ALBANY, N.Y. (WHCU) – Legislation to ban C-O-2 drilling has passed in the New York State Assembly.

Assemblymember Anna Kelles, State Senator Lea Webb, and others scrambled to put the bill together after reports that a Texas-based company was trying to lease property in the region for the practice, which was essentially a workaround of language in the state’s fracking ban. It passed 97-50.

“New York State wisely prohibited high-volume hydraulic fracturing in 2020, and I’m so proud to say once again the Assembly upheld science and fact to pass the legislation I had the honor to champion to ban the use of pressurized carbon dioxide for gas and oil extraction,” said Kelles.

“No matter what substance is used to frack for gas and oil, it is still fracking. It will still have severe negative health and environmental consequences only exacerbated by the use of a highly corrosive substance that is known to cause pipeline ruptures and destabilization through acidification and demineralization of the very ground under our feet.”

Environmentalists are now calling on the State Senate to quickly bring the bill to vote and pass it.