License to Drill? Revised Study from New York Department of Environmental Conservation Outlines Conditions for Permitting Shale Drilling – but Not in Unfiltered City Watersheds

On July 1, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) released its much-anticipated “Preliminary Revised Draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS) on the Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Regulatory Program.” Behind its fearsome name, this document outlines the parameters for a regulatory regime surrounding hydraulic fracturing in New York. The Preliminary Revised Draft SGEIS was undertaken after NYSDEC received thousands of public comments in response to the first Draft SGEIS it released in September 2009.
New York’s acceptance of hydraulic fracturing stands in contrast to recent developments in New Jersey andFrance, where legislators recently passed bills…