Law Commons^™

Defining And Closing The Hydraulic Fracturing Governance Gap, Joshua Ulan Galperin, Grace Heusner, Allison Sloto

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

As recent examples in Texas and Colorado have shown, if local governments ban fracking, they risk pushback from state governments. This pushback, in turn, can result in preemption making an outright local ban on fracking self-defeating because it could ultimately result in less local control over the impacts of hydraulic fracturing. Given this potentially self-defeating nature of local fracking bans, local governments should address the impacts of fracking through more traditional local governance mechanisms that do not pose as great a risk to local authority.

On this premise, this Article seeks to make the case for the importance of, and …

Highest Court In New York Affirms Local Power To Regulate Hydrofracking, John R. Nolon, Jessica A. Bacher

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

In one of the most anxiously awaited New York land use decisions in recent memory, the State’s highest court held that local governments have the power to regulate hydrofracking under their authority to enact zoning ordinances. Both the Towns of Dryden and Middlefield enacted zoning laws that entirely banned gas drilling and associated activities within their borders. The plaintiffs, a private gas company in one case and a private property owner in the other, claimed that a supersession clause in the State Oil, Gas, and Solution Mining Law (OGSML) preempted local authority. After reviewing the plain language of the OGSML, …

Hydrofracking: Disturbances Both Geological And Political: Who Decides?, John R. Nolon

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

There is much controversy about the mining of shale gas through a process known as hydraulic fracturing (hydrofracking) in the Marcellus Shale formation, one of the largest shale gas areas in the world. A debate is raging about its economic benefits and environmental impacts as the New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) considers what standards to require when it issues permits to drillers. New York State law gives permitting authority to DEC and calls into question the historical home rule authority of localities to control the location and land use impacts of gas wells, through comprehensive planning, zoning, …