There was a public hearing in Chenango, New York (Broome County, NY) last week regarding a possible moratorium on natural gas development. The crowd was split but land use law cannot be crafted with applause meters and the town should review the Binghamton decision from last week before it jumps off the cliff.

There was a public hearing held last week in Chenango, New York (Broome County). The hearing was for the purpose of discussing the potential enactment of a moratorium. Given the recent overturning of the City of Binghamton’s ill-advised moratorium, the town would be well-advised to take a breather with respect to its own actions and read up on the law. The Binghamton’s moratorium was thrown out by the Court because one can only be enacted where there is a “dire need” and a “crisis”, said Judge Lebous and he found:

[i]There can be no showing of dire need since the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has not yet published the new regulations that are required before any natural gas exploration or drilling can occur in this state. Since there are no regulations, no permits are being granted. Second, since the DEC is not yet issuing permits, there is also no crisis nor a crisis condition that could possibly be shown by the City at this time.[/i]

Chenango town officials would be foolish to potentially spend taxpayers money and time enacting a moratorium that plainly cannot meet the test laid out in the Binghamton decision. Will they do so? It’s not clear.

http://eidmarcellus.org/marcellus-shale/another-natural-gas-morator...