New York hedge fund Mason Capital Management this week led a group that quietly bought a bankrupt hydraulic fracker that is suing the state to force it to reveal its controversial fracking study, The Post has learned.
The group used a holding company named Any Acquisition, thereby shielding its identity.
On Wednesday it reached a deal in federal bankruptcy court to buy Norse Energy for $2.65 million, a source with knowledge of the situation said.
Norse claims it owns leases to frack on roughly 180,000 acres in the state. Mason will also now be funding Norse’s legal case against the state, which is about to reach a critical stage, a source said.
In the little noticed case, bankrupt Norse has sued Gov. Cuomo, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, and the state Department of Health to complete the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement relative to hydraulic fracturing. Norse argues the study is legally is overdue.
There will be a hearing Friday on the case in Albany County Supreme Court. The state is moving to dismiss, while Norse wants a jury trial on the merits.
“They [the state] are going to say their conduct is not subject to judicial review,” plaintiff lawyer
Thomas West told The Post, “and no one has standing.
“We are going to press hard for a hearing,” because our client has been harmed.
If it wins the case, Norse would force the state to release its results soon, and if the study concludes that fracking is safe, it could lead to drilling permits being issued by the end of the year, West said.
Norse is teamed in the legal matter with the Koch brothers-funded, Joint Landowners Coalition of New York, which represents thousands of upstate landowners, sources said.
Earlier this month, the Joint Landowners wrote: “On February 12, 2013, [ex-Health] Commissioner [Nirav] Shah sent a letter to [Environmental Conservation] Commissioner [Joe] Martens stating: ‘I anticipate delivering the completed Public Health Review to you within a few weeks, along with my recommendations.’
“Fourteen months have gone by since Dr. Shah stated he would complete his review in a ‘few weeks.’ Meanwhile, New York remains on the sidelines during one of our nation’s most significant energy revolutions,” the Joint Landowners wrote in a statement on the group’s site.
Mason and the Joint Landowners did not return calls for comment.