Environment / Marcellus Shale

New York has a stringent environmental regulatory program that imposes costs and operational restrictions on business and impedes capital investment and job growth.

The state needs to:

• Improve SEQRA and permitting programs to give business a more certain, workable timetable for the environmental review of major investment projects, including a more appropriate standard for adjudicating issues in DEC permit hearings; assuring that regulatory timetables for project reviews are adhered to; creating an expedited process for applications that meet certain criteria (e.g., replacement projects, pollution reduction, etc.); and integrating coastal zone reviews with other state environmental review requirements
  
  
• Amend its new source review regulation to eliminate unnecessary restrictions on investments that improve efficiency and competitiveness and/or reduce emissions and energy use
  
  
• Expand the brownfield program to extend eligibility to Class 2 state superfund sites and RCRA sites, for cleanups proposed by non-responsible parties

For more information on environmental issues and legislation visit: www.bcnys.org/inside/envircom.htm.