DEC Fracking Recommendations Due in Three Weeks

New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation has a little over three weeks to come up with its final recommendation on fracking to extract natural gas, and now the department’s Commissioner is indicating the agency may miss that deadline. If it does, the DEC would have to re-issue its guidelines and put them out for a new round of public comment, which could delay a decision to allow gas drilling to go forth for months. DEC Commissioner Joseph Martens said at a budget hearing in Albany that the agency is awaiting a review of the health effects of fracking by the state Health Commission. That review is expected to be completed in a few weeks. But if the health review recommends additional measures, it could delay any decisions until after the deadline expires. New York issued a moratorium in 2008 on the controversial fracking method, before it could be used. The DEC issued draft guidelines for drilling and received thousands of comments both for and against. The deadline to finalize those rules came at the end of November, but the DEC revised them and asked for a 90-day extension, with additional public comments. That extension is up on February 27th. A recent poll showed New Yorkers evenly divided on the fracking issue.