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Governor Cuomo offers some support for limited fracking

Governor Andrew Cuomo offered some support to a plan to permit hydrofracking in New York in communities that welcome the gas drilling process.

Numerous sources and published reports have said that the Cuomo Administration may permit hydrofracking  in some communities in New York’s Southern Tier, where the majority of residents want natural gas drilling. Communities that are mainly opposed to fracking would not be forced to accept drilling.

Cuomo has not confirmed the reports, but in an interview with public radio, he offered some support to the idea that individual towns should decide whether or not they want fracking.

“I think it’s inarguable that one should take into consideration home rule,” said Cuomo. “If you decide to go down this road at all.”

The governor says his environmental agency will come out with a plan later this summer on what he says will be a “professional timetable and not a political timetable.”

Karen DeWitt is Capitol Bureau Chief for New York State Public Radio, a network of 10 public radio stations in New York State. She has covered state government and politics for the network since 1990.
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