Today in your Trail Mix:
Environmentalists and the gas industry square off over how long the public will have to talk about the state's draft drilling rules.
New York makes it easier to go by bike.
Plus, the history of "Air Gov."
Fracking
Got a Marcellus Shale question? Submit it to State Impact PA's new "burning questions" series.
Legislators and environmentalists are calling for the Department of Environmental Conservation to offer a 180-day comment period on draft hydrofracking regulations, rather than 60 days (Jon Campbell, Gannett).
Gas drillers naturally think that delay is unnecessary, and released a statement to that effect yesterday (Nick Reisman, State of Politics).
But what’s the rush, asks Common Cause – “the gas isn’t going anywhere” (Karen DeWitt, New York State Public Radio).
Pennsylvanians to New Yorkers: be wary of the landman and his lease (Emma Jacobs, Innovation Trail).
There's a gold rush going on in the Marcellus Shale, but it's not for gas. It's for the right to treat the waste water from drilling operations, which is estimated to be a $1 billion market (Joe Napsha, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review).
Gas drillers are trying to win the hearts of Pennsylvanians through fried foods. OK, through contributions to local state fairs (Erich Schwartzel, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, h/t Scott Detrow, State Impact PA).
Environment
Want water? Under a new measure that the governor is planning to sign into law, you'll have to get a permit if you want to withdraw more than 100,000 gallons of water a day from New York ground or surface water (Associated Press).
The Adirondack park is so big that it falls under the jurisdiction of three of the state's new regional economic councils. So the state is putting together a "working group" to advise each of those councils on park issues (Maury Thompson, Glens Falls Post-Star).
New York is making it a little easier to go by bike - the governor signed a bill yesterday requiring municipalities to consider pedestrians and cyclists when it plans roadways (Thomas Adams, Rochester Business Journal).
Higher education
A student at Cornell is fighting the university's policy of charging students for the bandwidth they use (Steve Kolowich, Inside Higher Ed).
The National Technical Institute for the Deaf has picked up a $4.5 million grant to help deaf and hard-of-hearing students get into tech and science fields (James Goodman, Democrat and Chronicle).
The kerfuffle over who would lead a newly unified SUNY Canton and Potsdam has given some donors pause (North Country Public Radio).
Business
Defense contracting is so yesterday, according to an analysis from AP, that shows that defense spending is on the decline and investors are stepping back.
Kodak's Antonio Perez is one of nine CEOs who "needs to be fired" according to Douglas McIntyre at AOL’s Daily Finance.
Politics
State senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins tells Capital Tonight that the unemployed should be a "protected class" (Maureen McManus, State of Politics/Capitol Tonight).
Liz Benjamin at State of Politics has a good rundown of the history of "Air Gov" - the scandals and slip-ups that accompany the use of state aircraft by politicians.
CSEA members have said "yes" to a deal with the governor that knocks back their raises, forces some furloughs, and boosts their health care contributions in order to avoid layoffs (Jon Campbell, Vote Up!).
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