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New York towns stand against fracking and score a victory against the all powerful oil industry. On May 2nd, residents of Dryden and Middlefield N.Y. successfully won an appeal at the state court level to ban gas development activities within town limits. Earthjustice.org reports:

Dryden’s story began in 2009, after residents pressured by oil and gas company representatives to lease their land for gas development learned more about fracking, the technique companies planned to use to extract the gas. During fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, companies inject millions of gallons of chemically treated water into the ground to break up rock deposits and force out the gas. Residents organized and educated for more than two years under the banner of the Dryden Resource Awareness Coalition (DRAC), ultimately convincing the town board to amend its zoning ordinance in August 2011 to clarify that oil and gas development activities, including fracking, were prohibited.

Over 300 communities across the country have taken some formal action against the practice of fracking, including Mora County, N.M., which voted this week to ban all oil and gas extraction practices. The sudden movement on the part of these municipalities and counties to regulate fracking has stimulated debate regarding the role of the federal government in such matters. Meg Handley of U.S. News writes:

The tensions bubbling at the state and local level have prompted those in Washington to take a closer look at what role the federal government should play in fracking regulation. A proposed rule by the Obama administration would require companies to disclose proprietary formulations of chemicals used in fracking operations in hopes of increasing public confidence in the practice. Newly confirmed Interior Department Secretary Sally Jewell recently announced that new draft federal rules on fracking will be released in a matter of “weeks, not months.”