NEW YORK — Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to lift a moratorium on the controversial natural gas extraction technique known as hydraulic fracturing, The New York Times reported Thursday.
Such a move could open the state to a gas drilling boom similar to what is happening in neighboring Pennsylvania, and it would certainly raise opposition from environmentalists who believe "fracking" or "hydrofracking" pollutes drinking water.
A spokesman for Cuomo, Joshua Vlasto, called the report "baseless speculation and premature."
But the state's Department of Environmental Conservation later Thursday announced it would recommend allowing fracking in certain areas, while preventing it in the watersheds that serve New York City and Syracuse.
Drilling also would be banned within primary aquifers and surface drilling prohibited on state-owned land, including parks, forest areas and wildlife management areas.
The Marcellus Shale formation could become one of the world's most productive natural gas fields. I think that Pennsylvania has taken the lead in gas production using "fracking" (hydraulic fracturing) from this large shale deposit that intersects several states amd extends all the way from Tennessee north underneath Lake Erie to the border with Canada. The shale formation underlies almost all of West Virginia and comprises large areas in Ohio, Pennsylvania and southern New York state.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id...eportedly-get-ny-ok/
