N.Y. legislation would place one-year moratorium on gas drilling
Posted by CITIZEN POWER ALLIANCE at 7:30 AMALBANY -- A bill that would put a one-year moratorium on new natural gas drilling permits in New York received the backing Monday of key lawmakers in the Senate and Assembly.
The bill would suspend until June 1, 2011, hydraulic fracturing for the extraction of natural gas, a controversial process that uses water and chemicals to break up rock formations and make the gas more accessible.
The chairmen of the Environmental Conservation committees are sponsoring the bill: Sen. Antoine Thompson, D-Buffalo, and Assemblyman Robert Sweeney, D-Babylon, Suffolk County.
The measure, which will mainly impact the Southern Tier, passed the Senate Environmental Conservation committee on Monday, but it was unclear if or when it would be brought to a vote of the full Legislature.