Hydrofracking protesters

Central New York residents line up outside the main entrance to the New York State Fair last summer to protest hydrofracking. An appeals court in Albany ruled today that towns have the right to ban gas drilling.

(Lauren Long | llong@syracuse.com)

A New York state appeals court ruled today that towns can ban gas drilling, including hydrofracking, within their borders.

In two related decisions, the Third Appellate Division in Albany ruled that the Tompkins County town of Dryden and the Otsego County town of Middlefield had the right to ban drilling when they enacted their ordinances in 2011. The rulings upheld decisions by lower courts, and rejected arguments by drillers and landowners that only the state could say where gas drilling can take place.

The two cases have been important to both sides in the hydrofracking debate. Drillers say allowing towns to ban drilling will make it harder to reach New York's important gas resources, while towns say they should be able to control land use within their borders.

The court said in the Dryden case that the state's oil and gas law "does not pre-empt ... a municipality's power to enact a local zoning ordinance banning all activities related to the exploration for, and the production or storage of, natural gas and petroleum within its borders."

In a prepared statement, Dryden town Supervisor Mary Ann Sumner said the town stood up for what was right.

“And we won," Sumner said. "The people who live here and know the town best should be the ones deciding how our land is used, not some executive in a corporate office park thousands of miles away.”

The court's ruling in both cases was unanimous, so the plaintiffs would need permission from the state's highest court, the Court of Appeals, to file an appeal.

Here are the two decisions.

Norse v Dryden Decision

Middlefield Decision

Contact Glenn Coin at gcoin@syracuse.com or 315-470-3251.