Millions pumped into natural gas battle

Gary Galley poses with his cows on his farm in Tompkins, N.Y., in this Associated Press file photo. He is among dozens of landowners in a rural swath of land 120 miles northwest of New York City who signed gas lease deals with energy companies, and hopes are high natural gas wells could bring a bonanza of royalty checks and tax revenue. Mike Groll for The Associated Press/FILE

Legislation that would put a moratorium on a controversial means of drilling for natural gas in New York has stalled, an inertia environmentalists say may be the result of millions in lobbying.

But energy industry groups argue they’re simply pumping money in to preserve a means of drilling that’s safe and effective.

The battle became even more heated after the BP disaster, where an oil well turned into an environmental nightmare.

At stake is whether hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking, using water and chemicals in the drilling process, will be allowed in the State of New York. It has been conducted here for about 60 years, but new technology allows for deeper, more far-reaching wells.

Legislation has been introduced in the legislature that would ban hydrofracking until the Environmental Protection Agency completes a study. The bill in the assembly and senate was introduced to the environmental conservation committee.

New York’s Marcellus shale reserves make it a sort of Saudi Arabia of shale or at least a key potential source of natural gas.

In hydrofracturing, a mixture of water, sand and chemicals is pumped into a well at high pressures, fracturing shale to release gas trapped in the rock. Hydrofracturing is being done along with horizontal drilling, where long bores are drilled sideways to cover more territory.

The proposed ban until the EPA’s study is complete hasn’t even been introduced in committee.

“It is imperative that those policies are not unduly influenced by large infusions of natural gas industry dollars in the guise of grassroots campaigns,” said Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause NY.

Common Cause in a study released today said the natural gas industry increasing lobbying in New York from $109,747 in 2006 to $668,984 in 2009. The industry already spent more than that amount this year, which Lerner thinks may be a factor in stalling the bill in a legislature already prone to inaction.

But industry groups argue environmental groups are spending heavily on their own to try to stop hydrofracturing.

“They’re not reporting it. Look at the groups that lobbied in New York state,” said Jim Smith, a spokesman for the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York. “There are a lot of environmental groups attached to issue. Some are registered to lobby. A lot are not. A lot of them are raising a lot of money, by scaring the public.”

The Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York, Talisman — formerly Fortuna Energy — and Chesapeake Energy have been spending the most, battling the ban, according to Common Cause.

IOGA of NY’s spending rose from $30,000 in 2007 to $196,565 in 2009, while Chesapeake’s lobbying rose from $7,962 in 2007 to $383,708 in 2009, ranking among the state’s top 50 spenders on lobbying, and $658,273 in the first four months of the year.

Chesepeake paid Thomas West of The West Group, an Albany law firm, $602,357 in the first four months of this year.

IOGO paid Corning Place Consulting $126,409 and Hinman Straub, another Albany law firm, $189,923, to lobby in 2009.

“People are not willing to sell the environment for a cupful of natural gas,” Assemblyman Steven Englebright, D-East Setauket, who supports the ban, has said. “It makes no sense to us that we would be willing to create significant environmental, public health and economic problems to solve our energy supply problems.”
Others argue hydrofracturing is a common process that has been caught up amid a panic over drilling.

“This is an unnecessary bill that would add further delays while New York’s economy continues to fail and industry jobs leave New York for other states,” Brad Gill, executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York, said in a written statement.

IOGA argues the state Department of Environmental Conservation is still reviewing comments as it seeks to develop regulations regarding hydrofracturing.

“Let the DEC finish its work. Then we’ll have another session,” Smith said. “Emotion should never dictate public policy. It should be the facts.”

He worries a “panicky subsection of the public” could influence policy. But environmentalists argue that it doesn’t make sense to drill with this technology until a full federal review is complete.

Gov. David A. Paterson in 2008 instructed the state not to issue permits for hydrofracturing done along with horizontal drilling until the DEC finishes its report. Even if hydrofracturing is on hold for horizontal drilling as the DEC wades through 14,000 comments, the DEC could approve new regulations, allowing drilling as early as next year.

The big question is when and whether the technology will be approved, unlocking huge gas reserves as drillers say or opening the state to new risk, as environmentalists contend.

“I don’t think it’s dead at all,” Smith said of the proposed ban. “It could come back at any time.”