PETITIONER LACKED STANDING TO CONTEST BAN ON FRACKING.
The Third Department determined petitioner lacked standing to challenge the statewide ban on fracking:
In 2010, then Governor David Paterson issued an executive order prohibiting respondent Department of Environmental Conservation (hereinafter DEC) from issuing permits for the use of high volume hydraulic fracturing (hereinafter HVHF) for the stimulation of oil and gas wells pending the completion of a supplemental generic environmental impact statement under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (see ECL art 8). That order was extended by Governor Andrew Cuomo in 2011 and remained in effect when petitioner, in December 2014, first wrote to respondent Commissioner of Environmental Conservation seeking permission to conduct HVHF on his properties in Allegany and Monroe Counties. …
We agree with Supreme Court that petitioner lacked standing to challenge the statewide prohibition on HVHF. “Standing is a threshold determination, resting in part on policy considerations, that a person should be allowed access to the courts to adjudicate the merits of a particular dispute that satisfies the other justiciability criteria” … . In order to have standing in a land use matter, petitioner must demonstrate, among other things, that he “would suffer direct harm, injury that is in some way different from that of the public at large” … .
At the time of commencement of this proceeding, petitioner had not applied for a permit nor offered any proof that he met any of the requirements to obtain a permit. He offered no proof of any plans to move forward with the process and conceded that any plans would necessarily involve commitments by oil and gas exploration companies, of which he had none. Petitioner’s standing at the time of filing was no different than that of any landowner in the state; thus he lacked standing to challenge the determination … . Matter of Morabito v Martens, 2017 NY Slip Op 02863, 3rd Dept 4-13-17
ENVIRONMENTAL LAW (PETITIONER LACKED STANDING TO CONTEST BAN ON FRACKING)/FRACKING (PETITIONER LACKED STANDING TO CONTEST BAN ON FRACKING)