An upstate lawyer is planning to sue the New York Department of Environmental Conservation Tuesday for not concluding its review on the safety of fracking.
“We are actively finishing up papers,” Thomas West of the West Law Firm said. “We’ll be working late tonight to probably file late tomorrow morning.”
His client, Norse Energy Corp., several weeks ago gave the agency a deadline of Monday to respond or face a suit.
If Norse succeeds in forcing it to finalize its 5 ¹/₂-year review, and the DEC finds fracking is safe, the state could be issuing permits to frack natural gas by the end of the year, West said.
Norse will ask the judge to direct Gov. Cuomo and Health Commissioner Dr. Nirav Shah to stay out of the process.
“We believe the [DEC’s] work is done and ready to go,” West said, referring to the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement.
“I think it was ready to be issued prior to the 2012 elections.”
Meanwhile, the governor, speaking after a cabinet meeting on Monday, said he was not sure if he would rule on fracking by next November’s election, and it was up to his health commissioners to determine when they were ready to release their findings. He was not asked about the potential suit.
Norse is alleging the commissioners do not have the right to delay action.