At the board meeting held during the National Convention of NARO on October 7th NARO-NY was born. We have been busy getting organized to work on state wide basis. The NARO-NY team is by no means new comers to the issues facing landowners, after having a very active role with landowner coalitions for a number of years. It came as a surprise to me to learn that NARO did not have a presence in our great state. Especially considering the long standing history of well development dating back to the 1800’s with over 75,000 wells drilled and about 12,000 still active.
Since July of 2008 New York has been under a decree from Governor David Paterson limiting the permitting of high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing there by slowing development in Marcellus Shale. On June 10, 2010 a bill creating a moratorium against all fracing was introduced by the legislature passing both houses by December 1st. The governor vetoed the bill on December 11th stopping the insanity for now. Drilling in Marcellus and Utica Shale will not get underway in New York until third quarter 2011. The point is that those who represent the mineral owner’s interests have been very busy giving educational workshops and working to educate the state officials.
For the past three years we have been working with a number of Landowner Coalitions throughout the Southern Tier of New York. Collectively these organizations represent in excess of 220,000 acres of mineral rights. An example of one of these coalitions is shown below.
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