Free Republic

ALBANY — While the protesters who packed the stone stairwell of the state Capitol chanted "Ban Fracking Now," the political types in suits down the hall spoke of a different reality. Those protesters at Tuesday's anti-fracking rally in Albany carried signs saying "Governor Cuomo In 2014 We'll Remember" — a warning to Andrew Cuomo they won't vote for him if he doesn't ban the natural-gas extraction technique of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. The buzz among the men and women outside the state Senate chamber said Cuomo's presumed political aspirations are the exact reason why there's so much pressure on him...

CALLICOON, New York (AFP) – After a lifetime struggling to make money from the land, New York farmer Bill Graby has discovered he's sitting on treasure -- possibly the biggest natural gas deposit in America. "It's like winning the lottery," says the 6.6-foot (two-meter) dairy farmer from the picturesque town of Callicoon in the Catskills hills. The deposit, called the Marcellus shale, stretches all the way from New York to Tennessee, containing 168 to 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to New York State's Department of Environmental Conservation. That dwarfs the previous big daddy, the Barnett shale in...