Landowners React to Fracking Ban

Bill Graby, a dairy farmer, on his land in Sullivan County, N.Y., on Nov. 13, 2014. Graby was forced to file bankruptcy and may lose his over 100-year-old family farm. The recent decision announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration to ban fracking throughout the state of New York has struck a nerve among upstate landowners. (Samira Bouaou/Epoch Times)

Bill Graby, a dairy farmer, on his land with his horse Comanche in Sullivan County, N.Y., on Nov. 13, 2014. The recent decision announced by Gov. Andrew Cuomo's administration to ban fracking throughout the state of New York has struck a nerve among upstate landowners. (Samira Bouaou/Epoch Times)

“It’s an outrageous betrayal of upstate New York and particularly the southern tier,” said Tom Shepstone, publisher of Naturalgasnow.org blog and owner of 40 acres of land in Honesdale, Pa.

Shepstone will not be allowed to lease his land for fracking because it is located in the Delaware River basin, which has close ties with New York, he said in a telephone interview.

A common belief among landowners is that the decision was purely political, noting that although Gov. Cuomo deferred to the experts, he actually had the power to make the final call.

Fitzsimmons said Cuomo opted to “appease the state’s environmental extremists for his own political gain.”

Shepstone calls the decision, “really outrageous and … completely, totally political.”