New York Fracking Review Will Creep Into 2013

Scott Detrow

Recent Stories

Scott Detrow is a congressional correspondent for NPR. He also co-hosts the NPR Politics Podcast.

Detrow joined NPR in 2015 to cover the presidential election. He focused on the Republican side of the 2016 race, spending time on the campaign trail with Donald Trump, and also reported on the election's technology and data angles.

Detrow worked as a statehouse reporter for member stations WITF in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and KQED in San Francisco, California. He has also covered energy policy for NPR's StateImpact project, where his reports on Pennsylvania's hydraulic fracturing boom won a DuPont-Columbia and national Edward R. Murrow Award in 2013.

November 21, 2012 | 11:25 AM

Another deadline, another delay, as New York State continues – and continues – to mull draft regulations allowing hydraulic fracturing within its borders.
The Empire State implemented an effective moratorium on natural gas drilling during the Paterson Administration. As long as the state Department of Environmental Conservation delays issuing its guidelines, the moratorium continues.
The Innovation Trail reports on the latest development:

November 29th had been the date that the state was required to file its draft regulations, including the reviewed health impact study.
The state now has the option to file for a 90-day extension to the deadline for revised regulations, under a provision of the state Administrative Procedure Act, as long as they do it before November 29th.
Allowing the deadline to simply lapse is unlikely as this would trigger a restart of the lengthy review process managed by the Department of Environmental Conservation, including holding new public hearings. This would push the release of the draft regulations off into 2013 with March 1st being the likely new deadline.