by Alyssa Carducci
Heartlander Magazine

New York’s highest court ruled municipalities can use zoning laws to ban hydraulic fracturing, adding to the frustration energy producers are experiencing in the state.

The New York Court of Appeals voted 5-2 to allow municipalities to ban fracking, affirming more than 170 municipalities in the state that have enacted bans or moratoria against fracking. New York is the second state in the Northeast, along with Pennsylvania, that has given local governments authority to ban fracking…

“I’m all for more local control, but I think that the NYSSC, simply didn’t go far enough. Why move from state level control to some arbitrary ‘local’ community?  Why not to the ultimate in ‘local control,’ which is the actual property owner?” asked energy economist Tom Tanton, President of T2 & Associates.

“The idea that an arbitrary and elitist group of locals are any better suited to deciding what I should do with my property than a larger set, the state, defies logic,” Tanton observed.

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