A state judge has thrown out a Binghamton city ordinance barring for two years the exploration for or the extraction of natural gas within city limits, including the controversial method known as hydraulic fracturing.

Broome County Justice Ferris Lebous (See Profile) concluded in Jeffrey v. Ryan, 2012-0695-M, that although the ordinance was not called a moratorium when approved by the city council and Mayor Matthew Ryan in December 2011, it effectively amounted to one.