State Sen. Jim Seward is sponsoring a "home rule" bill that allows municipalities to ban energy development within their boundaries. While "home rule" carries emotional overtones of a redcoats- versus-patriots confrontation, it isn't quite like that.
Gas and oil drilling has occurred in New York since the 19th century, but chaos reigned in the 1970s when municipalities created a patchwork of local oil and gas regulations.
So in 1981, state law was amended so that the state took precedence over local municipalities where the oil and gas industries were concerned.
But Seward's legislation threatens to shut down both existing and future oil and gas business in New York. "Home rule" would allow local legislators, experienced or not, to dictate whether industry could operate on a 3-2 vote of a town board whose makeup could change every election cycle. And the rules could conceivably change every 10 miles or so as you cross town lines. Would you do business in a state that allows this?
This is why the state, in the form of the Department of Environmental Conservation, should be doing the necessary regulating.
Seward should stop adding to an already toxic business environment in New York.
Tracy Marisa
Town of Dryden
