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Fracking fights across the country are heating up this week. Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has issued proposed regulations for fracking in New York, even though their promised environmental review and their limited public health review has not been completed. The public has only 30 days from December 12, 2012 (to January 11, 2013) to submit comments.

Why the Scrooge-like rush in the holiday season?

Because the regulations fall far short of the complete ban on fracking that many New Yorkers are seeking. Resistance to the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in the state has steadily grown over the years, just as pressure from the gas industry to open vast tracts of land to the drilling has also increased. Tens of thousands of public comments were filed on the draft regulations, most critical of the proposal, but the newly issued regulations would allow fracking in much of the state beginning in March 2013, according to New York ecologist and author Sandra Steingraber. Steingraber is encouraging New Yorkers to submit 30 days worth of comments.

Now anti-fracking activists are stepping up the pressure, planning a rally in Albany to coincide with Cuomo’s “State of the State” address January 9, 2013. Buses and car pools are being organized from around the state.