CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

Branchport, N.Y.

At their regular meeting Jan. 19, the Jerusalem Town Board scheduled a public hearing for a proposed one year moratorium on Marcellus Shale natural gas drilling and hydraulic-fracturing or “fracking,” while the town considers the zoning and local laws necessary to regulate it sufficiently or ban it altogether.

Board member Neil Simmons questioned the timing of the moratorium, and asked whether it might not be better to have it start on May 16, when the NYS DEC is supposed to make public its finding on the environmental impact of fracking. Resident Joe Hoff spoke at length why Jerusalem needed the moratorium in February to “make a clear statement” against fracking.

Town attorney Philip Bailey warned of “using up precious months” of a moratorium before they were necessary, and that extending moratoriums repeatedly makes them more vulnerable to being overturned in the courts. Fearing delays in the DEC’s findings, the board asked if it could be worded to begin upon whatever date the DEC did make its findings known. Bailey believed it could.

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