ALBANY – New York regulators have released the final version of an environmental impact review of natural gas development that’s expected to lead to the nation’s first ban on a drilling process called fracking by a state with significant shale gas deposits.
Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in December that he would defer to the judgment of his health and environmental conservation commissioners, who said they would recommend banning high-volume fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, which involves injecting large volumes of water with sand and hazardous chemicals underground to break apart rock.
