I did not support the moratorium bill the Assembly passed last night because it is has unintended consequences and does not address the concerns that most New Yorkers have about high-volume hydraulic fracturing. It simply places a moratorium with an arbitrary date of May 15th on top of what is already a defacto moratorium. It also prohibits the DEC from issuing new permits for vertical drilling, which has been used to safely extract natural gas in New York State for decades. This will cost jobs in Upstate New York at a time when we can least afford it. The Legislature should allow DEC to complete its regulatory review before inserting itself into the process (and that process could go beyond May 15, 2011).