ALBANY — A health review of shale-gas drilling by national experts will make it impossible to meet a Nov. 29 deadline for new fracking regulations, Gov. Cuomo said yesterday, pushing a much- delayed decision on the contentious issue into 2013.
“This is a big decision for the state,” Cuomo said at a press conference at the Javits Center. “It has potential economic benefits if the state goes forward with fracking, but we want to make sure it’s safe.”
Cuomo said he doesn’t have a timeline for the health review, but he doesn’t expect it to be finished by next week.
If the deadline isn’t met, state rules would set the entire review process back at least six months. It might also trigger a new round of public hearings on the regulations that the state Department of Environmental Conservation has been drafting since 2008.
While industry groups called the experts doing the health review biased, anti-fracking groups cheered yesterday’s delay.
“We are glad the governor wants to ‘do this right,’ ” said a rep for New Yorkers Against Fracking.