NORWICH – New York has more than one feather in its cap when it comes to lifting the state out of its fiscal doldrums, according to Donna A. Lupardo, Democratic Assemblywoman of New York’s 126th District.

Lupardo said as much while touring a group of agribusinesses in Chenango County last month. With the conversation focused on environmental protection practices and conservation plans on the farm and at Agro Farma’s Chobani yogurt plant, Lupardo’s recent appointment to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Panel – and the safety of high water volume natural gas drilling versus the prospects for economic development – inevitably come up.

But while the hoped-for windfalls from New York’s shale holdings have taken front and center position amongst investors and economic developers, the Assemblywoman pointed also to the state’s dairy industry and several micro-enterprises that could come down the pike within the electronics, wireless, nanotechnology and bio-pharmaceutical industries.

“I hope New York can commercialize some of the innovations we’re working on. Take them and turn them into start up companies. After all, New York is number one in the country in the amount of money we attract for research,” she said.

Lupardo is chairwoman of the Legislative Commission on Science and Technology and a member of the Assembly’s Committee on Economic Development, Job Creation, Industry and Commerce. Governor Cuomo recently signed in to law a bill she authored that supports six major high technology research facilities and institutions in Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Rochester, Stony Brook and Syracuse. It passed unanimously in the state Senate and Assembly before the end of the legislative session. Senator Thomas Libous (R-Binghamton) sponsored the bill in the state Senate.

The new law will help the already established Centers of Excellence Program, which unites the research centers, maintain its purposes, goals and enhance accountability. In addition, it will require annual plans for commercializing products or processes based on innovations developed at their facilities within New York State.

“Solidifying the Centers of Excellence in law is recognition of the value of their research and their overall importance to the innovation economy in New York,” she said.

Lupardo was appointed to the DEC’s panel on hydraulic fracturing shortly after the agency released its plan in early July for protecting drinking water and the environment from the controversial method for releasing natural gas from shales. The plan had been three years in the making.