Update: Local frackette Lenape Resources, aka “Johnny Hole Co.” threatens to sue the DEC, sue the town and leave the state - all in one interview. It’s fracking gas holes like Johnny Hole Co. that make the case for town road and land use ordinances. Says a moratorium on new wells is putting him out of business, can’t get credit, and plans on suing town of Avon and the DEC before the end of the year, then leave the state for Ohio, blah, blah. Can’t get credit ? For what ? Voluntarily shutting off his own wells ? Some banks have a policy against lending money to flaming gas holes.
Local fracker Lenape Resources voluntarily shut off their own wells in the Town of Avon, then made a big deal about it. The town did not order Lenape to shut off the wells, Lenape just did it out of spite - as a publicity stunt - since the town had adopted a moratorium on new gas wells. The state has had a moratorium on new shale gas wells, and when that moratorium expires, the state will start issuing permits for such wells. So the town, like many other towns, adopted its own moratorium as a local extension of the existing moratorium in order to have time see what the state regulations are. Nothing unusual about that. It’s the responsible thing to do. Town boards are obligated to protect town roads, land uses and water supplies. The DEC is incapable of doing all that for each town.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/100755474/Town-Boards-Are-Obligated-to-Protect-the-Town
Lenape’ s CEO then ran crying to the DEC saying that they were being forced to turn off the wells in threat of arrest, jail time, etc. Not true, no such threat by the town existed. Lenape just made it up to mislead the DEC in order to try to get Avon in trouble - when the DEC was not acting on any permit application from Lenape in Avon. You know, as a publicity stunt. David Slottje opines on the hazards of libeling a town to a state agency.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/101625570/DEC-Lenape
The DEC response was that they issue drilling permits - the moratorium was a local land use issue, a home rule matter. New York courts have already addressed how home rule applies to gas wells in both the Dryden and Middlefield lawsuits. So the DEC rightly said the matter was up to the courts, the DEC was not going to interfere in a land use dispute. They never have. The DEC has always deferred to local land use ordinances. The state regulates how gas wells are drilled, municipalities regulate where they can be drilled - or not drilled. That’s the law all across America, including Avon, New York.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/63141534/New-York-Gas-Well-Zoning
So now Lenape is threatening to sue the DEC. Since the DEC would not intervene when a town lawfully adopted a local moratorium on new gas wells, like towns do all across the United States, even even in Texas. Nor would the DEC intervene when Lenape cut off its own wells. Nor would the DEC intervene when the town failed to arrest and jail Lenape personnel for turning off their own wells. All this makes sense - as a bunch of fracking publicity stunts by a local fracker, who must be represented by the firm of Dewey, Frackham & Howe.
Holko, the owner of Lenape Resources, was a fracking cheer leader for the fracking mockumentary Truthland in Syracuse, to an audience of eleven (11) and in Buffalo to an audience of 30, including seven (7) armed security officers.
http://www.nofrackingway.us/2012/08/03/fracks-lies-and-videotape/
The questioner in the clip below is a university student, Holko plays dumb on questions about the narrator’s gas pains before the armed guards confronted the student - for asking questions and filming Holko.
http://blogs.artvoice.com/avdaily/2012/08/01/police-vs-questioner-at-truthland-screening-in-buffalo-ny/
Evidently Chesapeake and Range Resources are not the only fracking gas holes around.
There appear to be some little gas hole wannabes out there.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/driller-ny-stop-local-bans-161459423.html
The DEC is incapable of protecting your town as well as the town can itself. Protect your roads, land uses, and water supplies from frackettes like Johnny Hole Co. and their fracking publicity stunts.
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Never doubt what ruses greedy people will resort to, to cry, to pout, and to act-out, when they don’t get their way,
In this case, The Industry’s Way is to destroy the lives of people, and the citizens’ right to clean air and water, and a quiet rural environment.
I know Avon, as I spent many hours there, on weekends over several months time, going through, at the house of my sister, her many boxes of papers, after she died. Avon is a cute village, with a town square with old civil war cannons facing west to fire from a high vantage point, all the way to Buffalo.
All cheers to Avon, and the people who had the foresight to slow down The Industry in its nasty business.
Here in the Finger Lakes, where I live, this fight against The Industry, is the fight of our lives. And we do know that The Decider, Governor Frack Cuomo, has received in excess of $150,000 from the industry; and Governor Frack knows he will receive ten or a hundred times this amount for his future political ambitions.
Cuomo loves me this I know,
’cause he wants to frack me so.
Frack me left and frack me right,
Frack me all through the night.
Yes, Cuomo loves me,
Yes, Cuomo loves me;
Yes, Cuome loves me,
He wants to frack me so.
David Kauber, Aurora, NY
Lenape’s histrionics go nowhere
Adopt a moratorium of sufficient length to enable your town to look at what the DEC proposes as regs for shale wells
Or just proceed with a a road and land use ordinance
If necessary, get yourself a board that will protect the town . . . .from fracking gas holes like Lenape . . .
This stunt will rightfully blow up in Lenape’s face, pun intended. If DEC has a spine left it will laugh Lenape right out of court. Keep up the pressure Avon. 90+% of sentient NY beings are routing for you. The rest are just automaton robots who respond only to a few pieces of silver the gas frackers entice them with.
Guess what, Lenape is not going to sue the DEC
They just said they were to get a little fracking PR . . .
This whole thing plays out as Lenape libeling the town - for a cheap stunt
Outstanding article. Isn’t it interesting that in a time when communities and gov’t programs are focused on the affects of bullying that this action comes to light! It is a clear case of bullying to the inth degree!
Our town of Riga is working on road and land use ordinances, but I really feel that all towns need to declare a moratorium so that the laws can be 100% brought up to date for this kind on industrialization. When our zoning and use laws were written, no one could have conceived of such an onslaught within our town borders. 10 yrs ago, who would have thought we’d be fighting for our lives to keep NY safe from rampant industrialization and pollution!
Until such time that Gov Cuomo gains the sanity to officially ban fracking from NY state, every ounce of land, fresh water and air are at risk. Thank you Avon for being the strength that we all need to be!
Lenape’s stunt indicates that there are no “good frackers” - no such thing. Not locally, not nationally.
Towns have to protect their roads, their housing and their water supplies
The DEC cannot do that for the town.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/100755474/Town-Boards-Are-Obligated-to-Protect-the-Town
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