Groups seek budget action on hydrofracking

ALBANY -- Opponents of natural gas hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, want Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver to make sure the governor won't be able use his 2012-13 budget to sneak the technique into the state budget after lawmakers approve it.

A letter to Silver signed Wednesday by 53 environmental and health organizations asked that lawmakers remove language from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's proposed budget that would allow him later to move funds between agencies at his discretion. The opponents fear that could allow him to shift money to the Department of Environmental Conservation to cover the regulatory costs of starting gas drilling.

Such "transfer language" could "allow the state to roll out a fracking program the legislature hasn't signed off on," said Katherine Nadeau, program director of Environmental Advocates of New York.

Nadeau and others who signed the letter said Cuomo and the DEC should not have the authority or the resources to allow hydrofracking until the legislature is satisfied the technique can be regulated to protect public health and the environment.

The Cuomo administration says the transfer language is needed to aid the consolidation of "back-office" functions across different agencies.

"We are reviewing the letter, and these are good points to consider," said Katie Derickson, a Silver spokeswoman.

The letter also asked that: Some natural gas drilling byproducts be subject to state hazardous waste disposal rules; funds be budgeted to pay for a public health analysis of impacts from hydrofracking; tax exemptions for oil and gas production and services be halted and such taxes used to pay for plugging hundreds of abandoned petroleum wells in the state; and a law be passed that specifies that local governments can use local zoning laws to allow or ban hydrofracking within their borders.