A pain in the gas!

NY bans fracking, racking, but don’t blame me: gov

Wouldd I let my child play inn a school field nearb by, drink water from tthe tap or grow veg getables from th he soil? . . . My

answera is no. — Health Commissioner Dr.

Howard Zucker (left)

Get the frack outta here! After two years of studying the politically explosive issue, the Cuomo administration announced Wednesday that it won’t allow hydraulic fracking in New York.

Gov. Cuomo — who waited six weeks after his reelection to disclose the decision — insisted it was the environmental and health experts in his administration who made the call.

“I had nothing to do with it,” insisted the governor, who has a reputation as the deciderinchief when it comes to other projects.

The administration’s experts cited safety concerns for dousing the controversial but potentially lucrative gasextraction process.

“Would I live in a community [with fracking] based on the facts I have now?” Dr. Howard Zucker, the state health commissioner, asked rhetorically at a Cabinet meeting in Albany. “Would I let my child play in a school field nearby, drink water from the tap or grow vegetables from the soil? . . . My answer is no.”

Zucker spoke at length about scientific studies he said found “signif icant public health risks” with fracking, even while conceding many of the studies were inconclusive.

“Relying on limited data would be negligent on my part,” Zucker added. “I cannot support highvolume hydraulic fracturing in the great state of New York.”

Cuomo praised Zucker’s presentation as “highly effective,” “powerful” and “poignant.” The state has been evaluating fracking since be fore Cuomo took office in 2010. Agencies in his own administration have been studying the issue intensely for two years.

But the governor said that he adopted a neutral, handsoff approach and that politics had nothing to do with the results.

“My answer has been I don’t know, and it’s not what I do,” he said. “Let’s bring the emotion down. Let’s ask the qualified experts what their opinion is. All things being equal, I will be bound by what the experts say. I am not in a position to secondguess them.”

Fracking advocates blasted the outcome as an economic disaster for upstate towns.

“Our rural communities are dying a slow, painful, povertystricken death and hope is scarce,” said state Sen. Cathy Young (RJamestown). “Gov. Cuomo’s decision to ban exploration of our natural gas resources is a punch in the gut to the Southern Tier.’’

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, who legalized fracking in his state, said Cuomo was making a mistake. “If you put the right regulations in place, you can protect the environment,” he said. “There’s no form of energy produced today that doesn’t have potential to cause environmental problems. “

Environmental advocates, meanwhile, were celebrating.

“The governor promised he would make his decision on the science, and he kept his promise,” said Riverkeeper head Paul Gallay.