FROM EARTHJUSTICE.ORG

An upstate New York town is fighting to preserve its way of life in a lawsuit pitting a small town’s rights against an out-of-state oil and gas company’s wishes.

More than a hundred towns in New York have enacted local bans or moratoriums on gas drilling, including the controversial process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in which drillers blast millions of gallons of chemically treated water into the ground to extract gas from hard-to-reach deposits deep in the earth.

Among those municipalities is the Town of Dryden—which is now being sued.

In September of 2011, the privately-held Anschutz Exploration Corporation, owned by Forbes-ranked Phillip Anshutz (net worth: $7.5 billion), sued the Town of Dryden (population: 14,500) in a bid to force the town to accept industrial gas drilling—including fracking—within town limits.

The company brought its lawsuit after the Dryden Town Board approved a change in its zoning ordinance, clarifying that oil and gas development activities, including fracking, were “prohibited uses” of land within the town. The Dryden Town Board’s unanimous, bipartisan vote followed a petition drive and a series of public hearings, in which residents spoke out 3-to-1 in favor of the change.

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