Democracy Remains Un-fracked

Last night Caroline residents once more filled the town hall for discussion and a vote on what’s become known as the “Ban the Ban” resolution. About 30 people spoke during a two-hour privilege of the floor session. In the end the resolution was voted down 4-0, with one board member abstaining.

The resolution’s stated purpose was to “clarify the role of the Town Board” regarding gas drilling. If passed, it would have prohibited the Town of Caroline from taking any action to either encourage or limit gas drilling (read more here and here). But last night, most of the residents who spoke made it clear that they wanted their town to be able to take a stand against fracking.

I was unable to be there but Bill Podulka, chairman of ROUSE (Residents Opposing Unsafe Shale-Gas Extraction) gave me a quick run-down on what happened last night.

Board discussion was brief, says Podulka. Council members Toby McDonald and Peter Hoyt, who during June’s meeting spoke in favor of the resolution, declined to comment. Councilwoman Linda Adams, who co-authored the resolution with Hoyt, acknowledged that all the statements made by the public at the June meeting and last night made her realize that the community clearly wanted the Town Board to play a role regarding gas drilling and shouldn’t simply limit itself to roads.

Councilman Dominick Frongillo stated that the Town Board is just beginning to understand the impacts of gas drilling on the community. In his mind, the legal issue of whether the town is preempted by state law is not yet settled.  Since gas development would conflict with the town’s Comprehensive Plan, Frongillo felt the Town Board should not limit its role.

Town supervisor Don Barber spoke at length, and with eloquence. He explained why he opposed the resolution and laid out several actions the town should take. Podulka summarized several of Barber’s key statements:  

1) The role of government in a civil society is to protect the health, safety and well-being of the citizens, and to protect the process of democracy.  At the Federal and State level, government is run by the rich and does not look out for the best interests of the citizens.  As the only level of government still accessible to and responsive to the common citizen, local government is the last defense against runaway corporate power and must stand up in defense of civil society.

2) Property rights include the right to peaceful enjoyment of one’s property.  The size of one’s property holding does not affect the size of one’s rights.  Barber asked about the effects of huge multinational corporations entering the Town of Caroline (as would happen with high-volume hydraulic fracturing). They will impact our freedoms, he said. Even leasing itself is a loss of freedom, as landowners cede control over minerals and often the surface of their land to a non-human, corporate entity.

3) Addressing concerns about zoning issues, Barber noted that with no public input whatsoever, Caroline has just made a major shift in land use policy, as control of more than 50% of the town’s land area has been handed over to corporations through leasing.  He pointed out that zoning and other town-based land use decisions would require public notice and public discussion.

4) On the issue of preemption, Barber noted that the revised SGEIS recognizes the role of local governments in setting land use policy and clearly indicates that the DEC, at least, will not sue towns over the preemption issue. State preemption of local authority is not a black-and-white issue, and because of this uncertainty he called for the resolution to be rejected.

Acknowledging that gas drilling is a polarizing issue, Barber asked all sides to “remain sensitive to the possibility that they might be wrong.”

Finally, Barber laid out a road map of actions he would like the town to take:

•  Enact industrial site plan review legislation.
• Adopt rigorous aquifer protection plans.
• Develop a strong road preservation law.
• Give serious consideration to a ban or other control by the town on high impact industrial uses.

When the vote was called here was no vote in favor of the resolution. Hoyt abstained; citing conflict of interest, he promised to recuse himself on all votes regarding gas drilling for the remainder of his term. Adams, McDonald, Frongillo and Barber voted against the resolution.

Last night Democracy won. But, said Podulka, “It is only with the strong backing of [Caroline residents] that our Town Board will have the courage to make a firm stand in favor of the majority interest of the citizens of our community.” A good reason to attend town board meetings….

Caroline Council Tables Resolution

When you kick a hornet’s nest, you rile up the hornets. That’s what Town of Caroline councilman Peter Hoyt told listeners of WCHU during a Wednesday morning radio interview. The night before he and the other four members of the Town Board listened to residents express concern over a proposed resolution for two hours.

Tuesday night, June 14 close to 250 residents from Caroline and neighboring communities squeezed into the Brooktondale Community Center. What brought them there, on an evening when they could have been weeding the tomatoes? A proposed town resolution stating that the town would “not attempt to either encourage or limit gas drilling in the Town of Caroline”.

Before the meeting a small crowd gathered, carrying signs reading “No ban on bans!” and “Don’t Frack with Democracy”.

“I’m here to support democracy,” said Laurie Roe. She holds a sign that says “Democracy means listening to your neighbors”. Roe fears that the council’s resolution has the potential to silence citizens and quash local democracy.

Sara Hess says, “I’m here to protect my water.”  An Ithaca resident, she lives downstream from Caroline and gets her drinking water from Six Mile Creek – which is where runoff and streams in Caroline eventually end up.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the circular drive the Tompkins County Landowners coalition set up an information table stacked with handouts on what to look for in a lease.

The town council set aside a couple hours to listen to constituent concerns, but with 46 names on the speaking list and people standing three deep at the back, it was clear that the meeting would go longer than originally scheduled. Indeed, the council allowed everyone to speak, ending the meeting at 10:30. Despite many requests to withdraw the proposed resolution, the council tabled it until the July meeting.

 

Bill Podulka, chairman of ROUSE (Residents Opposing Unsafe Shale-Gas Extraction) called for the council to withdraw the resolution because it is premature and stifles democracy. “We ask that our town board listen to the people with open ears,” he said, referring to a petition that his group plans to present in a couple weeks.

During the evening a number of speakers expressed concern about ethics violations and conflict of interest. In light of the Supreme Court’s decision Monday, they suggested that town councilors with oil and gas leases recuse themselves from voting on the resolution.

“I’m concerned that some people could take away the rights of landowners,” said councilman Peter Hoyt who co-authored the questionable resolution. He admitted that he leased his land – “it’s only 15 acres, and it wasn’t much money,” he said in a phone interview the night before. “Just $3,000 – and they can’t even drill on my land.” Hoyt’s lease prohibits surface activities.

It’s not the amount that has folks all a-twitter. It’s the principle of the thing. People want assurance that their elected representatives are not financially beholden to corporate interests.

Frack Democracy! Full Speed Ahead

Town of Caroline, Tompkins County NY

Drive south of Ithaca just a few miles and you come to the Town of Caroline. It’s a lovely mix of rolling hills, farms and several small communities. People move here to raise their vegetables and children in a quiet rural environment. They stay because of the community.

But that sense of community may be fracturing. About 55% of the land in the Town of Caroline is leased to gas companies and some residents worry that a minority will rake in economic benefits at the expense of the majority. They are concerned that industrialized drilling could contaminate their water, pollute their air, affect soil and food production, drastically change land use and damage publicly-funded infrastructure.

So over the past few weeks a few of these folks have been walking through their neighborhoods carrying a petition. It’s a simple petition, only 55 words long:  We, the undersigned residents of the Town of Caroline, urge the Town Board to ban gas extraction using high-volume, slickwater, hydraulic fracturing in the Town of Caroline. The methods used and the intensity of industrial development threaten our clean air, clean water, soil, rural landscapes, and health, as well as our social and economic well-being.

Caroline in the fall

More than 900 Caroline residents have already signed the petition - more than three times as many signatures as any other petition drive in the Town has ever gathered, says Bill Podulka. He coordinates the local activist group ROUSE (Residents Opposing Unsafe Shale-Gas Extraction) which is spearheading the petition.

“Momentum to ban gas drilling by local rule has been building across Tompkins County,” says Podulka. “This week the city of Oneonta voted to ban all forms of gas drilling within city limits, and Buffalo has already enacted a similar ban.” Even closer to home both Dryden and Ulysses boards are exploring legal options to draft a fracking ban. 

And that has some Caroline town officials running scared. Two town council members have decided to take preemptive action – they’ve submitted a resolution that would preclude the board from taking any action to consider drafting a local ban.

“Before the petition is presented and before necessary legal research is done,” says Podulka.

Council members Linda Adams and Peter Hoyt co-authored the legislation, and Toby McDonald supports it. Should gas wells be drilled in town, all stand to benefit: Hoyt and McDonald have leased their property to gas companies, and Adams directs the Tompkins Landowner’s Coalition, a group whose sole purpose is to help landowners obtain the best lease possible.

Adams and Hoyt don’t see a problem with their proposed law. They contend that local drilling bans are not permitted because New York State statute preempts local regulation of natural resource mining activities.

But many legal experts dispute this interpretation of the statute. They say that although local regulation of the day-to-day operations of resource extraction is indeed prohibited, there is ample case law to show that outright banning, which falls under local land use determination, is permissible.

Residents are outraged.  “Given that these elected officials all have ties to gas leasing, their action strikes me as a brazen abuse of power to benefit their own self-interests,” says Irene Weiser.

Aerial view of drilling in Colorado

Another explained that this resolution, if passed, “… would severely limit the town’s options in the face of massive industrialized hydraulic fracturing. If this type of industry is encouraged in the rural corners of Caroline,” he says, “the quiet, sweet rolling hills of green with thrushes, peepers, crickets and wild flowers could quickly be replaced with thousands of thundering trucks and hundreds of massively noisy industrial drilling rigs that will destroy the countryside for years to come -- all for the short term financial benefit of only a few. These drilling rigs are massive and industrial; this is not your grand-dad's little gas well sitting quietly out on the back forty.”

Earlier today town supervisor Don Barber commented on the attempt to short-circuit the democratic process. The resolution may be an attempt to stop debate about a frack ban. “But the town board will have that debate,” Barber said. “ The town needs to hear from all its residents before taking a position.”

The Caroline Town Board will hold its public business meeting on Tuesday, June 14, at 7 pm.  Public comments regarding the proposed resolution will begin at 8:15 pm, after the Board considers other matters.

Text Of The Proposed Resolution

Resolution Clarifying the Town of Caroline’s Role Regarding Gas Development Based on Current Environmental Conservation Law

Whereas Ecl 23-0303, section 2 states,  “The provisions of this article shall supersede all  local  laws or ordinances  relating  to  the  regulation of  the oil, gas and solution  mining industries; but shall not supersede local government jurisdiction over local roads or the rights  of  local  governments  under  the  real property tax law”; and

Whereas it is the opinion of our municipal attorney that the State clearly, with intent and purpose, set this scope; therefore be it

Resolved that the Town will not attempt to either encourage or limit gas drilling in the Town of Caroline; and further

Resolved that the Town will exercise its fiduciary responsibility to protect its investments in local roads, primarily through road use agreements; and further

Resolved that the Town through its authority under the Stormwater Law will protect local water supplies from any damaging effects of surface runoff due to gas drilling or any other large scale industrial activity.