I noted earlier that the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation was leaning toward fracking first in places where it's wanted, but that was all pretty vague. Would the DEC actually recognize local laws banning fracking?
Today there's a non-answer answer from DEC Commissioner Joe Martens:
"I think logically where there is less resistance and less opposition and there is not a local land-use plan in place, I think those will be easier to permit than in other places," Martens said. "That's not to say that we're going to prohibit them in other places, but it's a consideration we have to carefully view."
That's a vague way of saying municipalities need to keep fighting to preserve their power to apply land-use rules to drilling in the courts (or legislature) if they want it to stick.
The state's willing to talk about maybe kind of sort of listening to local opinion, but when it comes to actual rule-making, New York's excutive branch just can't imagine giving up power. (Whether it was theirs to begin with or not...)
Posted by simon at April 27, 2012 1:18 PM in New York State , energy