Gov. Cuomo claims that his decision to impose yet another review of fracking won’t delay the process further, but speed it up.
“I reject the point,” the governor said, that “because you spend more time on an environmental review, you’re delaying.”
Except that Cuomo has been reviewing fracking — a process for extracting natural gas and oil from deep underground — since the day he took office.
He casually blew his own deadline for a decision, and this latest review is open-ended and doubtless good for another two years of delay — if not longer.
Yes, the governor claims that the latest delay would “actually be expediting the process net, because what could be months or years of litigation may be avoided.”
Which is preposterous, a sophistry.
Any decision that permits the extraction of even a molecule of natural gas will be hauled into court, regardless of merit — not to emerge for years. If ever.
Cuomo knows this.
So he’s trying to play both sides of the fence — to avoid political heat from anti-frackers while pretending great concern for the economic well-being of upstate.
That is, he’s faking.
It’s simply impossible to take Cuomo seriously on this any more.
His endless reviews-upon-reviews suggest that the governor was never serious about allowing fracking from the start.
The details are stultifying.
It’s enough to understand that the state Department of Environmental Conservation has been studying fracking risks for four years now — and seems quite content to chug along for four more.
Meanwhile, the federal EPA’s enviro-zealot boss, Lisa Jackson, and her boss, President Obama, have both blessed fracking as safe, if done properly.
As has every other state in the nation, with the sole exception of Vermont.
Team Cuomo, asked by The Post yesterday, wouldn’t even promise that this latest new hurdle would be the last of them.
Based on this record, why should anyone believe the governor when he says “the decision will be made based on the science” and not politics?
It’s all about politics. That much seems clear by now.
Cuomo’s faking.
New York’s not fracking.
Nor will it be, for some time.
Probably not ever.