New York’s top court has ruled in favor of local officials’ ability to approve zoning laws which effectively ban hydraulic fracturing. The state Court of Appeals affirmed the lower court ruling that the state’s oil and gas law does not override a local government’s ability to control land use. Over 170 municipalities have passed bans or moratoriums on drilling. Those bans come in addition to the statewide moratorium on fracking which has been in place since July of 2008. A health impact review of fracking was launched in 2012, and Governor Andrew Cuomo has said he will not lift the statewide ban until that review is complete. Currently there is no timetable for when the review will be completed. One of the arguments the court heard involved the Town of Dryden, which was sued by a Denver-based oil-and-gas company back in 2011, after it changed its zoning laws to prohibit natural gas drilling. After lower courts sided with Dryden, the company appealed the decision, eventually leading to the most recent decision by the Court of Appeals.
