JLCNY Letter to Senator Seward on Home Rule

Great letter to Jim Seward explaining the history of NYS pre-emption on oil and gas drilling regulation and why his "home rule" bill is a bad idea:

...The JLCNY would like you to consider the following information related to oil and gas drilling and your Home Rule bill.  We hope you will realize how damaging your proposed legislation would be to New York and our landowner members.

 

In the 1970s, New York experienced many problems with the regulatory program for the oil and gas industry when municipalities began their own regulatory initiatives. This local regulation of the oil and gas industry resulted in several problems...

 

...In 1981, the New York Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Law was amended to include the following supersedure provision in ECL §23-0303(2):  “The provisions of this article shall supersede all local laws or ordinances relating to the regulation of the oil, gas and solution mining industries; but shall not supersede local government jurisdiction over local roads or the rights of local governments under the real property tax law”...

 

...There are 2 cases pending in the New York State Supreme Courts, Cooperstown Holstein Corporation vs. Town of Middlefield and Anschutz Exploration Corporation vs. Town of Dryden and Town of Dryden Town Board. These cases will define the parameters of ECL §23-0303(2)...

 

...Many municipalities in New York have been persuaded by those opposed to drilling to enact drilling bans.  Most of the local legislators supporting these bans have little or no knowledge about the oil and gas industry. The City of Binghamton recently enacted a ban. Not a single member of the Binghamton City Council has ever visited a well site. This is exactly the scenario that the 1981 legislation sought to avoid. Your bill threatens to return New York to the period of chaos that existed prior to 1981...