NORWICH – A spokesperson for New York’s environmental protection agency would not confirm that discussions for more staffing in the mineral resources division are underway, but local natural gas industry followers say more people in the field will be necessary once Marcellus Shale permitting is given the green light.
“Staffing levels are funded through the state budget and are a negotiation between the Governor’s office and the legislature. I’m not going to characterize whether there have been discussions (about staffing) or not,” said New York Department of Environmental Conservation’s press representative Yancey Roy.
Regulators last fall halted permitting for horizontal drilling in wells targeting the Marcellus and other shale formations because of the technique used, called hydro fracturing. At the direction of Governor David Paterson, the NYSDEC has been compiling a report on how waste water from the practice will be handled and treated, along with other environmental concerns associated with drilling.
The completed Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS), which Roy predicted would be released in early summer, is expected to unleash a rash of Marcellus Shale permits.
Norse Energy, which has substantial acreage leased in the Marcellus in Madison, Chenango and Broome counties, continues to be approached by an increasing number of individual landowners and coalitions seeking input in taking leases. This, in spite of a fall in natural gas prices from about $8 last October to about $4 today.
“What I see is that the impetus for this continues even though the economic circumstances have changed,” said Norse spokesperson Dennis Holbrook.
Central New York Landowners Coalition member Todd Barnes is advocating for the DEC to raise New York’s royalty rate of 12.5 percent - a rate established back in 1990 - in order to afford more people on the ground.
“The DEC should be able to fund what they need. They can regulate the money. They just have to raise the royalty rate,” he said. Barnes said the state’s attorney general told his land group late last year that the New York State Legislature did not have to make the change.
“For 18 years, they (the DEC) haven’t changed anything. It’s in the power of the DEC to make that decision,” he said.
Roy said the DEC has more often than not opted for upfront cash bonus rather than higher royalties. Of the last 32 leases that DEC has done for state land, only 10 have ended up in producing wells.
“We feel that the upfront bonus will be a bigger bargain for the taxpayers, but are always open-minded,” he said.
