BINGHAMTON – The Joint Landowners Coalition of New York took offense to a press conference held Monday that demanded another extension on the comment period for the revised regulations regarding shale gas drilling.

“It is nothing more than the latest in a series of delay tactics which has dragged on for more than four years – costing taxpayers millions of dollars and preventing progress in our region,” wrote JLCNY spokeswoman Susan Oliver in a release this morning.

Only a few days are left – through Jan. 11 – for the public to send in their comments on the proposed permitting rules that will control how high volume hydraulic fracturing is done in New York State. The DEC and Gov. Andrew Cuomo are widely expected to allow businesses to develop the state’s energy holdings within the Marcellus and Utica shale formations in late February or early March.

Drilling opponents are pressing the governor to extend the deadline by another two months after Friday’s deadline. A group of 115 elected officials contend that a previous health impact analysis that found fracking safe was created by the state health department in secret and is being withheld from residents. Some, primarily in downstate regions, have threatened to take legal action against the state if an additional review period is not granted.

Multiple hearings, comment periods, write-ins and rallies have resulted in hundreds of thousands of people being heard since the state pulled the plug on shale drilling in 2008. The New York State Department of Health has already reviewed the public health impacts of hydraulic fracturing, and a current review by the DOH’s Commissioner and a panel of independent experts was meant to update the work that has already been done by the DEC and Health Department.