Could Gov. Cuomo be about to bless the gas-extraction process known as fracking?
If so, it’s been a long time coming.
And if he’s so inclined, what more impetus does he need than the news out this week that his own state Health Department termed the process clean as a whistle as long ago as early last year.
Could there be a more perfect opportunity for Cuomo publicly to sign off on fracking than when he delivers his annual State of the State Address on Wednesday?
It certainly would be a reassuring, and enormously useful, message — an imperative centerpiece for any economic-development plan he might be announcing.
Way back in his 2010 campaign for governor, Cuomo signaled his openness to the process — which uses high-pressure water, sand and chemicals to break up rock deep underground.
Fracking’s “economic potential,” his “New NY Agenda” noted, “could provide a badly needed boost” to the Southern Tier.
Which is beyond argument.
What’s more, Cuomo pushed natural gas from fracking as better for the environment than other energy sources.
Back then, he seemed to appreciate the process’s potential benefits.
Alas, since taking office, Cuomo’s been under intense pressure from enviro-radicals to ban it.
In response, he’s ordered one delay after another.
That’s prompted some gas companies to lose faith and look elsewhere to drill — raising the alarming prospect that New York may miss out on a chance for a potentially huge economic jolt.
Yet now comes word that the Health Department a whole year ago found that, with proper safeguards, fracking would cause no “significant adverse impacts on human health” — precisely what countless other such studies have found.
To date, there’s scant evidence that the technique, which actually has been around for decades, poses any significant danger whatsoever. Even President Obama and his enviro-zealot outgoing Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson have deemed fracking safe.
So the news of the Health Department’s year-old study is encouraging, because Cuomo has suggested that the only thing holding up his final OK is another review by the same department, expected next month. It’s hard to see how this new analysis could contradict the older one — or the numerous other studies from around the country.
So, yes, after years of delay, the signs finally seem good. But Cuomo could remove all doubt by flatly stating his support for fracking, once and for all, in his State of the State message.