Zoning ordinances of two upstate towns barring hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking, to produce natural gas are not preempted by state laws regulating oil and gas industries, an Albany appellate court has ruled.
"While the Town’s exercise of its right to regulate land use through zoning will inevitably have an incidental effect upon the oil, gas and solution mining industries, we conclude that zoning ordinances are not the type of regulatory provision that the Legislature intended to be preempted by the [Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Law]," Presiding Justice Karen Peters (See Profile) wrote for a unanimous panel of the Appellate Division, Third Department, in Matter of Norse Energy v. Town of Dryden, 515227.
