By Jennifer K. Levine

Yesterday I attended a meeting hosted by the Business Council of NYS on the Future of Public-Private Partnerships in New York State. Samara Barend, Executive Director of the NYS Commission on State Asset Maximization summarized the Commission’s recent report and further explained how public-private partnerships can be a win-win scenario for New York State. Development of the natural gas resources in the Marcellus Shale was mentioned during the discussion of the state’s energy assets.

Concerns were raised regarding the regulatory roadblocks in the development of the Marcellus Shale in New York and the ease with which Pennsylvania is moving forward to develop their natural gas resources.

A couple of examples come to mind when I consider public-private partnerships and the recovery of natural gas in the Marcellus. First, is waste water treatment. As I’ve mentioned here before, New York State currently does not have the water treatment facilities necessary to treat waste water resulting from hydraulic fracturing. Partnering with municipal water treatment facilities to either construct new or retrofit existing treatment facilities might be a PPP project worth considering. Another partnering possibility is pipeline construction.

Portions of the pipelines will inevitably cross state property and the state could benefit from the resulting leases. Another idea which is being implemented in communities around the country is the conversion of local and county transportation and municipal vehicles to compressed natural gas. This would significantly reduce carbon emissions from diesel fuel while shifting to an energy source that is local and not subject to the price volatility of foreign oil. An example of one such partnership is the town of Huntington, NY partnering with Clean Energy of Seal Beach, CA.

It is exciting to consider the possibilities. Let’s hope that once the DEC issues its drilling regulations we will actually see some of them come to fruition.