The good news is that a major natural gas company has decided not to drill in the New York City watershed in the Catskills. The bad news is that the company is more likely to intensify its efforts elsewhere in the Marcellus Shale region.

As reported in the New York Times on October 27:

“ ‘We are not going to develop those leases, and we are not taking any more leases, and I don’t think anybody else in the industry would dare to acquire leases in the New York City watershed,’ Aubrey K. McClendon, the chief executive officer at Chesapeake Energy, said in an interview on Monday in Fort Worth.”

Unfortunately, McClendon also made it very clear that efforts elsewhere, such as Tompkins, Broome and Tioga Counties, are likely to be intensified. . “Why go through the brain damage of that [NYC watershed drilling], when we have so many other opportunities.” (Emphasis added.)

And just so the point is not missed, the Times concludes, “But Chesapeake and other companies are still expected to drill for gas in areas of the state outside the watershed”