From the AP today: The Department of Environmental Conservation has announced that the 60-day period for public comment on the latest draft of gas drilling regulations -- scheduled to begin in early August -- has been pushed back to "late summer."
The latest delay is to allow DEC to incorporate the findings of a socio-economic impact study done by Buffalo-based consultant Ecology and Environment.
The DEC has released several draft versions of the new regulations -- a partial one on July 1, and a more complete version a week later. At the time, the agency said they were still working on the parts that deal with the socioeconomic and community impacts of gas drilling. (Guess that part took a little longer than they thought it would.)
Last month, we read through most of the DEC's July 1 draft, and took an in-depth look at what's changed, what's interesting, and what's still unclear about the new regulations. We also included the draft SGEIS itself, in an embedded document. Check it out here.
