Drilling and the DEC: Responding to Economic Impacts

October 23, 2011

*Drilling and the DEC: Responding to Economic Impacts*
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*Saturday, October 15, 2011** Ithaca, NY*
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About 300 people came to hear grassroots activists, experts, and local officials concerned about protecting our local agriculture and tourism economies, community character, roads and infrastructure The presenters offered information on the revised Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS).****Speakers addressed the portion of proposed drilling guidelines that intends to mitigate adverse social and economic impacts such as truck traffic, threats to food crops, and demand on local services. The forum was moderated by Martha Robertson, Chair of the Tompkins County Legislature. Panelists included Ed Marx, Tompkins County Commissioner of Planning, who addressed the impacts of drilling on local communities. Jannette Barth, Ph.D., Economist, Pepacton Institute, who addressed the flaws in the new socioeconomic impact study. Barbara Lifton, NY State Assemblywoman for Tompkins and Cortland Counties, who addressed what she and other legislators are doing about the shale gas impacts. James (Chip) Northrup, Partner and investor in oil and gas projects, served on Governor of Texas’ Energy Advisory Council, who addressed how to make responses to the DEC. *
*Papers available at http://tinyurl.com/ithaca-sgeis*
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*Video Shot By Cris McConkey available at **http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6FD26CFB7DAB7D2D*
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*Edward Marx <http://www.tcgasmap.org/media/Marx%20Slides%2010-15-11.pdf>
/AICP, Tompkins County Commissioner of Planning and Community Sustainability. His presentation focused on cumulative impacts (and the lack of adequate treatment of them in the revised draft SGEIS) and impacts of gas drilling on local governments./*

*Jannette Barth <http://www.tcgasmap.org/media/Barth%20Slides%2010-15-11.pdf

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/Economist with Pepacton Institute, an economic research and consulting firm. She has worked in the fields of economic analysis and econometric modeling and forecasting for over 35 years. Her presentation discussed what is missing and what is wrong in the economic analysis included in the socio-economic impact section of the revised draft SGEIS./*

*Barbara Lifton <http://www.tcgasmap.org/media/Lifton%20Slides%2010-15-11.pdf>
/NY State Assemblywoman for the 125th District. Ms. Lifton drafted and is sponsor of Assembly Bill 3245 that clarifies that municipal governments have authority to control whether and where resource extraction can take place in their jurisdictions. Ms. Lifton discussed differences between the Assembly bill and the Senate bill drafted by Sen. Seward and the prospects for legislative action in the next session (in the current year the State Senate has refused to take up any gas drilling bills)./*

*James (Chip) Northrup <http://www.tcgasmap.org/media/Northrup%20Slides%2010-15-11.pdf>
/Former planning manager at Atlantic Richfield and an independent oil and gas investor for over 30 years; Mr. Northrup has served on the Governor of Texas’ Energy Advisory Council. His presentation debunked various myths: that New York’s regulations are stronger than in any other state, that the SGEIS is scientifically based (its politically based), and the overestimates of gas resources and economic impacts. Includes instructions on how to comment on the SGEIS and contains links to information and templates that make commenting easier.
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Filed under Community Impacts, DEC, Economics, Governmental impacts Tagged with DEC, economic impacts, governmental impacts, hydrofracking, NY, SGEIS, social impacts

Health and Economic Development A resource for the New York Regional Economic Development Council meetings The New York Academy of Medicine, August 2011

October 22, 2011

HealthandEcoDev.pdf (application/pdf Object).

Health and Economic Development
A resource for the New York Regional Economic Development Council meetings The New York Academy of Medicine, August 2011

Filed under Economics, Health Tagged with health and economic development, NY, sustainability

Tompkins governments, Hinchey draw attention to drilling’s impact on mortgages | The Ithaca Journal | theithacajournal.com

October 22, 2011

Tompkins governments, Hinchey draw attention to drilling’s impact on mortgages | The Ithaca Journal | theithacajournal.com.

Tompkins governments, Hinchey draw attention to drilling’s impact on mortgages

6:43 PM, Oct. 21, 2011 |

1 Comments

Written by

Liz Lawyer

Ithaca — Mortgage rules governing gas drilling are in question following reports in The New York Times and by the Tompkins County Council of Governments’ Task Force on Drilling.

The reports have led Congressman Maurice Hinchey, D-22nd, to send letters to the Federal Housing Finance Agency and the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation, asking they initiate an examination of how mortgage rules on gas drilling will affect more than 1 million gas leases signed between shale gas drilling companies and property owners.

Some banks have policies of not offering mortgages on properties with gas leases. As a result, some landowners have had difficulty selling or refinancing their homes.

The Tompkins County Council of Governments’ Task Force on Drilling asked state officials in May to implement requirements as part of gas drilling regulations to prevent unintended negative consequences on the realestate market and county assessment rolls.

A subcommittee of the task force reported that lenders are reluctant to approve residential mortgages on the increasing number of properties where leases do not conform with regulations of thesecondary mortgage market.

Hinchey said this week that the problem can be attributed to rushing into drilling.

“Many homeowners who signed leases now have questions about their mortgages and their ability to refinance or resell their homes, because important information was not brought to their attention by drilling companies pushing to them to lease their land,” Hinchey said.

Hinchey said he has asked federal and state regulators for clarification on mortgage rules and an examination of leases that were already signed to determine the extent of mortgage violations that may have occurred.

New guidelines will help homeowners and local banks protect their own financial interests, he said.

Filed under Economics, Leasing Issues Tagged with hydrofracking, leasing issues, mortgages, NY, property values

Hydrofracking threatens Finger Lakes region | syracuse.com

October 20, 2011

Hydrofracking threatens Finger Lakes region | syracuse.com.

Hydrofracking threatens Finger Lakes region

Published: Tuesday, October 18, 2011, 5:00 AM

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To the Editor:

Finger Lakes Trust

The Finger Lakes are the lifeblood of Central and Western New York. They provide clean drinking water, magnificent vistas, outstanding habitat for fish and wildlife and unparalleled recreational opportunities. They also serve as an integral part of a flourishing wine industry and support agriculture and tourism sectors that generate more than $3 billion annually for our local economy.

Here in the Finger Lakes, we clearly must accelerate our efforts to grow a more robust and sustainable economy based on the region’s rich natural resources, strong academic institutions, diversified agricultural economy, thriving tourism sector, and the inherent strengths of our populace. However, given the current technology and practices, we believe the proposed widespread use of hydrofracturing and horizontal drilling for natural gas poses unacceptable risks to the future well-being of this region and its residents. The lure of near-term economic gain is substantially outweighed by the potential for long-term harm to the region’s land and water resources as well as its economic competitiveness.

Despite the development of a lengthy environmental impact statement, New York state has failed to adequately address critical concerns regarding shale gas exploitation that are vital to the future of our region:

Through its proposed regulatory framework, the state provides a higher level of protection for the watersheds that supply drinking water to New York City and Syracuse than it does to the Finger Lakes watersheds, despite the fact that each of the Finger Lakes serves as a public drinking water supply. While these two watersheds are indeed unfiltered drinking water supplies, leading experts are very concerned that conventional water treatment techniques currently applied on water from the Finger Lakes will not remove all harmful components found in the fracking fluids that are used today.

In the draft impact statement, the state fails to address the huge cumulative environmental impact of a process that is expected to involve the construction of thousands of gas wells, thousands of miles of access roads and pipelines and other associated infrastructure.

The state also fails to address potential adverse impacts upon the region’s vital agriculture and tourism industries. A study incorporated into the impact statement simply states that the implementation of widespread gas drilling “could have a negative impact on some industries such as tourism and agriculture” and yet fails to provide any detailed analysis of potential impacts within the Finger Lakes region which could well be significant.

The draft impact statement fails to address threats to the region’s most significant land resource: sites recognized as priorities for conservation in New York State’s Open Space Conservation Plan, which is a public policy document based on nearly 30 years of input from community leaders, public officials and staff from the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation.

Until the state and the natural gas industry adequately address these issues, we oppose the use of hydrofracturing and horizontal drilling for natural gas exploitation within the watersheds of the Finger Lakes.

For more than 20 years, the Finger Lakes Land Trust has worked cooperatively with landowners, local communities and New York state to conserve nearly 13,000 acres of the region’s most cherished open space lands. The Land Trust is not typically involved in public advocacy. In this case, however, we feel compelled to speak out as the risks posed to the future of our region are simply too great.

We strongly encourage the state to fully address the serious concerns addressed above before allowing the use of hydro-
fracturing and horizontal gas drilling techniques, and to work with the federal government and the natural gas industry to develop extraction techniques that are compatible with conservation of the region’s natural resources and its natural resource-based economies.

Andrew Zepp is executive director of the Finger Lakes Land Trust, based in Ithaca. W. Stuart Schweitzer is president of the board of directors.

Filed under DEC, Economics, Environment, Parks & Recreation, Water Tagged with agricultural impacts, DEC, Finger Lakes Land Trust, hydrofracking, SGEIS, tourism, water quality

How Gas Extraction Affects Home Values, Agriculture, Town Budgets

October 20, 2011

Citations: How Gas Extraction Affects Home Values, Agriculture, Town Budgets.

Filed under Economics, Governmental impacts Tagged with agricultural impacts, boom bust, community impact, hydrofracking, local government, property values, references, tourism impact

Rush to Drill for Gas Creates Mortgage Conflicts – Ian Urbina, NYTimes.com 10-20-11

October 20, 2011

Rush to Drill for Gas Creates Mortgage Conflicts – NYTimes.com.

Check out this article in today’s New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/20/us/rush-to-drill-for-gas-creates-mortgage-conflicts.html?hp

There’s some really important documents that explain out all of the details about what the conflicts are and what rules are being broken. You can read through them here, and they’ve got little bubbles that show you what the important parts are and what they mean. Very worth checking out.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/drilling-down-documents-8-intro-page.html?ref=us

It makes sense. Fracking for shale gas and oil requires thousands of wells, many of which are drilled near where people live. Drilling accidents and the environmental problems with fracking happen on land that people own, land that people have mortgages on, land whose property value will plunge if the water goes bad or people get sick. The mortgage industry wrote up rules that are supposed to protect banks against these risks. These rules would bar wastewater impoundment pits near people’s houses, would require minimum distances between a home and a gas well, would give the bank the right to review the lease the landman was offering so they could make sure the gas company wouldn’t be allowed to tear up the surface of the land. But these rules aren’t being followed.

Check out some of the documents that explain how some small bankers and credit union officials see the problems:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/drilling-down-documents-8.html#document/p34/a34164

Filed under Economics, Leasing Issues Tagged with banks, hydrofracking, leasing issues, mortgages, NY, property rights, property values