Enacts the "look before you leap act of 2012" to establish a 5 year moratorium on high volume hydraulic fracturing and the conducting of an investigation thereon.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
6541--A
2011-2012 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 21, 2011
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ENGLEBRIGHT, JEFFRIES, P. RIVERA, MILLMAN,
BARRON, ROBERTS, DINOWITZ, MAISEL, M. MILLER, PAULIN, JAFFEE, COLTON,
TITONE, CAHILL, GIBSON, MARKEY, WEISENBERG, KAVANAGH -- Multi-Spon-
sored by -- M. of A. ABINANTI, BRENNAN, CASTELLI, GLICK, GOTTFRIED,
JACOBS, J. MILLER, ROSENTHAL, THIELE -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Environmental Conservation -- recommitted to the Commit-
tee on Environmental Conservation in accordance with Assembly Rule 3,
sec. 2 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as
amended and recommitted to said committee
AN ACT to enact the "look before you leap act of 2012" relating to the
imposition of a 5 year moratorium on high volume hydraulic fracturing
for the purpose of conducting an investigation of the effect of
hydraulic fracturing
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known and may be cited as
2 the "look before you leap act of 2012."
3 § 2. Legislative findings. The legislature hereby finds that the
4 drilling method, known as high-volume hydraulic fracturing or hydro-
5 fracking, carries significant environmental risks that impact land, air
6 and water resources.
7 The legislature further finds that the natural gas industry has
8 exemptions or exclusions from key parts of at least seven of the major
9 federal environmental laws designed to protect air and water from radio-
10 active and hazardous chemicals including: the national Environmental
11 Policy Act; the Clean Air Act; the Clean Water Act; the Safe Drinking
12 Water Act; the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; the Superfund
13 Act; and the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act.
14 § 3. (a) There is hereby established a 5 year moratorium on the
15 conducting of high volume hydraulic fracturing in this state to provide
16 an opportunity for the state to learn from the hydrofracking experiences
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD10315-03-2
A. 6541--A 2
1 of other states, which is necessitated by the exemptions, granted to the
2 natural gas industry, from major federal laws protecting our air, land
3 and water from radioactive and toxic wastes, and to make a comprehensive
4 and cumulative examination of the environmental impacts associated with
5 the recent rapid expansion of hydrofracking across the United States,
6 with particular emphasis on the natural gas boom that began in the
7 neighboring state of Pennsylvania 3 years ago, and information therefrom
8 shall be available to the public concerning these cumulative impacts to
9 our nation's air, land and water resources.
10 (b) The state university of New York university centers at Albany,
11 Binghamton, Buffalo and Stony Brook shall in cooperation with each other
12 conduct an investigation into the practice of high volume hydraulic
13 fracturing in conformance with subdivision (a) of this section. On or
14 before the fifth year following the effective date of this act, such
15 university centers shall jointly issue a report of their findings and
16 recommendations as a result of the investigations conducted pursuant to
17 this section. Such report shall be submitted to the governor, the
18 commissioner of environmental conservation and the legislature, and
19 shall be published and made available to the public.
20 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.
