Impeding

For the second time in four months, Broome County, NY, legislators have voted against an application from Denver-based Inflection Energy to lease acreage for natural gas drilling. In a 10-3 vote late Thursday, the county’s legislature killed an Inflection proposal to pay the county $2,250-2,750/acre to lease 3,200 acres for five years for gas drilling. A previous proposal, which would have paid $3,000/acre for 5,500 acres, was withdrawn by County Executive Barbara Fiala this summer after the legislature said it would not approve the plan. Inflection had removed from its proposal some Marcellus Shale acreage that includes county parkland or acreage adjacent to parkland. Both proposals offered a 20% royalty. A de facto moratorium on drilling in the state, which was put in place two years ago, remains in effect while the Department of Environmental Conservation reviews its permitting regulations (see Shale Daily, Oct. 13).