Tomorrow could have been fracking decision day in New York, had the state Department of Environmental Conservation not missed a necessary deadline. Instead, the state’s review of fracking continues.
Today, however, a group of Assembly members introduced new legislation that, if passed, would implement a moratorium on drilling in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations. The moratorium would last through May 15, 2014, and is intended to “afford the state and its residents the opportunity to continue the review and analysis of any potential effects on water and air quality, environmental safety, and public health,” says the text of the legislation.
No matching bill has been introduced in the State Senate, which needs to happen for the moratorium to become law.
This article appears in Feb 20-26, 2013.
Anything that delays fracking in NY is a good thing in my opinion. Delays leading to a ban in the entire state of New York would be my ultimate goal.
The shale oil and gas boom is by far the best economic news Americans have heard in years, bringing enormous benefits from tens of thousands of high-wage jobs, to true energy independence, to a comeback of chemical manufacturing and other industries that had been offshored.
For New York State’s political elite to screw up this once-in-a-generation opportunity at our doorstep would be a shameful, despicable, and immoral act.