Opinion

Even Lisa’s on board

When even a reflexively overreaching extremist like US Environmental Protection Administrator Lisa Jackson sees only an upside to hydraulic fracturing, isn’t it time for Albany to climb on board too?

Jackson told an energy conference in New Jersey on Wednesday, “I think that fracking as a technology is perfectly capable of being clean. I do.”

Adding that the gas-extraction procedure produces “a huge return on the investment,” Jackson essentially embraced fully what President Obama said implicitly in his State of the Union address.

The president noted the multiple benefits of fracking (including job creation) and rejected the notion that the procedure amounts to having “to choose between our environment and our economy.”

So, the administration sees fracking as an economically beneficial and, yes, safe option on America’s complete energy menu.

Alas, fracking is going nowhere fast in New York.

Energy obstructionists in Albany and elsewhere are doing everything in their power to impede state approval of the process — which has time and again been proven fundamentally sound all over America.

Last Tuesday, state Supreme Court Judge Philip Rumsey ruled that the upstate Town of Dryden’s self-imposed fracking ban was permissible under the state Environmental Conservation Law.

That’s a potentially huge setback, as green activists are working hard to get similar local bans passed all across the state.

For sure, it puts the issue on track for eventual resolution by the most politicized top court in recent state history.

And, regardless of whether local bans survive judicial scrutiny, scarcely a day goes by without further evidence being presented of the death-by-a-thousand-cuts strategy being pursued by the anti-fracking zealots.

That’s why state Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens needs to expedite his months-in-the-making review and finally end New York’s status as the only state in the nation with a blanket ban on fracking.

The longer it takes, the easier it is for the opposition to continue spreading its fear campaign.

Gov. Cuomo needs to give Martens a slight nudge — or kick in the pants, whichever produces results.

Oh, and introducing state legislation to prohibit these local fracking bans would be a good move, as well.

Time’s a-wasting.