State panel oversees natural-gas drilling

The Cuomo administration on Friday named environmentalist and business representatives, along with elected officials, to a panel that will develop recommendations to regulate hydrofracking, a natural-gas drilling method.

The announcement came a day after the administration said it would end a moratorium on the practice and propose new regulations, including a ban on horizontal hydraulic fracturing in the New York City and Syracuse watersheds.

The advisory panel includes Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's former brother-in-law, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who is president of the Waterkeeper Alliance. Former Lt. Gov. Stan Lundine, a Chautauqua County Democrat who served under then-Gov. Mario Cuomo, will also serve on the panel.

The Department of Environmental Conservation on Friday released a draft supplemental environmental impact study. It recommends rules to protect drinking water, require gas companies to notify local governments when they apply for drilling permits, and disclose to the department which chemicals they use in the extraction process. In hydrofracking, water and chemicals are pushed into bedrock to release natural gas through fractures.

"The goal of the process all along has been to identify the risks associated with high-volume fracturing, to see if they could be mitigated in a way that protects the environment and allows this activity and the economic and energy benefits associated with it to move forward in New York," said DEC commissioner Joe Martens in an Albany news conference. "I think we've done that."

Katherine Nadeau, water and natural resources program director of the Environmental Advocates of New York, which was included on the panel, said, "We're going to fight for the toughest regulations in the country."

Heather Briccetti, panel member and acting president of the Business Council of New York State, a trade group, said in a statement she was confident the department would put "the appropriate framework in place, allowing New York to unlock this natural gas resource in a manner that will provide a much-needed boost to New York's economy, while conserving the precious and unique ecological assets of the state."