Some local legislators and environmental groups are calling on New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to sign a bill that would expand the state’s fracking ban.
The bill, which prohibits the use of carbon dioxide to extract oil and gas, passed the state Senate and Assembly last month. Lawmakers in the Southern Tier drafted the legislation after a Texas-based company proposed using carbon dioxide to extract gas in the region, skirting the state’s current ban on hydraulic fracking.
But in the weeks since the bill passed both houses, it hasn’t budged from the governor’s desk.
Democratic state Sen. Lea Webb, who represents the Binghamton and Ithaca areas, and members of local environmental organizations delivered a letter to Hochul Monday urging her to sign the bill.
“Most of the same impacts associated with the entire drilling and fracking process occur whether water or CO2 is used,” the letter states. “The use of CO2 to try to evade the state’s fracking ban does not avoid the dangers and harms associated with the process.”
Over 100 environmental and public health organizations from across New York signed the letter.
Webb and other local legislators have said that banning oil and gas extraction with carbon dioxide aligns with the original intent of the fracking ban.
“We want to make sure that Governor Hochul actually signs [the bill] into law, so that we can really close this loophole that exists,” Webb said Monday outside the governor’s office before delivering the letter.
The governor has not indicated where she stands on the issue, and her office said she is reviewing the legislation. Hochul typically waits to sign many bills until the end of the year.