ALBANY (AP) – The New York Assembly has approved a temporary ban on hydraulic fracturing.

The measure would ban hydraulic fracturing in deep, horizontal natural gas wells until May 15, 2011. It’s meant to allow more time for the Department of Environmental Conservation to finish its review and new permitting guidelines.

The moratorium has already passed in the state Senate and now goes to Gov. David Paterson. The governor said last week that opponents of the drilling to reach deep, lucrative gas deposits raised enough of an argument “to thwart us from going forward at this time.”

Central New York Landowners Coalition President Brian Conover said this morning that the moratorium is “toothless” and “politically motivated.”

“Since the DEC has not even released its Supplemental Generic Impact Statement, they can’t drill now anyway! This just proves that the moratorium is politically based not scientifically based,” he said.

The CNYLC represents about 200,000 acres in Chenango and western Otsego county and has been actively marketing its lease to energy companies.

Anti-drilling activists are pushing for a completed withdrawal of the draft environmental review plan, called SGEIS. The DEC’s de facto moratorium on high-volume hydraulic fracturing in shale formations has been in effect for the past two years. The DEC suffered a set-back further with the firing of manager Pete Grannis after a memo he wrote was leaked to the press.