Legal Issues Involving; Drilling for Natural Gas; Electric Generating Facilities

10-18-2012

THIS WEBCAST AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING ONLY,
NOT APPLICABLE FOR AICP CM CREDITS.

Presenters: Wendy Marsh

Wendy A. Marsh, Esq. will review the legal issues associated with the generation of energy in the State of New York. The primary focus of her presentation will be to provide an update on the regulation of high volume hydrofracturing in New York State, including the State Environmental Quality Review Act ("SEQRA") issues and the draft regulations under consideration by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation ("NYSDEC").

Ms Marsh's session will discuss the current litigation associated with municipal bans on certain drilling activities, including high volume hydrofracturing. This portion of the presentation will include a detailed discussion on the two seminal cases supporting a municipalities' right to ban these activities, as well as the legal theories upon which these decisions rely. The hydrofracturing decisions in the lower courts rely upon previous rulings involving sand and gravel mining, and as a result, the presentation will require a review of those mining decisions as well.

Further, the presentation will discuss the landowners' part in the process, including a brief discussion on the negotiation of leases, impact of the legal decisions on the leases, potential takings claims, insurance coverage and property valuation. As part of this discussion, I will briefly review compulsory integration, which is a process by which property owners can be forced to allow the withdrawal of natural gas from beneath their property for compensation without agreeing to enter into a lease.

Finally, after completion of the hydrofracturing discussion, Ms Marsh will review the State's regulation of commercial wind farms in the State of New York. Until recently, those decisions were handled at the municipal level. This power was recently stripped through the enactment of Article 10 of the Public Service Law, which applies to the Siting of Major Electric Generating Facilities. This portion of the presentation will review the new law, as well as the regulations that were just promulgated. The primary purpose for the discussion will to explain the history from local control to state control for these projects, and draw parallels with the anticipated regulation of high volume hydraulic hydrofracturing in New York State.