Albany, N.Y. (AP) - Environmental groups hope that a big victory they've won will become a turning point in the heated fight over whether to drill deep in upstate New York for natural gas.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo decided last month to order another public health study. That will delay a decision on drilling that had been expected this fall. Environmentalists think that analysis will win the day and block drilling that they say threatens water supplies.
But internal legal discussions and many long-term political factors show that what environmental activists see as a delay and even a setback to the drilling process known as hydraulic fracturing may actually make any drilling come much faster.
Closer review of polling, for example, which has shown a state split on the issue, can reveal a wash politically.
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