Dryden redux

At MDN:
 

The Town of Fremont, NY is heading toward a vote to ban hydraulic fracturing. Fremont is in Steuben County, and a ban would adversely affect the property rights of rural landowners in the township.

 

Under current New York State law, a vote to ban fracking by Freemont would be illegal. There are currently two cases in New York’s Supreme Court where similar municipal bans are being challenged in an attempt to re-establish that state law takes precedence over local law in regulating drilling. That is, unless new legislation on “home rule” introduced into the NY legislature becomes the new law (see this MDN story).
 

In the meantime, the taxpayers of Fremont should be prepared to spend money on lawyers to defend the town’s action if they decide to pass a ban.