New York Landowners Announce Intent to Sue Governor and State Over Drilling Delay

On November 12, 2013, the Joint Landowners Coalition of New York announced that it has finalized a complaint which the group intends to file in New York state court over the delay in deciding the future of shale drilling in the State.  The complaint, which names New York State, Governor Cuomo and the commissioners of the Department of Environmental Conservation and the Department of Health as defendants, asserts that the State’s five-year-old hydraulic fracturing moratorium is illegal and amounts to an unconstitutional “taking” of the plaintiffs’ property without just compensation.  Before filing the lawsuit, however, the group is seeking funds to finance the lawsuit.