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Municipalities Have Power to Zone Out Fracking

By Stewart E. Sterk
September 02, 2014

What limits are there on a New York municipality's exercise of its zoning power? The Court of Appeals recently addressed that question in the context of municipal ordinances banning fracking, but the implications of the case are broader, suggesting that the state legislature must use explicit language to pre-empt local zoning authority.

The Wallach case

Wallach v. Town of Dryden, 2014 WL 2921399, decided by the Court of Appeals this past summer, actually decided two separate appeals raising nearly identical issues. Both cases involved attempts to exploit natural gas found in shale deposits located deep beneath the earth's surface. Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) uses injection of pressurized fluids to fracture shale formations, causing release of natural gas. Energy companies have targeted areas within the Marcellus Shale formation as energy sources through the use of fracking.

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