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ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York lawmakers handed a invoice Wednesday that will expand the state’s present fracking ban by blocking pure fuel drilling corporations from utilizing an extraction methodology that entails injecting large quantities of liquid carbon dioxide into the bottom.
The state Senate accepted the laws with some opposition from Republican lawmakers. It will now go to Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul, who’s within the midst of state funds negotiations. The state Assembly handed the invoice on March 12.
LINKS BETWEEN FRACKING, CANCER IN CHILDREN FOUND IN RECENT PENNSYLVANIA STUDY
New York already banned hydraulic fracturing, which entails utilizing a water-based answer to extract pure fuel. But some lawmakers have been fast to draft the brand new laws after a Texas firm sought to lease land in New York for drilling final fall. They mentioned the corporate, Southern Tier Solutions, is making an attempt to use a loophole within the present legislation by drilling with carbon dioxide as a substitute of water.
Beehives adorn the again of the property at Itaska Valley Farm, Wednesday, March 13, 2024, in Whitney Point, N.Y. Joan and Harold Koster, who personal the farm, have been requested by Texas-based Southern Tier Energy Solutions to lease their land to extract pure fuel by injecting carbon dioxide into the bottom, which they rejected and are opposed to. (AP Photo/Heather Ainsworth)
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins informed reporters throughout a information convention Wednesday that whereas she hasn’t but mentioned the laws with the governor, she is hopeful that it will likely be signed into legislation.
“There’s a concern that if we don’t close this loophole sooner rather than later, it is going to essentially open up the proverbial gateway for further exploration, which is also going to be problematic,” Democratic state Sen. Lea Webb mentioned forward of the vote. Among hundreds solicited by the corporate have been lots of Webb’s constituents within the Southern Tier, a area that runs alongside the border with Pennsylvania.
The area has been eyed by power corporations due to its richness in pure fuel, which is trapped underground in giant rock formations.
Hydraulic fracturing entails pumping huge quantities of water, sand and chemical substances hundreds of toes underground, beneath strain that’s intense sufficient to break layers of rock containing oil or pure fuel deposits in order that the fossil gasoline may be extracted. Fracking, which is banned in a couple of states together with Vermont and Maryland, may cause earthquakes and has raised issues about groundwater contamination.
State Sen. Thomas O’Mara, a Republican who voted in opposition to the invoice, mentioned throughout flooring deliberations that the transfer to expand the ban on fracking is untimely.
“This utopian approach is a train wreck coming down the tracks,” he mentioned.
Southern Tier Solutions says on its web site that it needs to use carbon captured from energy vegetation to extract pure fuel from contained in the Marcellus and Utica Shales, huge rock formations that reach for a whole bunch of miles.
Company officers and its president, Bryce P. Phillips, haven’t responded to electronic mail and cellphone requests from The Associated Press. But in previous interviews, Phillips has claimed swapping water with liquid carbon dioxide might be extra environmentally pleasant.
Supporters of the invoice and a few lawmakers cited issues that pipelines carrying carbon dioxide for extraction may rupture, main to poor air high quality and main well being dangers.
They pointed to a 2020 incident within the small city of Satartia, Mississippi, the place a pipeline carrying compressed carbon dioxide ruptured, sending over 40 folks to the hospital for therapy and prompting greater than 300 to evacuate.
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Sandra Steingraber, a retired biologist and anti-fracking activist, applauded the invoice’s passage. She argues that drilling of any type — it doesn’t matter what sort of substance is used — is unhealthy for the atmosphere.
“They took care of this really fast because they recognized how harmful it was,” she mentioned of the lawmakers’ response. “It’s all risk and no reward for New York state pursuing this plan.”
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