New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced Tuesday he will file a lawsuit against the federal government for its failure to commit to a full environmental review of proposed regulations that would allow natural gas drilling in the Delaware River Basin.
Last month, the Attorney General notified the federal government that if it did not commit to conducting a review before the regulations authorizing gas drilling are finalized, he would take legal action to compel such a study.
In April the Attorney General demanded that the federal government comply with the National Environmental Policy Act.
The law requires federal agencies to conduct a full review of actions that may cause significant environmental impacts.
Despite the legal requirement, the Delaware River Basin Commission proposed regulations allowing natural gas development in the Basin without undertaking any such review.
Schneiderman called on the federal government to comply with its NEPA obligations by suspending its consideration of the proposed regulations and undertaking a full review of all public health and safety risks posed by natural gas development in the Basin.
While the federal agencies determined that natural gas drilling in the Basin would potentially result in significant environmental impacts and that the study of those impacts should be performed, the DRBC’s lead agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, responded last week and made clear that it and the other member agencies would make no such commitment.
As a result, Schneiderman announced today that he is filing a lawsuit in federal District Court in Brooklyn to compel an environmental review before regulations authorizing gas drilling are finalized.
