NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
 
BILL NUMBER: A2572
SPONSOR: Englebright (MS)
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the environmental conservation law and the transporta-
tion corporations 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 § 23-1101 to
prohibit the leasing of state-owned underwater coastal lands for oil and
natural gas drilling and add a new § 23-1105 to prevent the Department
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. In addition, the bill would amend
the Transportation Corporations Law to restrict the powers of such
corporations to develop pipelines associated with the delivery of
natural gas or oil from the North Atlantic Planning Area.
 
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:
2018: A.9819 (similar) (Englebright) - Passed the Assembly.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
2572
2019-2020 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
January 23, 2019
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ENGLEBRIGHT, D'URSO, THIELE, OTIS, RAIA, ORTIZ,
AUBRY, GLICK, DINOWITZ, BRAUNSTEIN, GALEF, JAFFEE, SANTABARBARA,
ZEBROWSKI, LAVINE, JEAN-PIERRE, COLTON, CAHILL, ARROYO, WRIGHT, GOTT-
FRIED, SIMON, PICHARDO, RIVERA, MOSLEY, WILLIAMS, L. ROSENTHAL,
ABINANTI, LIFTON, FAHY, WEPRIN, STECK, HYNDMAN, SEAWRIGHT, BUCHWALD,
STERN, CARROLL, SOLAGES, HUNTER, PEOPLES-STOKES, EPSTEIN, QUART,
LUPARDO, DE LA ROSA, BARRETT, RODRIGUEZ -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of
A. COOK, CYMBROWITZ, LENTOL -- read once and referred to the Committee
on Environmental Conservation
AN ACT to amend the environmental conservation law and the transporta-
tion corporations 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
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD05554-02-9
A. 2572 2
1 or modification, that authorizes the exploration for, or the development
2 and production of, oil or natural gas upon lands owned by the state in
3 the marine and coastal district as defined in section 13-0103 of this
4 chapter, that would result in the increase of oil or natural gas
5 production from federal waters.
6 2. The department is authorized to establish such rules and regu-
7 lations as it shall deem necessary to implement this section.
8 3. For the purposes of this section, the following terms have the
9 following meanings:
10 a. "Development" means those activities taking place following the
11 discovery of oil and natural gas, including geophysical activity, drill-
12 ing, platform construction, pipeline construction, and operation of all
13 onshore support facilities that are performed for the purposes of ulti-
14 mately producing the resources discovered.
15 b. "Exploration" means the process of searching for oil and natural
16 gas, including any drilling whether on or off known geological struc-
17 tures, including the drilling of a well in which a discovery of oil or
18 natural gas is made and the drilling of any additional delineation well
19 after the discovery that is needed to delineate any reservoir and a
20 lessee to determine whether to proceed with development and production.
21 c. "Federal waters" means those waters and submerged lands lying
22 seaward to the state waters of New York that appertain to the United
23 States and are subject to federal jurisdiction and control.
24 d. "New or additional exploration, development, or production of oil
25 or natural gas" includes any activity undertaken to increase the capaci-
26 ty of any pipeline or other infrastructure used to convey oil or natural
27 gas from federal waters.
28 e. "Production" means those activities that take place after the
29 successful completion of any means for the removal of oil and natural
30 gas, including that removal, field operations, transfer or resources to
31 shore, operation, monitoring, maintenance, and workover drilling.
32 "Producing" means undertaking those activities.
33 § 3. Section 80 of the transportation corporations law is amended to
34 read as follows:
35 § 80. [Definition] Definitions. 1. A pipe line corporation is a
36 corporation organized to construct and operate for public use, wholly
37 within or partly without this state, except in the city of New York,
38 lines of pipe for conveying or transporting therein petroleum, gas,
39 liquids or any products or property, or, except in such city, to main-
40 tain and operate for public use for which such purposes lines of pipe
41 already constructed.
42 2. For the purposes of this article, the terms "exploration", "devel-
43 opment", "production", and "federal waters" shall be defined as in
44 section 23-1105 of the environmental conservation law.
45 3. "North Atlantic planning area" means an area of federal waters in
46 the outer continental shelf totaling ninety-two million three hundred
47 twenty thousand acres adjacent to the coastal waters of Maine, New Hamp-
48 shire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New
49 Jersey.
50 § 4. Section 83 of the transportation corporations law is amended to
51 read as follows:
52 § 83. Condemnation of real property. In case such corporation is
53 unable to agree for the purchase of any real property required for the
54 purposes of its incorporation, and its route in the county in which such
55 real property is situated has been finally located, it shall have the
56 right to acquire title thereto by condemnation, but such corporation
A. 2572 3
1 shall not locate its route or construct any line of pipe through or
2 under any building, dooryard, lawn, garden or orchard, except by the
3 consent of the owner thereof in writing duly acknowledged, nor through
4 any cemetery or burial ground, nor within one hundred feet of any build-
5 ing except where such line is authorized by public officers to be laid
6 across or upon any public highway, and shall not construct any line of
7 pipe that supports facilities or infrastructure associated with explora-
8 tion, development, or production of oil or natural gas in federal waters
9 located in the north Atlantic planning area. No such corporation shall
10 lay or construct its line of pipe through or under a street in any city,
11 unless it shall first obtain the consent of a majority of the owners of
12 property abutting on that portion of the street in which its pipe line
13 is to be laid. Such pipe line shall be laid with reasonable care and
14 prudence.
15 § 5. Section 89 of the transportation corporations law, as amended by
16 chapter 60 of the laws of 1962, is amended to read as follows:
17 § 89. Over state lands. The commissioner of general services shall
18 have power to grant to any pipe line corporation any lands belonging to
19 the people of this state which may be required for the purposes of its
20 incorporation on such terms as may be agreed, or such corporation may
21 acquire title thereto by condemnation, except that no corporation may
22 condemn any lands for the purposes of the construction of any line of
23 pipe that supports facilities or infrastructure associated with explora-
24 tion, development, or production of oil or natural gas in the north
25 Atlantic planning area, and further excepting that no pipe line corpo-
26 ration may condemn any canal lands abandoned pursuant to the provisions
27 of article four of the public lands law[, constituting chapter fifty of
28 the laws of nineteen hundred nine, as amended,] until after they have
29 been sold and conveyed in the manner provided by the public lands law.
30 If any lands owned by any county, city or town be required by such
31 corporation for such purposes, the county, city or town officers having
32 charge of such lands may grant them to the corporation upon terms and
33 compensation agreed upon.
34 § 6. Severability clause. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivi-
35 sion, section or part of this act shall be adjudged by any court of
36 competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such judgment shall not affect,
37 impair, on invalidate the remainder thereof, but shall be confined in
38 its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, subdivision, section
39 or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such
40 judgement shall have been rendered. It is hereby declared to be in the
41 intent of the legislature that this act would have been enacted even if
42 such invalid provisions had not been included herein.
43 § 7. This act shall take effect immediately.