The New York Assembly has passed a 2 year extension to the moratorium on horizontal shale wells, calling for an independent health impact analysis. Many thanks to the House Leadership, Assemblyman Sweeney in particular, for addressing this issue in a forthright manner. Thank your Assembly Member for voting aye. Replace them if they voted nay. The DEC has spent 5 years dissembling at the behest of the gas lobbyists. The Assembly has finally said in effect, “Get it right or don’t get it at all.”
http://www.assembly.state.ny.us/Press/20130306a/
Copy of the Assembly Bill here:
http://assembly.state.ny.us/leg/?default_fld=%0D%0A&bn=A.5424&term=2013&Summary=Y
Gist of it:
“This action would allow for a comprehensive review process, independent of industry pressure, while the Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) examination of hydraulic fracking continues. Delaying the DEC’s ability to issue permits will provide the Legislature with additional time to examine all the facts including the awaited Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (DSGEIS). The measure would also require a health impact assessment to be completed by a SUNY school of public health to examine fracking’s potential public health impacts.
Concerns have repeatedly been raised about the potential impact of using horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas from certain shale formations in New York State. This bill (A.5424/Sweeney) would prohibit the DEC from issuing permits for drilling in certain areas of the state including the Marcellus and Utica shale formations in order to allow for the continued examination of fracking’s potential effect on public health and the environment.”
Speaker Silver explains it:
http://blog.timesunion.com/
Now it’s the Senate’s turn. Wherein things get a bit more complicated, and the Senate version gets watered down with a bit with a loophole which paraphrases the Governor’s own equivocation on health studies : the moratorium extension is the shorter of 24 months, “.. or until the Commissioner of Health determines that the completion of the studies deemed relevant by the Commissioner of Health have produced data sufficient to make a recommendation to DEC regarding the permitting of [high-volume horizontal hydrofracking] in the state.”
Meaning when Dr. Shah deems the information from the studies sufficient, regardless of whether the studies are complete. None of the studies that Dr. Shah has mentioned are scheduled to be complete for a year or more. All this subjective dependency on outside studies, while not unwelcome, sidesteps the obligation to actually get the regulations right. Which is where the rubber hits the road, and the political rhetoric stops. Legislation that merely paraphrases the Governor’s equivocation is, at best, redundant, and at worst a capitulation to that equivocation’s duplicity. So would help to close that loophole and conform the wording to the Assembly version, or the Senate bill might be little more than Cuomo Lite.
While not calling for a HIA, the Senate bill does tie the completion of the SGEIS to specific milestones: the EPA study and the Geisinger study. So in that regard, it may be similar enough to the Assembly bill, which calls for a NYS HIA to be conformed into a meaningful law :
§ 3. The commissioner of the department of environmental conservation shall not proceed to finalize and publish the revised SGEIS prior to completion of the United States Environmental Protection Agency “Study of the Potential Impacts of Hydraulic Fracturing on Drinking Water Resources” and the Geisinger Marcellus Shale Initiative.
IDC proposes 24-month fracking moratorium
The Senate’s five-member Independent Democratic Conference, represented at a Tuesday news conference by Sens. David Carlucci and Diane Savino, are proposing to stop the clock with a 24-month moratorium on allowing hydrofracking. Their legislation makes specific mention of the need to wait for the completion of three studies: an EPA investigation of the possible harmful effects of fracking on drinking water (final draft expected sometime in 2014); a Geisinger Health Systems study announced last summer that will look at health histories of “hundreds of thousands of patients” living near well and other gas facilities in the Marcellus Shale (“preliminary results of data analysis may be released within the next year,” the bill reads); and a recently announced study from University of Pennsylvania researcher in league with Columbia, Johns Hopkins and the University of North Carolina. (no schedule)
The Senate bill language does not tie the moratorium to the completion of any specific studies:
The Commissioner of the Department of Environmental Conservation shall not proceed to finalize and publish the revised SGEIS prior to the expiration of a 24 month period following the effective date of this act or untilthe Commissioner of Health determines that the completion of the studies deemed relevant by the Commissioner of Health have produced data sufficient to make a recommendation to DEC regarding the permitting of [high-volume horizontal hydrofracking] in the state.
Which tosses the hot potato back to Dr. Shah - who reports to Governor Cuomo. So the loophole needs to be closed, since the loophole does nothing but paraphrase one of the Governor’s (many) equivocations. There is capricious. And there is arbitrary. And then there is Governor Cuomo. . .
“All five members of the IDC supported the legislation. He also said he was confident that the bill would make it onto the floor of the Senate despite the need for Republican Conference Leader Dean Skelos to allow it.
“The idea behind this legislation is that it’s common sense, it takes the emotion out of it, puts the science first,” Carlucci said. “And we believe that this common-sense legislation will make it to the floor of the Senate, and we’ll be able to get support in the Assembly, get it on the Governor’s desk, sign it into law to protect the well-being of all New Yorkers.”
James Smith, spokesman for the state Independent Oil & Gas Association, (IOGA) called Carlucci’s bill “a solution looking for a problem.”
As if the regulatory rule making process in New York has not been a complete catastrophe ?
Remember that IOGA threatened to sue the DEC over the proposed “flawed regulations”
http://www.nofrackingway.us/2013/01/25/new-york-frackettes-say-proposed-regulations-are-illegal/
IOGA’s said the proposed fracking regulations were not based on science and that they were illegal:
IOGA: DEC’s Fracking Rules Have “No Foundation in Science”
Posted by: Jon Campbell - Jan 24, 2013
“These regulations are replete with requirements that have no foundation in science. . . . . ,” wrote Brad Gill, IOGA’s executive director.
The IOGA is calling for more science - which is exactly what the legislature’s bills require. I agree with IOGA. HVHF wells have never been drilled in New York State, but New York has a long history of problem wells and inept, if not corrupt regulators. Not a good starting point.
In his letter, Gill goes as far to suggest the DEC is breaking state law. The State Administrative Procedures Act, (SAPA) which governs how agencies adopt new regulations, requires the agency to take steps to reduce adverse impacts on small businesses; IOGA contends the proposed fracking rules cater to large natural-gas companies rather and that DEC isn’t giving consideration to small, independent operators.
IOGA did not like the proposed regulations at all. Nor did just about anyone else, as evidenced by the 210,000 comments turned in. We agree: The state needs to take the time to get this right.
Do the science first. No loopholes. Not just “deemed complete” but final reports published. While they are at it, the legislature might look at the larger regulatory picture that might bring NYS in the 2st century - since the DEC is clearly incapable of doing so.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/118508538/Assembly-DEC-Regulations
Thank your Assembly Member on this. Or vote them out of office at the first opportunity.
Roll call on how they voted: A5424-A
http://blogs.
Sponsor: Sweeney / Multi-sponsor(s): Aubry, Buchwald, Crespo, Fahy, Gibson, Hevesi, Lavine, Lopez V,Magnarelli, Maisel, Nolan, Ryan, Schimel, Simanowitz, Thiele, Titone, Weinstein / Co-sponsor(s): Silver,Farrell, Lifton, Gottfried, Weisenberg, Colton, Brennan, Glick, Cymbrowitz, O’Donnell, Jaffee, Kavanagh,Zebrowski, Abinanti, Otis, Englebright, Dinowitz, Markey, Paulin, Millman, Jacobs, Cook, Miller, Robinson,Galef, Braunstein, Scarborough, Clark, Perry, Roberts, Stevenson, Hooper, Kellner, Cahill, Rosenthal, Peoples-Stokes, Rozic, Brindisi, Ortiz, Skartados
Law Section: Environmental Conservation
A5424A-2013 Actions
- Mar 6, 2013: REFERRED TO ENVIRONMENTAL CONSERVATION
- Mar 6, 2013: delivered to senate
- Mar 6, 2013: passed assembly
- Mar 5, 2013: ordered to third reading rules cal.37
- Mar 5, 2013: rules report cal.37
- Mar 5, 2013: reported
- Mar 5, 2013: reported referred to rules
- Mar 5, 2013: reported referred to ways and means
- Mar 4, 2013: reported referred to codes
- Mar 1, 2013: print number 5424a
- Mar 1, 2013: amend and recommit to environmental conservation
- Feb 26, 2013: referred to environmental conservation
A5424A-2013 Text
S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
5424-A
2013-2014 Regular Sessions
I N ASSEMBLY
February 26, 2013
Introduced by M. of A. SWEENEY, SILVER, FARRELL, LIFTON, GOTTFRIED,
WEISENBERG, COLTON, BRENNAN, GLICK, CYMBROWITZ, O’DONNELL, JAFFEE,
KAVANAGH, ZEBROWSKI, ABINANTI, OTIS, ENGLEBRIGHT, DINOWITZ, MARKEY,
PAULIN, MILLMAN, JACOBS, COOK, MILLER, ROBINSON, GALEF, BRAUNSTEIN,
SCARBOROUGH, CLARK, PERRY, ROBERTS, STEVENSON, HOOPER, KELLNER,
CAHILL, ROSENTHAL, PEOPLES-STOKES — Multi-Sponsored by — M. of A.
AUBRY, BUCHWALD, CRESPO, FAHY, GIBSON, HEVESI, LAVINE, MAGNARELLI,
MAISEL, RYAN, SCHIMEL, SIMANOWITZ, THIELE, TITONE — read once and
referred to the Committee on Environmental Conservation — committee
discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted
to said committee
AN ACT suspending the issuance of permits for the drilling of wells for
natural gas extraction in certain areas; and providing for the repeal
of such provision upon expiration thereof
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. There is hereby established a suspension of the issuance of
permits for the drilling of a well for natural gas extraction in low
permeability natural gas pools such as the Marcellus and Utica shale
formations.
S 2. 1. A school of public health within the state university of New
York shall conduct a comprehensive health impact assessment following a
model recommended by the centers for disease control and prevention to
examine potential public health impacts that could be caused by the
extraction of natural gas using horizontal drilling and high-volume
hydraulic fracturing. For the purposes of this act, health impact
assessment shall mean a combination of procedures, methods, and tools by
which a policy, program, or project may be judged as to its potential
effects on the health of a population, and the distribution of those
effects within the population.
EXPLANATION-Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09142-02-3
A. 5424-A
2. Prior to the commencement of such assessment, the school of public
health conducting such assessment shall prepare a scoping document that
will establish the parameters of the health impact assessment. The scop
ing document shall include the analyses contained in this act, as well
as any other potential analyses to be conducted, and shall be subject to
public review, comment and revision.
3. Such health impact assessment of the extraction of natural gas
using horizontal drilling and high-volume hydraulic fracturing shall
include, at a minimum, the following analyses:
(a) Identification and assessment of the magnitude, nature and extent
of potential localized and statewide health impacts utilizing multiple
methods and information derived from a combination of public health
tools including risk assessment, scientific literature, and population
analysis;
(b) Identification and assessment of disparate community-level
impacts;
(c) Estimated costs of any health impacts to the state, local govern
ments, health insurers, employers and the state’s public and private
health care systems as a whole;
(d) Recommendations for any mitigation of potential health impacts and
the methods and evidence used to arrive at such recommendations; and
(e) A long-term plan for monitoring, evaluating, tracking and mitigat
ing potential health impacts.
4. A draft of such health impact assessment shall be released for
public review and comment. The school of public health conducting such
assessment shall conduct a minimum of two public hearings regarding the
findings of the draft health impact assessment and allow at least one
hundred twenty days for the public to submit comments. Upon the closing
of the public comment period, such school of public health shall cate
gorize, review and respond to all public comments. If substantive chang
es to the health impact assessment are made as a result of public
comments, such school of public health shall issue a revised draft. Such
revised draft shall similarly be subject to public comment and review,
in compliance with the parameters set out for the initial draft.
5. After responding to all public comments as required by subdivision
four of this section, and upon completion of the health impact assess
ment, such school of public health shall submit the completed health
impact assessment to the New York state department of health. The
department of health shall make such health impact assessment available
to the public and deliver copies to the legislature and the governor for
review.
6. The health impact assessment required under subdivision one of this
section shall be completed within ninety days after the final public
comment period, but in no event shall such assessment be completed later
than April 15, 2015.
S 3. This act shall take effect immediately and shall expire and be
deemed repealed May 15, 2015.
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