New York's latest fracking proposal promises cleaner method. How experts rated it

In the years since New York became the first shale-bearing state to ban fracking in 2014, the decision continues to divide communities across the state.

In the Southern Tier, companies and landowners have proposed alternative extraction methods skirting the state's ban while environmental activists have called for even more restriction.

Now environmental groups across the Southern Tier are calling for an expansion of New York's fracking ban in light of the latest proposal by Southern Tier CO2 to Clean Energy Solutions (Southern Tier Solutions) to extract gas from the state's Marcellus and Utica shales using carbon dioxide, a process the company claims would neutralize carbon emissions.

Tuesday afternoon, multiple groups including Frack Action, Sierra Club, Citizen Action New York, Food & Water Watch and Science and Environmental Health Network assembled for a virtual press conference, renewing their push for an expansion of New York's drilling and fracking legislation.

Their campaign comes on the heels of other public responses including a rally held Dec. 12 in downtown Binghamton, a November inquiry launched by local lawmakers and a letter from the DEC, as Southern Tier voices debate the next chapter in the region's fracking story.

More: New York's fracking ban, 5 years later: Massive win or missed opportunity?

What is Southern Tier Solutions proposing?

On a sunny winter day outside City Hall in Downtown Binghamton, a man who helped prevent shale fracking in New York over 10 years ago announces the fight is back on.

Walter Hang is the president of Toxics Targeting, an environmental database firm which gathers data on potentially toxic sites in New York. At a rally Dec. 12, Hang called for New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to prohibit all forms of high-volume hydraulic fracturing and drilling in the state.

The appeal came in response to reports that local residents with more than 30 acres of land in Broome, Tioga and Chemung counties were being contacted by Southern Tier Solutions with proposals to lease their land for a gas drilling operation.

Bryce Phillips, president of Southern Tier Solutions, said his company offers an innovative way to create energy while also disposing of carbon dioxide.

"The premise is to develop the shale gas resources of the Southern Tier, while simultaneously converting that to carbon-free power, aka electricity, while also sequestering carbon dioxide," he said. "The carbon dioxide is a byproduct of the electrical generation process. It, as well as noxious gases, are captured at that time. Basically nothing is released into the atmosphere."

According to Phillips, the process revolves around extracting methane gas stored in shales in the Southern Tier.

"Right now, the Marcellus shale has pores filled with methane," said Phillips. "We can't put any carbon dioxide in those pores, because they are already full. You must remove the methane from the shale, and in return replace it with carbon dioxide. The shale actually prefers to absorb carbon dioxide, which causes it to release more methane. All we are doing is swapping one commodity for another."

Because the company will use the CO2 created during their process, as well as significantly more CO2 from other sources, Phillips said the project would result in "net-negative" carbon emissions.

CO2 has been used similarly in Canada and China before, Phillips said, due to a lack of access to water, and he argued implementing similar strategies could result in billions of dollars for Southern Tier landowners.

More: How this Southern Tier group is trying to work around New York's fracking ban

Questions emerge over Southern Tier fracking proposal

In November, Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo and State Senator Lea Webb said local landowners had reached out to their offices, asking if the lease requests they'd been sent by Southern Tier Solutions were part of a scam. Lupardo and Webb turned to the Department of Environmental Conservation with questions — What is the science involved in this method of natural gas extraction, they asked, and what are the potential environmental impacts?

But in a Dec. 8 letter, Commissioner Basil Seggos said the DEC had not been contacted by Southern Tier Solutions at all. Phillips said Monday while Southern Tier Solutions has been in contact with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, they reached out to the DEC and did not receive a response.

If a proposal was made, Seggos said, "DEC's permitting reviews would examine all applicable federal and state standards to ensure the agency's decision is protective of public health and the environment, upholds environmental justice and fairness, and meets applicable standards, including those related to the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (Climate Act) and the State Environmental Quality Review Act."

Phillips said the company is happy to work alongside government agencies to ensure their proposal is in line with guidelines and rules. Their method of extraction differs from the high-volume hydraulic fracturing explicitly banned in New York — the regulations pertain to fracking that uses more than 300,000 gallons of water.

Environmental experts point to drilling risks

But according to Hang, Southern Tier Solutions' proposal exploits a loophole that is "completely inadequate" and overlooks hazards presented by non-water fracking methods.

Anthony Ingraffea, Dwight C. Baum Professor of Engineering Emeritus at Cornell University, studies complex fracturing and natural gas development. Ingraffea was named a Fellow of the International Congress on Fracture in 2009, has worked with a variety of agencies including NASA and the U.S Department of Transportation and has given over 150 talks regarding shale gas development in New York.

The most harmful effects of fracking, he's told audiences, were caused by what happened before and after fracking, not the fracking itself.

Southern Tier Solutions' proposal, he said, would generate the same negative results.

"What was being proposed in New York was high volume hydraulic stimulation. What is being proposed by Southern Tier Solutions is a untried, innovative, novel form of stimulation using supercritical CO2 to stimulate the production of methane — irrelevant," Ingraffea said. "What is relevant is everything they have to do before that act of stimulation, and everything they have to do after that act of stimulation which becomes potential sources of human health and environmental impact. Therefore, the risks are all the same."

Ingraffea outlined a long list of potential negative impacts from Southern Tier Solutions' proposal, from the destruction of trees, roads and farmland to water contamination and emissions from the drilling process.

That's where the problem begins, said Sandra Steingraber, a senior scientist with the nonprofit Science and Environmental Health Network who has studied the effects of chemical contamination on humans. The negative impacts of fracking don't disappear when CO2 is swapped in for pressurized water, she said.

"In fact, more problems are added. Those problems start with the act of drilling."

Steingraber said research by Concerned Health Professionals of New York indicates potential problems caused by using CO2 could be even worse than with water-based fracking and not enough research has been done to determine the level of emissions that would result from Southern Tier Solutions' proposed method.

The plan, she believes, would represent a "massive industrialization of the New York landscape," and among its impacts would be soil erosion, air pollution, light pollution and "turning the shale layer below our feet into a pincushion and thereby opening potential pathways of contamination between the shale and the drinking water aquifers that lie above."

Phillips maintains Southern Tier Solutions' plan offers an innovative solution which could provide power to homes and businesses around the state and meet the high-power demands of the emerging tech industry in New York.

Meanwhile, environmental activists push forward, calling for New York to expand its fracking ban and prohibit the project from gaining traction in the Southern Tier.

"Once the fracking begins," Hang said, "you can't put the genie back in the bottle."

This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: New York 'clean energy' fracking proposal rekindles drilling debate