NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
 
BILL NUMBER: A9819
SPONSOR: Englebright
 
TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in
relation to prohibiting state authorizations related to certain offshore
oil and natural gas production
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL::
To prohibit oil and natural gas drilling in New York's coastal areas.
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS::
This bill would amend Environmental Conservation Law § 231101 to prohib-
it the leasing of state-owned underwater coastal lands for oil and
natural gas drilling and also add a new § 23-1105 to prevent the Depart-
ment of Environmental Conservation and the Office of General Services
from authorizing leases that would result in the increase of oil or
natural gas production from federal waters.
 
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ORIGINAL AND AMENDED VERSION (IF APPLICABLE):
Not applicable.
 
JUSTIFICATION::
In a Presidential Executive Order issued on April 28, 2017, President
Trump announced an "America-First Offshore Energy Strategy." The imple-
mentation of this Executive Order included the United States Department
of the Interior's (DOI) January 4, 2018 announcement regarding plans for
the expansion of natural gas and oil drilling, and the release of the
"2019-2024 National Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Draft
Proposed Program," by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM). The
federal proposed offshore drilling expansion includes the potential
lease of acreage in federal offshore areas such as the approximately 270
million-acre Atlantic Region. The Atlantic Region, which extends north
to Canada, east to the territorial waters of the Bahamas, and south to
the territorial waters of Cuba, is divided into four planning areas -
North Atlantic (which includes New York), Mid-Atlantic, South Atlantic,
and Straits of Florida. The BOEM proposal includes a total of nine lease
sales in the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) of the Atlantic Region, with
two potentially taking place in the North Atlantic area that includes
New York.
Drilling off New York's Atlantic Coast has been off limits for decades
and as a result, some of the State's laws regulating oil and natural gas
drilling have not kept pace. This legislation would remedy that over-
sight and prohibit the use of the State's underwater lands for drilling.
Such a prohibition is in keeping with New York's coastal management
practices, and also protects endangered and threatened species, such as
the North Atlantic right whale, and the State's recreational and commer-
cial fishing industries. In addition, this legislation, based in part on
legislation from California, would prohibit DEC and OGS from providing
leases that would result in the increase of oil or natural gas
production from federal waters.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY::
This is new legislation.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:: None.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
9819
IN ASSEMBLY
February 13, 2018
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ENGLEBRIGHT, PELLEGRINO, D'URSO, THIELE -- read
once and referred to the Committee on Environmental Conservation
AN ACT to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to
prohibiting state authorizations related to certain offshore oil and
natural gas production
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraphs a and b of subdivision 1 of section 23-1101 of
2 the environmental conservation law, as added by chapter 722 of the laws
3 of 1977, are amended to read as follows:
4 a. The exploration, development and production of gas in state-owned
5 lands, except state park lands, the marine and coastal district as
6 defined in section 13-0103 of this chapter, and the lands under the
7 waters of Lake Ontario or along its shoreline; and
8 b. The exploration, development and production of oil in state-owned
9 lands, except state park lands, the marine and coastal district as
10 defined in section 13-0103 of this chapter, and the lands under the
11 waters of Lake Erie and Lake Ontario or along their shorelines.
12 § 2. The environmental conservation law is amended by adding a new
13 section 23-1105 to read as follows:
14 § 23-1105. Prohibition on state authorizations related to certain
15 offshore oil and natural gas production.
16 1. Neither the department nor the office of general services shall
17 enter into any new lease or other conveyance, lease renewal, extension
18 or modification, that authorizes the exploration for, or the development
19 and production of, oil or natural gas upon lands owned by the state in
20 the marine and coastal district as defined in section 13-0103 of this
21 chapter, that would result in the increase of oil or natural gas
22 production from federal waters.
23 2. The department is authorized to establish such rules and regu-
24 lations as it shall deem necessary to implement this section.
25 3. For the purposes of this section, the following terms have the
26 following meanings:
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD14741-02-8
A. 9819 2
1 a. "Development" means those activities taking place following the
2 discovery of oil and natural gas, including geophysical activity, drill-
3 ing, platform construction, pipeline construction, and operation of all
4 onshore support facilities that are performed for the purposes of ulti-
5 mately producing the resources discovered.
6 b. "Exploration" means the process of searching for oil and natural
7 gas, including any drilling whether on or off known geological struc-
8 tures, including the drilling of a well in which a discovery of oil or
9 natural gas is made and the drilling of any additional delineation well
10 after the discovery that is needed to delineate any reservoir and a
11 lessee to determine whether to proceed with development and production.
12 c. "Federal waters" means those waters and submerged lands lying
13 seaward to the state waters of New York that appertain to the United
14 States and are subject to federal jurisdiction and control.
15 d. "New or additional exploration, development, or production of oil
16 or natural gas" includes any activity undertaken to increase the capaci-
17 ty of any pipeline or other infrastructure used to convey oil or natural
18 gas from federal waters.
19 e. "Production" means those activities that take place after the
20 successful completion of any means for the removal of oil and natural
21 gas, including that removal, field operations, transfer or resources to
22 shore, operation, monitoring, maintenance, and workover drilling.
23 "Producing" means undertaking those activities.
24 § 3. Severability clause. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivi-
25 sion, section or part of this act shall be adjudged by any court of
26 competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect,
27 impair, on invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in
28 its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section
29 or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such
30 judgement shall have been rendered. It is hereby declared to be in the
31 intent of the legislature that this act would have been enacted even if
32 such invalid provisions had not been included herein.
33 § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.