite this latest setback, the wildcatters who are pursuing a plan to develop wells in the Town of Barton say they still have access to the waterless fracking technology through other, unnamed parties.
“The equipment and technology is available. We have options,” said Phillip Mezey, a Texas driller and principal member of Tioga Energy Partners, a limited liability company pursuing a quest to become the first producer of shale gas in the state.
That may good news or bad, depending on how one stands on New York state’s ban on high-volume hydraulic fracturing, and the group’s plan to use a largely unproven method to get at the gas under the Southern Tier of New York.
Approval for the controversial project, just south of the intersection of Halsey Valley and South Hill roads in the Town of Barton, is pending with the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The centerpiece of the application is a liquid propane system developed by Gasfrac — a Canadian firm — as an alternative to a water-based chemical solution to generate hydraulic pressure to fracture the shale and release gas.
Using liquid propane as a hydraulic agent for fracking is not specifically prohibited in the state’s ban on high volume hydraulic fracturing. But its viability remains questionable.
Gasfrac, which had filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors, sold its assets to STEP Energy Services Ltd.
“For our purposes, we decided that we weren’t going to be in that [propane fracking] business, so we mothballed that whole segment,” Regan Davis, STEP Energy Services chief executive, said in the magazine profile. But that is not the end of propane fracking, he added. “We have a lot of different parties interested in reviving it, and we’re certainly happy to talk to people about doing that.”
Adam Schultz, an attorney for Tioga Energy Partners, said in an email that STEP Energy's decision “does not impact the TEP [Tioga Energy Partners] project in any manner” because the group has “access to the equipment and expertise necessary to complete the waterless hydraulic fracturing of the Snyder well.”
Neither Mezey nor Schultz would name the party that would do the technically challenging and dangerous work. Due to explosion risks, propane fracks typically use robotics to keep workers out of the “hot zone” during operations. In June, 2012, a dozen workers were injured — some seriously burned — when a well in Alberta, Canada exploded during a fracking operation using propane.
Permitting records obtained through the Freedom of Information Law show Tioga Energy Partners paid a total of $6,660 in fees to the state for permit applications for two wells in the Town of Barton. The first, Snyder E1, would be an exploratory well drilled vertically for 9,530 feet into the Utica Shale. The second, Snyder E1-A, is a production well that would run horizontally into the Marcellus at 3,700 feet.
Drilling would be completed within 90 days, and waste from both wells would be stored in metal tanks and disposed of at the Chemung County Landfill, according to the records. The Chemung landfill already accepts drill cuttings from Pennsylvania wells.
The permit file includes a standard on-site inspection report by DEC staff dated June 16, 2015 and signed by J. Yarosz and Linda Collart of the Mineral Resources Division. The report notes the sloping terrain, but raises no significant issues with the application.
Reaction to the plan has ranged from skepticism to alarm by anti-fracking groups, and support by pro-fracking groups.
Walter Hang, an activist from Ithaca who has played a sustained role in the movement to ban fracking in New York, said the Snyder wells are harbingers for other types of fracking with dangerous and unproven technology. Hang is heading a political action campaign to urge the Cuomo administration to ban all types of shale gas development, not just high volume hydraulic fracturing as defined by the administration.
“The governor has to keep his promise,” Hang said. “The fact of the matter is the so called ‘fracking ban’ has more holes than Swiss cheese.”
Dan Fitzsimmons, head of the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York, a pro-industry group, characterized propane technology to stimulate gas production as an “environmentally friendly approach” producing less waste than high volume hydraulic fracturing.
While the application remains in limbo, the Tioga County plan has faced an uphill battle from the onset to bring gas development in a state that has proven unwelcoming and in an economy where the industry is languishing even under favorable circumstances in states where it’s encouraged.
A group of Tioga County landowners proposed to use propane to develop shale gas under their land in 2012. At the time, the state had a fracking moratorium, and the group was unable to muster the capital and commercial wherewithal .
Now, extensive drilling in the Marcellus Shale in Pennsylvania has contributed to a market glut that has lowered prices and limited drilling in proven horizons, let alone prospecting in new areas. During the past year, the number of active rigs in the Marcellus Shale basin – most of them in the once booming state of Pennsylvania – dropped from 80 to 49, according to data kept by the investor relations arm of Baker Hughes, an oilfield service company.
Gas proponents still see hope. The industry has to forge ahead with development to meet future demand regardless of the ups and downs of gas prices, Fitzsimmons said, and propane fracking is a viable alternative for New York. “You need to get these wells on line now,” he said. “We need the gas and we use a lot of it.”
Regardless of its economic feasibility,the Tioga Energy proposal faces extensive policy hurdles. Even if the propane fracking technology falls outside the state’s ban on high volume hydraulic fracturing, it would likely require an extensive site review under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, which would be time-consuming, expensive and provide opportunity for significant challenges from anti-frackers.
Still, the fight over the Tioga County Energy is as much about establishing precedent and possibly opening doors for future development as it is about producing gas.
Several landowners who enthusiastically touted the plan when it was announced at a press conference outside the Barton Town Hall in July did not return calls this week.
Chris Denton, an Elmira attorney who has represented landowner groups trying to bring shale gas development to New York since the boom began in 2008, was reluctant to comment on current prospects in Tioga County.
“I’d like the permitting process to run its course,” Denton said.