© 2025
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Md. gas drilling panel's work delayed again

Activists in New York are keeping an eye on a Maryland state panel that’s taking extra time to draft a report on the best practices for hydraulic fracturing for natural gas. More from WAMC’s Dave Lucas

The Maryland Department of the Environment said Monday that the Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission expects to put the draft report out for public comment sometime this spring instead of by Dec. 31.

An MDE spokesman says the commission still aims to issue its final report on best practices by Aug. 1.

The panel's conclusive report on the environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing is due a year later, on Aug. 1, 2014.

The panel is studying the impact of gas drilling in western Maryland. The region sits atop part of the Marcellus shale, a vast geological formation that also underlies parts of New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press.

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.