New York Court of Appeals Upholds Municipal Authority to Ban Fracking
New York’s highest court dealt a blow to the hydrofracking industry on June 30 when it upheld, in a consolidated opinion in Matter of Wallach v. Town of Dryden and Cooperstown Holstein Corp. v. Town of Middlefield, the authority of municipalities to use their zoning powers to ban hydrofracking. The Court of Appeals held that provisions on the towns’ zoning ordinances that prohibited hydrofracking anywhere within their borders were not preempted by the “supersession clause” of the state’s Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Law (OGSML). That clause, said the Court, prevents municipalities from regulating the “how” of hydrofracking but does not bar them from limiting “where” it can take place.