Metro

Fracks of life – & death – for NY pol

One of the state Legislature’s leading backers of “hydrofracking’’ for natural gas has received death threats from what he believes are environmental radicals opposed to the controversial drilling technique, The Post has learned.

“There have been repeated threats to me of bodily harm,’’ Deputy Senate Majority Leader Thomas Libous (R-Binghamton) angrily told The Post.

“There have been calls saying, ‘We know where you live,’ ‘We’ll come to your house’ — that kind of stuff,’’ Libous continued.

Libous said he had notified law enforcement of the threats.

Libous also alleged that environmental activists have been making personal and political threats against local officials throughout the Southern Tier region along the Pennsylvania border, where huge deposits of natural gas are located.

Gov. Cuomo signaled while running for office two years ago that he favored fracking, as long as the process can be conducted safely.

Cuomo administration insiders say a final decision may not come until after the November election.

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Cuomo, who earlier this month held a mini-summit with key aides as part of a rafting trip on the Hudson River in the Adirondacks, is heading back to the North Country next weekend with an even larger contingent of state officials.

The governor has directed 20 to 30 members of his Cabinet — including all state commissioners and the executive directors of the MTA and the Port Authority, Joseph Lhota and Patrick Foy — to attend what’s being billed as a “retreat’’ on Sunday in the Adirondack Park preserve.

The outing’s purpose is to discuss ideas to promote more tourism to the financially hard-pressed and increasingly depopulated towns in the Adirondack Park, the largest wilderness preserve in the nation east of the Mississippi River.

fdicker@nypost.com