STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8017
IN SENATE
March 20, 2018
___________
Introduced by Sen. LAVALLE -- read twice and ordered printed, and when
printed to be committed 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
S. 8017 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.
