CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE

ITHACA -- The state's new blueprint for Marcellus Shale development proposes 187 new tasks to regulate natural gas drilling with no mention of how they will be completed.

That's the assessment of a team of Cornell University lawyers and students who tackled the 800-page regulatory proposal -- called the Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement -- as a class project.

The pro bono work was done by Cornell Law School's Water Law Clinic to help the Town of Danby and the Upper Susquehanna Coalition -- a nonprofit group chartered to protect water resources -- sort through the dense technical details of Marcellus regulation.

The public has until Dec. 31 to submit written comments regarding the state Department of Environmental Conservation's plan to oversee Marcellus development in New York. The shale formation holds the largest natural gas reserve in the country, running from the Southern Tier and parts of the Finger Lakes region down through Pennsylvania and the Appalachian Basin.

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