News Brief
Bloomberg BNA Report on Fracking Features Carl Pernicone in a Lively Debate on the Issue
Carl Pernicone (Partner-White Plains) was widely quoted in a Bloomberg BNA special report, “Fracking Boom Likely to Trigger More Litigation,” released on September 10, 2015. Attorneys interviewed for the report predict that fracking litigation has only just begun and that new causes of action, including natural resource damage and insurance disputes may be on the horizon. According to Carl, “If industry can win at a state level, and enact a statute that preempts localities from enacting anti-fracking ordinances, they can basically deal with everything across a state in one action, one swoop. … But if you’re dealing with states like New York, that empower localities to enact these kinds of regulations, it’s a green light for the anti-fracking groups to come in and try to force this battle to be fought literally on a county-by-county, city-by-city basis.”
Insurance coverage also comes into play in disputes over fracking. “In a sense,” said Carl, “there’s a symbiotic relationship between the regulatory side of this and the insurance side. The regulators are going to want to make sure that the practitioners involved are properly insured. Conversely, for the insurance industry to do that, they're going to need comfort that the industry can be operated safely and responsibly, which of course relates to the regulations.”