NYC Comptroller-elect files in support of fracking bans by Scott Waldman, December 18, 2013, Capital New York
New York City Comptroller-elect Scott Stringer will file an amicus brief today in an upstate court battle over a community’s right to enact a fracking ban within its borders. Stringer’s brief argues on behalf of Dryden, an upstate town which enacted a municipal ban on fracking in 2011, a strategy that was subsequently repeated by dozens of communities across the state. The ban is being challenged in the state’s highest court by a Norwegian energy company that argues municipalities don’t have the right to restrict drilling under state law. Stringer, who currently serves as Manhattan’s borough president, said his support of the case goes beyond environmental reasons. He said the friend of the court brief was also his “last act” in enabling local communities to achieve greater control, an issue that has been important to him throughout his political career. “The amicus brief is really about using the law as a bully pulpit to show people around the state that local communities, in working through their governments, that they should have the ability to work on issues like this,” he told Capital on Tuesday. … “It has a potential devastating impact on the city I live in,” he said. “We’re not divided upstate, downstate. We are people who can come together around a serious health issue that is being debated across the state.”
On Monday, lawyers for Dryden filed a brief with the Court of Appeals urging support for its ban on drilling. A decision in the case is not expected until the spring at the earliest. [Emphasis added]