ALBANY, N.Y. — Natural gas drilling companies would be banned in New York from using an extraction method that involves injecting large amounts of liquified carbon dioxide deep underground under a bill moving through the state legislature.
Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, a Democrat, said New York doesn’t have much of an appetite for allowing fracking of any kind. Gov. Kathy Hochul’s office said she would review the legislation. Hydraulic fracturing involves pumping huge volumes of water, sand and chemicals underground under pressure intense enough to break layers of rock that contain oil or natural gas deposits so that the fossil fuel can be extracted. Fracking can cause earthquakes and has raised concerns about groundwater contamination.
Retired sheep farmers Harold and Joan Koster, whose farm is outside Binghamton, were among the many landowners who received letters. “No methane is released into the atmosphere through this process. No carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere,” Phillips said.