State Decision Blocks Drilling for Gas in Catskills

[phantom power]

As a native western NY-er, my reaction to this was "wow, state legislation weighted toward NYC -- never saw that before" The other 98% of the state is on it's own?
:eyes:

New York State environmental officials announced on Friday that they would impose far stricter regulations on a controversial type of natural gas drilling in the upstate area that supplies most of New York City’s drinking water, making it highly unlikely that any drilling would be done there.

Although they did not impose an outright ban on drilling, state officials said that any natural gas company would have to conduct a separate environmental impact review for each well it proposed to drill in the Catskills watershed, which supplies the city.

Those rules also apply to the smaller Skaneateles Lake watershed, which supplies drinking water to Syracuse and some other communities.

In other areas, companies would face a far less cumbersome permit process that would rely on the state’s own environmental assessment of where drilling can be allowed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/24/science/earth/24drill.html

[joshcryer]

1. I read the headline and thought this was good news. Then I saw your comment.

*sigh*