The Bloomberg News link below is a late-July 2012 account of the status of the State of New York’s lawsuit seeking a federal environmental impact analysis of the potential water-resources impacts of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas extraction. New York filed the suit in May 2011 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn). Arguments were heard July 24 on whether the Delaware River Basin Commission—which sets water-related natural-gas extraction regulations for the Delaware Basin areas of New York, Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania—is a federal agency and therefore can be sued in federal court; on whether any injury has in fact occurred hydraulic fracturing; and on whether such a lawsuit can be brought before the commission issues any regulations. The court is also considering the standing of several energy trade groups to intervene in the suit. The case is New York v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 11- cv-2599.
Source: U.S. Says New York State Can’t Sue Over Fracking Regulations, Bloomberg News, 7/24/12
