Hancock Gas Lease

If New York City wants to prevent landowners from developing their property, they should buy the development rights to that land. Their refusal to do so just shows that they want to continue to be parasites on the rest of the state, getting their water at our expense.

It seems that State Senator Bonacic (R-C-Mount Hope) agrees with our philosophy. The Times Herald-Record quotes him as saying:

Let them buy the development rights. For those landowners who want to sell their gas rights, let the city pay the same market rate to keep the land undeveloped. We buy agricultural development rights for tracts of land we want to preserve. Let those who oppose the lawful exploration and extraction of gas in the Catskills (do the same). …

If New York City can stop development of energy sources in the Catskills, they can diminish the value of people’s land without compensation.

The article seems to say that the City is turning a deaf ear to these arguments:

While the city’s DEP points out that it has already invested $541 million to buy watershed land, it did not directly address Bonacic’s proposal, except to reiterate the “unacceptable threats” of drilling to drinking water.

“We look forward to continuing a dialogue with elected officials and all stakeholders to protect the watershed during this process,” said a statement by Environmental Protection Commissioner Cas Holloway.

We’ve written before about calls from towns to be given more authority from the state to determine what happens within their borders. New York Senator John Bonacic has introduced a bill that would grant this. Today’s River Reports tells us:

Bonacic said that the legislation would allow towns to declare a six-month moratorium on gas drilling so that zoning regulations can be refashioned to address gas drilling issues. In a phone interview, Bonacic said the legislation would allow towns to put “reasonable” constraints on drilling. The bill, for instance, would allow towns to require gas companies to post a bond to cover any damages caused by gas trucks. Towns would also be able to address the issue of whether fracking fluids may be stored in open pits or must, instead, be stored in closed steel tanks.

Some of this makes sense, but I’m afraid that the six-month moratorium thing may be taking it too far — particularly since they’ve got the time now to figure things out while the DEC works on its GEIS. But I’m squarely behind allowing towns to require bonds for oversize or excessive road usage.

The prospects, according to the article:

Bonacic said that he’s not sure when he’ll be able to get the bill through the senate, but he said there’s a good chance that it could pass before drilling starts sometime in 2009.