Governor Kathy Hochul signed a bill Saturday that expands New York’s fracking ban to prohibit the use of carbon dioxide to extract oil and gas from rock.
This adds to New York’s decade-old ban on hydraulic fracking, which uses water.
Assemblymember Anna Kelles, who represents Tompkins County and sponsored the legislation, said she introduced the bill after a Texas-based company proposed using carbon dioxide to extract oil from shale rock in the Southern Tier.
“It closes an important loophole and continues to protect the state against very intense polluting,” said Kelles. “Polluting of water, polluting of air — those things continue to exist in this type of fracking.”
Extracting oil and gas from rock with carbon dioxide requires injecting high-pressure carbon dioxide into the ground. That technique has been found to be associated with an elevated risk of earthquakes and groundwater pollution. Researchers have found that traditional fracking, using water, is also associated with numerous health and environmental concerns.
Anti-fracking advocates have welcomed the expanded legislation as a protection against fracking in New York.
“It’s common sense that New York State should not be a testing ground for drilling and fracking using carbon dioxide,” said Richard Schrader, director of New York government affairs at the Natural Resources Defense Council, in a statement. “New York must devote its resources to clean, renewable energy.”
Hochul’s decision to expand the fracking ban has set New York apart from several other states where the practice remains widespread, like Pennsylvania and Texas.
Some landowners in New York have been frustrated by the state’s continued ban on fracking, which they say could present an opportunity for economic growth in the state’s Southern Tier.
Walter Hang, president of the Ithaca-based environmental organization Toxics Targeting, said he is concerned that the bill leaves other loopholes that could allow fracking to continue. He said other substances, like gelled propane, could still be used for fracking and called the legislation “woefully inadequate” in a statement.
In response, Kelles said the new legislation demonstrates that the government has been able to quickly address attempts to bypass New York’s fracking ban by proposing and passing new legislation.
“This law as it was written will create the environmental protections right now that we need," said Kelles.