Washington (Platts)--10Sep2012/450 pm EDT/2050 GMT

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo Monday said he will not pressure the state's Department of Environmental Conservation to release a proposed package of new natural gas drilling guidelines before they are ready.

"I am not saying I want it by the election or after the election," he said in an interview with Albany radio station WDJG. "I want it when it is done and they are prepared. That's when we will announce a decision."

DEC has been working for more than three years to develop a Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement on hydraulic fracturing in shale formations. The process has involved many public meetings and prompted more than 60,000 comments from the public, all of which had to be answered by the DEC.

Calling the guidelines complicated, Cuomo said the DEC is making sure the package "is well grounded" and "prudent."

"The day after the decision there will be another press conference that says now we are going to step two which is a series of legal challenges and political challenges," he said. "It is going to be an ongoing situation for a long, long time."

"The premise of some of those legal challenges is being voiced now," he said. "I can hear the lawyers' voices in some of these 'political arguments,'" the governor said.

--Rodney White, rodney_white@platts.com
--Edited by Jeff Barber, jeff_barber@platts.com

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