Thrilled, actually, as a resident of this beautiful state.

Cuomo has been kicking the can down the road for years. New York has had an effective moratorium while Cuomo said that more information was needed.

I know more than one environmentalist who thought that this was just a pose that would last only until Cuomo was safely re-elected. Some people thought that "full speed ahead" on fracking would come sometime in November, or, at the latest, January.

My guess was that Cuomo would continue the moratorium while awaiting yet more scientific review. I thought that the fracking-in-November crowd was being too pessimistic. It turns out that even I was being too pessimistic.

I still consider Cuomo far too right-wing to be an acceptable Democratic nominee for President (he will run if Hillary doesn't), but I'll admit that my opinion of him has gone up somewhat.

I don't know about the rest of the state, but there are so many positive things going on in the Hudson River Valley (where Teachout kicked his butt) that are tied to the beauty of the land and environmentally sound land usage. This is huge for our region.

This is such an important move on Cuomo's part, and it's even somewhat gutsy taking on the energy industry on their number one priority. You know damn well had New York asserted that fracking could safely be regulated that it would have been used nationwide to beat down opposition to it with statements like "Even "liberal" New York State says that fracking is safe".

I feared that Cuomo was biding time till his reelection to open NY up to some kind of "test fracking" area. He definitely wins back a lot of my respect with this move. He has real flaws in my mind, but this counts for a lot and I give him real credit for this move.

That is where future oil will come from. The Energy industry might delay when they go after it based on prices and profit margins, but they want that decision to be theirs to make, not government. They sure as hell don't want a movement to gain momentum to ban fracking in more states across this nation. They do not want to concede that there are real safety and health issues at stake. That fracking oil and gas is like multi-billions in long term bonds stored in the ground that maybe haven't matured yet but they sure as hell don't want to profit from them sooner or later, not declared forever off limits.

letting it happen.

This is a great turnaround! The beautiful state I use to live in... yes!

it sounds more like his father.

He's nothing like his father. And on this topic, it was already off the table for the past five years. Cuomo's great deed here was to NOT open the Pandora's box, for which we are all grateful. But it wasn't like he performed some sort of miracle.

I'd still much rather have Teachout instead of him.

Brown should make sure that a fracking ban protects Ca waters both on and off shore.

thanks Andrew. Now let the lawsuits begin. Hopefully they will go on for several years. Long enough for the facts to become public.

Everybody saw that coming. Go-go clean delicious NY water.