Garden State Blackmail?

Environmentalists say New Jersey officials are using blackmail to push for an expansion of natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania. At a Delaware River Basin Commission Meeting this week, New Jersey’s representative at the meeting, John Plonski, said the state may not pay its share of funding to the Commission unless the agency adopts its’ proposed gas drilling regulations by September.
The DRBC received thousands of public comments on the proposals. Unlike other parts of Pennsylvania, gas drilling in the Delaware River watershed is on hold until the Commission agrees on new regulations. Environmentalists say the drinking water for 16 million people are at stake, and want the Commission to do a comprehensive environmental impact statement before deciding on the regulations.
But the Commission is getting pressure from Pennsylvania to lift the moratorium. No drilling would occur in New Jersey itself, because it does not sit on top of the Marcellus Shale gas reserves. But that didn’t stop the New Jersey legislature from banning fracking in the state.

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