Cuomo should assess fracking
Crews drill for natural gas in Pennsylvania Credit: AP Photo/Ralph Wilson
Among the long list of items Gov. Andrew Cuomo should sort out soon, let us suggest fracking.
That's the short name for hydraulic fracturing: using a lot of water, plus chemicals, to free natural gas from geological formations.
Upstate, it's seen as a great source of gas and of jobs for an economically stressed region. But environmentalists fear its impacts, from how much water it uses to how it will dispose of the waste.
There are thousands of oil and gas wells in the state. In 1992, the Department of Environmental Conservation issued a generic environmental impact statement for drilling. But now industry wants to drill horizontally, using high volumes of water, in the Marcellus Shale, which runs across the Southern Tier, to the area of New York City's reservoirs. Before that can happen, DEC has to update the 1992 document.
So the State Legislature imposed a moratorium until next May 15 on new fracking permits. Gov. David A. Paterson vetoed it and issued an executive order imposing a moratorium on horizontal, but not vertical, wells. Drillers call that step courage. Critics see it as a loophole.
Early on, Cuomo should determine whether Paterson's order adequately protects the environment, until the DEC study is done. And if it doesn't, he should issue a new order of his own. hN
