New York formally banned fracking for natural gas on Monday after concluding a seven-year review which found that the practice poses a number of adverse environmental and health risks.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration filed its 43-page findings statement for the ban on hydraulic fracturing, and the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) issued the final document needed formalize the ban on the controversial drilling practice, reported The Post-Standard.
"After years of exhaustive research and examination of the science and facts, prohibiting high-volume hydraulic fracturing is the only reasonable alternative," DEC Commissioner Joe Martens said in a statement, reported The Hill. "High-volume hydraulic fracturing poses significant adverse impacts to land, air, water, natural resources and potential significant public health impacts that cannot be adequately mitigated."
Following a seven-year moratorium on the practice, Cuomo announced in December that the state would officially ban fracking. The DEC released its 1,448-page review in May, which Monday's decision was based on, according to the Post-Standard.
New York is now the only state with significant natural gas resources - the Marcellus Shale - to ban fracking. Vermont has prohibited fracking since 2012 and Maryland recently approved a moratorium until 2017, reports RT.
The ban is not permanent and could be rescinded, and a number of lawsuits are expected to be filed by oil and gas groups attempting to do just that, according to Post-Standard.
Attorneys from Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization, said they are confident the DEC's review hold up to such legal challenges.
"We salute Governor Andrew Cuomo's refusal to bow to industry pressure. He had the courage to do what no other state or federal leader has had the courage to do: let the available scientific evidence dictate whether fracking should proceed in New York," Deborah Goldberg, Earthjustice Managing Attorney, told EcoWatch.
The Marcellus Shale is a rock formation located under New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia which contains large natural gas deposits worth billions of dollars. Oil and gas companies are able to tap into this reserve by drilling into it vertically and then creating horizontal "veins" off of the vertical well. The horizontal well is then pumped full of water, sand and secret proprietary chemicals at high pressures, which causes fissures in the rock and releases gas that is then captured.
Fracking helped turn the U.S. into the world's biggest oil producer in 2014, explains Bloomberg, but critics have voiced concerns over air and water pollution, immediate and long-term health impacts, increased earthquakes, and property devaluation.
Karen Moreau, executive director of the New York branch of the American Petroleum Institute, said industry lawyers are reviewing the state's decision to determine whether a legal challenge is warranted, reported The Associated Press.
"Hydraulic fracturing is a proven, 60-plus-year-old process that has been done safely in over 1 million American wells," Moreau said. "Surging production of natural gas is a major reason U.S. carbon emissions are near 20-year lows."
