New York closes heated fracking comment period

The New York Department of Environmental Conservation will sift through more than 20,000 comments received since September as local communities, the energy industry and environmentalists voice their polarized views on the controversial process.

Fracking in shale formations has unlocked decades of natural gas supply in other states across the country, but has be blamed by authorities for polluting water wells.

"If high-volume hydraulic fracturing moves forward in New York, it will move forward with the strictest standards in the nation to ensure New York's drinking water and other natural resources are thoroughly protected," said DEC Commissioner Joe Martens in a statement.

The DEC's decision has big implications for energy companies - many of which have leased expensive acreage in New York that now can't be drilled - and New York's water, which environmentalists say will be polluted by drilling.

Public hearings across the state in November were characterized by raucous disagreement in small towns that could become drilling centers of the kind that have cropped up across neighboring Pennsylvania in recent years.

A decision is expected later this year, the DEC said.