CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

DEC Commissioner Joe Martens defended himself and his agency at an Assembly hearing that was called to allow individuals who feel strongly about the DEC's draft supplemental generic environmental impact statement on hydraulic fracking to voice their opinions on the issue "For more than three years, DEC has been intensively studying the potential environmental impacts of the use of high-volume hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas from shale formations in New York State," Martens told the panel of lawmakers who sit on the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee.

"We have held 10 hearings to date on the scope of the study and on the 2009 draft of the SGEIS, received more than 13,000 comments and consulted with numerous states on issues they have confronted involving high-volume hydraulic fracturing. We have used the time since the 2009 draft SGEIS was published to learn from the experiences in other states and identify measures that will protect our drinking water, our streams, our air and our land," Martens said.

Assemblyman and Chairman of the Assembly Environmental Conservation Committee Robert Sweeney, D-Babylon, was joined with ten other members of his committee as well as Steven Englebright, D-Setauket, to hear testimony on the revised draft SGEIS and question the witnesses on their claims. The Assembly members had many questions for Martens and his fellow witnesses; DEC General Counsel Steve Russo, Executive Deputy Commissioner Marc Gerstman, and Deputy Commissioner Eugene Leff.

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Gov. Tom Corbett called Monday for even-handed laws that recognize the natural gas industry's competition beyond the state’s borders.

Corbett’s plan would allow counties to impose fees of up to $160,000 per well over 10 years to help pay for the cost to regulate the drilling and fix the damage it causes to the environment, according to the Associated Press. It also would toughen laws that protect the state’s water sources and help the industry find new outlets for its product, such as converting school bus fleets or mass transit systems to natural gas power., the AP reported.

Under his plan, counties would have the latitude to impose an impact fee of up to $40,000 per well in a well’s first year. The maximum fee amount would decline to $30,000 in the second year, $20,000 in the third year and $10,000 in the fourth through tenth years of production. After that, it would disappear.

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It’s unlikely that anyone’s going to drill in the town of Tully into the now-famous Marcellus shale because the rock is too close to the surface. But that doesn’t mean drilling rigs and hydrofracking will bypass the town — and a large piece of Central New York.

Despite all the attention given to the Marcellus shale, there’s another, deeper rock layer in New York that is an intriguing mystery — bigger but economically an unknown.

It’s the Utica shale: a layer of rock thousands of feet deeper than the Marcellus and less well-studied. It covers a greater footprint of Central New York and might be an attractive target to drillers in areas that where the Marcellus doesn’t exist or is too shallow to hold any natural gas.

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An energy company is seeking federal approval to allow exports of liquefied natural gas from the booming Appalachian drilling industry, saying that the nation's natural gas supply is outpacing demand.

Richmond, Va.-based Dominion Resources Inc. announced last week that it has applied to the Department of Energy to allow 1 billion cubic feet per day to be exported through a terminal it owns in Maryland. The application, filed Sept. 1, seeks permission for the exports of liquefied natural gas to any country with which the United States does not prohibit trade, the company said.

The terminal, Dominion Cove Point on the Chesapeake Bay in Lusby, Md., is well-situated to export gas from the prolific Marcellus Shale and the promising Utica Shale formations, Dominion's chairman and CEO, Thomas Farrell II, said in a statement.

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As debate rages in other corners of New York state about the risks and rewards of rampant natural-gas drilling, Rochester has been slow to warm to the topic.

The perception has been that the wells would go somewhere else — in the Southern Tier, far from metropolitan Rochester. Hydrofracking, as the well-drilling method is known, would be someone else's problem.

That perception is rapidly changing as the potential impact from hydrofracking, especially on the Finger Lakes region, becomes clearer. For example, about 810,000 acres in the Finger Lakes — if put together, an area slightly larger than Rhode Island — has already been leased to natural gas companies.

Nedra Harvey, co-founder of a local citizens group that questions the wisdom of fracking, said that two years ago public meetings on the subject were infrequent and drew barely 100 people. Now there are meetings almost weekly and they're attracting two or three times that number.

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Before a skeptical panel of state lawmakers, New York’s top environmental regulator defended his agency’s proposed rules for hydraulic fracturing for nearly three hours Thursday while he was peppered with a near-constant stream of questions and criticism.

In an (amazingly) still-ongoing hearing hosted by the Assembly’s environmental committee, Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joseph Martens said he’s confident in his agency’s approach to studying the controversial natural-gas process, and that its regulations will be the strongest in the country when finalized.

The rules will “ensure that gas drilling is undertaken in a manner that protects public health and the environment,” Martens told the panel.

Twelve Assembly members questioned Martens, often times criticizing the DEC for what many of them said was a lack of depth in the agency’s report and for rushing the approval process despite concerns about the techniques.

At times, the crowd let the commissioner have it, with individual audience members yelling things like “liars” and “solar power” while Assembly EnCon Chairman Robert Sweeney, D-Suffolk County, chastised them.

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An internal report from the state Department of Health says that if high-volume hydrofracking moves forward in New York, the agency will need additional funding to address potential health impacts and assist with regulating the industry.

According to the document, which was obtained by Gannett's Albany Bureau, both the state and local health departments may need to bolster resources to deal with an anticipated surge if the state allows the natural gas drilling process.

While the state Department of Environmental Conservation is tasked with regulating the gas industry, the state Health Department anticipates it will be called to investigate any potential public health issues that arise from drilling. Those could include assessing the toxicity of chemicals used with hydrofracking, investigating any health-related complaints, and initiating any studies if a spike of illness or diseases crops up near a drilling site, the report states.

"The long-term support that (the DEC) may need from the state and local health departments will vary depending on how the permitting program develops and the reaction of the public and others to (high-volume hydrofracking) drilling activity," the report reads.

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Almond, N.Y. — Hydrofracking is not only a hot issue in Alfred, but the Town of Almond as well.

The town, in July, had made resolution to put a moratorium for year to study the situation and at the regular monthly meeting on Monday, there were a few residents with concerns that the moratorium would not protect the town.

Superintendent Richard Stuart said board members have contacted the town lawyer, David Pullen, and will be contacting David Slottje, executive director and senior attorney with the Community Environmental Defense Council, Inc., who has worked with Alfred in developing a local law to ban high-volume hydraulic fracturing.

The residents also presented a petition with approximately 60 names to ban the process within the town. However, Stuart said he believes there are residents who are in support of the industry.

Stuart said one resident commented that there were many people in the town who refused to sign the petition against hydrofracking during Almond community days in September, though at the regular monthly meeting there was no talk in support of the industry.

The board will be looking into creating a local law against hydrofracking and will set up a time for a public hearing at the November meeting.

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- Sound decisions about how to proceed with gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale can't be made without looking at how they might fit with other energy choices in a time of growing demand, Pennsylvania's former environmental protection secretary said.

John Hanger led the Department of Environmental Protection under former Democratic Gov. Ed Rendell. He said the commonwealth has been at the forefront of shale gas development, and can both produce gas and protect the environment.

Speaking at a lecture Monday at Penn State University, Hanger said "there are clearly impacts from gas and gas production." Environmental concerns include air emissions, methane leakage and gas migration, he said.

The Centre Daily Times http://bit.ly/nISNOw reported that Hanger said there was a difference, though, between gas migration and fluids used in the process called fracturing returning to groundwater tables. He cited researchers who found the latter hasn't happened.

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The author, Stephen E. Herrmann of this opinion viewpoint, was a former Special Assistant to the General Counsel of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. He is part of the law firm Richards, Layton & Finger. His bio states that he has 30 years’ experience in advising boards of directors on corporate governance issues.

From the offset, it should be emphasized that sound energy policy must be based upon actual need, effective cost, efficient generation and balanced environmental protection. Mr. Herrmann’s revealing admission that Article X’s true purpose is to override local zoning and land use authority is clearly stated, “new law hopefully will create a one-stop siting decision-maker”. The elimination of SEQRA compliance and discarding the principled legal standard of Home Rule, has been a main objective of foreign developers, as they rush to site ill-conceived projects, especially over the strong objections of local community representatives.

Absent in Mr. Herrmann’s advocacy for corporate interests is that the two local residents to the new board do not have a vote in the decision and that the five permanent members are NYS bureaucrat appointees that have no accountability to the general public, much less the residents where the project will be fast tracked.

The insignificant amounts for “intervener funding” and limited time for filing, actually creates a major profit center savings for single-minded developers. With a 25 megawatts trigger for jurisdiction, the conclusive result is that siting can and will be forced upon any location that benefits the developer.

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Original article by The author, Stephen E. Herrmann - NEW YORK’S POWER PLANT SITING SOLUTION