A company that wants to use carbon dioxide to drill for natural gas in the Southern Tier has been met with pushback from environmental activists who argue the company is exploiting a loophole in New York’s ban on fracking.
Around 6,500 landowners in Broome, Tioga and Chemung counties have received letters from Southern Tier Solutions. The company said it wants to tap into underground shale gas resources in the region, using the gas as fuel to generate carbon-free electricity. The letters tell residents they may lease their land for drilling if they own over 30 acres.
In 2015, New York officially banned high-volume hydraulic fracking, a method of extracting natural gas and oil from rock formations deep in the earth. However, the state’s ban specifically applies to fracking with over 300,000 gallons of water. The ban also only applies to water fracking. Southern Tier Solutions would use carbon dioxide as a drilling agent.
Walter Hang is president of Toxics Targeting, an Ithaca-based environmental advocacy and research group. Hang said when a gas like nitrogen, propane, or carbon dioxide is pressurized, it becomes a liquid.
“So you can frack with any of those liquids," Hang said. "They usually use water, because the other gases are hard to deal with and transport, they’re expensive. But the problem is we've prohibited hydro-fracking in New York, so now they need an alternative.”
Hang and other environmental advocates are calling on New York Governor Kathy Hochul to ban all types of fracking, closing what they say is a dangerous loophole.
The state banned fracking eight years ago because of concerns the process may cause earthquakes, pollute habitats and contaminate drinking water.
Hang said Southern Tier Solutions is framing CO2 drilling as a clean version of gas extraction.
“It sounds like it's going to help climate change. It sounds like it's going to be clean energy. But it's simply not true,” Hang said. “This is fracking with carbon dioxide. It doesn't avoid the fundamental problems of all forms of high-volume hydraulic fracking.”
Hang argues the state has a poor track record of making sure oil and gas extraction is safe in general, even when fracking isn’t involved. During a press conference earlier this month, he flipped through photographs of oil well spills and environmental damage across the state.
“If you can't regulate ordinary oil and gas extraction, then you obviously are not going to regulate the non-water fracking, which is a much larger undertaking,” Hang said.
'You’re swapping carbon dioxide, a waste product, for methane'
Bryce Phillips, president of Southern Tier Solutions, traveled around the Southern Tier region this month, holding town hall meetings to talk to residents.
Phillips argues the project is nothing like hydraulic fracking. He said it is a way of taking waste carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere by storing it underground, a process called carbon sequestration.
“It’s like having two cars in a one-car garage, you've got to get the one car out before you can put the other car in,” Phillips said. “You’re swapping carbon dioxide, a waste product, for methane, which is used for the conversion to power.”
Phillips said projects like his are the only way New York will meet its climate goals, which aims to generate entirely zero-emission electricity by 2040. He also argues hydraulic fracking is more destructive than drilling with CO2. For example, Phillips said the pores of the underground shale absorb carbon dioxide much better than water, requiring less intense pressure.
Phillips said the response from Southern Tier landowners has been largely positive.
“We don't walk in there with a pen and a lease and slap it down and go, ‘If you don't sign this it’s your loss,’” Phillips said. “You’ll sign this if you've determined this is the best thing for your family. And if you understand it and not until you're comfortable, does it proceed.”
Phillips said the company has contacted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency about the project.
'These findings apply whether the agent of fracking is water, liquefied CO2 or Kool-Aid'
Environmental advocates across the state have pushed back hard against the company’s proposal. Earlier this month, 90 environmental groups held a virtual press conference demanding Hochul ban all forms of fracking and shut the project down.
“We document the toxic pollution that accompanies shale gas drilling in dozens and dozens of studies," said Dr. Sandra Steingraber of Concerned Health Professionals of New York, a group of scientists and activists who have organized against fracking. “These findings still apply, whether the agent of fracking is water, liquefied CO2 or Kool-Aid.”
Following questions from constituents who received letters from Southern Tier Solutions, Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo and state Sen. Lea Webb reached out to New York’s Department of Conservation for more information about the company.
In a response, DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said the department had not yet received any permit applications from Southern Tier Solutions for the project.
“The process described on Southern Tier’s website has not been tried yet in New York. Carbon dioxide is used in enhanced oil recovery projects in other states, but DEC is unfamiliar with using it in primary production of natural gas from shale formations,” Seggos wrote.