If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen.
Cabot Oil and Gas, one of the early players in the natural gas leasing effort in the area, has put its entire leased acreage in Sullivan County up for sale.
It’s also doing the same in neighboring Wayne County, PA, likely because of the ongoing regulatory uncertainty in the Delaware River watershed.
The cloud of uncertainty over Marcellus shale gas drilling in New York State is especially stormy over the Delaware River watershed, which in addition to state regulations, is also governed by a multi-state body called the Delaware River Basin Commission. Gas drilling has ground to a halt in the area, even on the Pennsylvania side, since the DRBC declared a moratorium on further water withdrawals from the Delaware for drilling while they work out the details of their new regulations.
Well, almost a moratorium. Last week, in a packed firehouse in West Trenton, New Jersey, the DRBC voted to approve a controversial permit for Stone Energy, over the objections of the state of Delaware and hundreds of protesters in the audience.
Apparently New York State didn't go to the meeting at all.
The five-member commission includes Delaware, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and the federal government. The Stone Energy water withdrawal docket vote was three to one, with Delaware opposed and New York unable to attend due to out-of-state travel restrictions.
Seriously, Albany?
The way the DRBC works is that the governors of the member states, who technically serve as the commissioners, appoint a list of alternate commissioners who can vote in their place. The DEC's Pete Grannis is New York State's top alternate.
Although Grannis wasn't there, over 600 ordinary citizens turned up, several hundred of whom were turned away at the door. Here's an account from Pennsylvania student activist Amy Wilson:
The fact that many of those people had traveled hours on a Wednesday afternoon to attend this hearing didn’t sway Commissioners or Fire House staff people. The doors closed and those of us stuck outside, under the storm clouds, were not allowed to even get to the bathroom indoors. Sign up sheets circulated for those to testify grew long quickly and many testifying were locked out. More than double the number of people who were able to offer testimony signed up, myself included.
After standing outdoors for several hours, we were finally able to enter, but had no hope of speaking up.
In one belated attempt to enter my testimony to public record, I am placing it below. It may not be the official public record, and it is not before the vote has taken place, but I am placing it below as a reminder to the DRBC and the greater public that many of us prepared testimony and were silenced. Shut out despite a vested interest. I estimate that as many as a hundred of us who attended Wednesday’s hearing were had prepared testimony and were not able to be heard.
In other gas news, the Times Herald-Record reports that Sullivan County anti-drilling activists are pushing for more financial disclosure from the likes of Cornell Cooperative Extension, generally known more for dispensing advice on cabbages and tomatoes than for being an industry shill.
The move comes after two residents — Bruce Ferguson and Jill Weiner of Catskill Citizens for Safe Energy and Keep Cochecton Green — last week told county legislators that taxpayer money "is being used to advance a pro-drilling agenda," and, added Weiner, "the personal business interests of individuals, who, I believe, are trading on the name and reputation of one of our most revered institutions, the Cornell Cooperative Extension."
