BILL NUMBER: S8357

SPONSOR: WEBB
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to
prohibiting well permits from being issued to an applicant that uses
carbon dioxide to complete or recomplete natural gas or oil resources

 
PURPOSE:

To ban the use of carbon dioxide in mining.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends paragraph (a) of subdivision 3 of section 23-0501 of
the environmental conservation law to prohibit the issuance of permits
to drill, deepen, plug back, or convert wells that use carbon dioxide
(CO2) for purposes of bringing a natural gas or oil well into
production.

Section 2 is the effective date.
              

 
JUSTIFICATION:

The State's 2020-21 budget added subdivision 3a to ECL 23-0501 to
prohibit high volume hydraulic fracturing using water in oil and gas
mining because of the many dangers it poses to the environment and human
health. Since the fall of 2023, leases are being offered to landowners
in Broome, Chemung and Tioga counties within the Southern Tier of New
York State to undertake injection of carbon dioxide (002) into shale
formations, with the intention to recover methane gas from the same
Marcellus shale formation, with the intent to also store some of the CO2
in the shale formation. Mining methane gas using CO2 injection poses
many of the same threats to our water, health, and climate as hydraulic
fracturing as well as some additional ones.

People living near natural gas drilling operations experience higher
rates of a multitude of health impacts, including cardiovascular and
respiratory diseases, cancer, low birth weights, and premature death. On
top of this, the methane-containing shale formations in New York contain
naturally occurring radioactive substances that are brought to the
surface during the drilling process. Radioactive dust, at levels that
can cause health impacts, has been found in homes within 30 miles down-
wind of drilling pads, and elevated levels of radium have been found in
sediments downstream from landfills in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York
State that had accepted fracking waste.

CO2 is itself very dangerous in high concentrations, and ruptured pipe-
lines transporting supercritical state CO2 (CO2 under higher pressure
and temperature that converts CO2 into a state that has both liquid and
gaseous properties) can result in asphyxiation. This was tragically
illustrated in Satartia, Mississippi on February 22, 2020 when a CO2
pipeline ruptured, leading to mass CO2 poisoning that left 45 people
hospitalized and impeded emergency vehicle response because the released
CO2 displaced the oxygen needed for the vehicles' combustion engines to
run. Some of the CO2 injected in the process of mining gas can return to
the surface along with the methane gas leading to a combination of CO2
and methane leakage. Additionally, not all of the CO2 that is success-
fully injected will remain in the geological formations because of vari-
ous fissures, fractures, and abandoned wells that offer pathways for
leakage. When exposed to moisture, CO2 converts to carbonic acid, a
compound that is highly corrosive, and can dissolve rock and cement used
around the full vertical length of the well casing, leaching heavy
metals from these materials, which can migrate and permanently contam-
inate underground aquifers, poisoning drinking water for millions of
people.

CO2 mining is unlikely to be a source of good jobs in the Southern Tier
region. Drilling workers are at risk for exposure to these radioactive
substances, as well as many other health and safety risks. According to
a recent report from AFL-CIO "Death on the Job:  The Toll of Neglect",
the mining, quarrying and oil and gas extraction industry is the third
most dangerous industry among AFL-CIO members. A 2020 study showed that
retired oil and gas workers had the highest prevalence of self-reported
poor health of all industry categories of retirees. A 2021 survey of
nearly 17,000 energy-industry recruiters, companies, and workers found
that applications per vacancy remained low, with 43 % of employees
reporting a desire to leave the field altogether within the next five
years, 56 % of oil and gas workers reporting plans to pursue employment
in the renewables sector, and 31 % of recruiters identifying an aging,
shrinking workforce as their biggest challenge.  Independent economic
analyses showed that the promise of job creation from hydraulic fractur-
ing, especially in the Marcellus Shale region of Appalachia, was greatly
exaggerated, with most of the fracking-related jobs going to out-of-area
workers. Further, during the height of the fracking boom the most
intensely drilled counties in Appalachia typically experienced both net
job loss and population loss, and money that was expected to stay in the
community was spent elsewhere.

Consistent with our state's ban on hydraulic fracturing, and in light of
the additional dangers identified above, this bill would ban the use of
carbon dioxide in gas or oil extraction.

 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:

None

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
Immediately