Energy in New York

It will be interesting to see if Gov. Cuomo will do it. From the New York Post:

Frack, baby, frack!
In three months, a statewide ban on all natural gas drilling comes to an end.

But will Gov. Cuomo allow developers to begin tapping the rich Marcellus Shale � and thus not only help allay New York�s energy woes but also boost the upstate region�s ailing economy?

Then-Gov. David Paterson issued the moratorium last December after vetoing a bill that would have extended an existing ban on hydraulic fracturing, aka hydrofracking, in which water and chemicals are injected into rock formations to release natural gas.

Hard-core lefties and environmental groups say the process � which is banned only in New York � contaminates groundwater.

But those claims are refuted by the official state geologist, who calls them �exaggerated� and says he�s found no evidence of such contamination in three years of study.

�This could really help us fight climate change,� said Dr. Langhorne �Taury� Smith, who works for the State Museum, in an interview with an upstate newspaper. �This is a huge gift, this shale.�

On the other hand, the controversy over the shale, he said, has been a gold mine for environmental groups � which have raised funds by alarming folks about the alleged dangers of hydrofracking.

The legislative ban, which was passed after lobbying by the Working Families Party and MoveOn, would�ve not only prohibited the horizontal drilling method, but also the vertical one, which has been used for decades without opposition.

Working Families Party and MoveOn are two political groups, not scientific. They should not be dictating energy policy. Especially since George Soros (MoveOn) profits from our fuel imports -- conflict of interests anyone? There have been a few documented cases of shallow fracking causing contaminated water but in the case of the Marcellus shale -- from the Marcellus Wiki:

The Process
Marcellus shale fracing normally takes place 7,000 to 10,000 feet underground, more than a mile of solid rock below the water table. Fracing is a time tested procedure for stimulating a well�s productivity that has been in use in oil and gas drilling since the late 1940's.

Sounds safe to me...