HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — A panel studying the impact of natural gas drilling in western Maryland is getting more time to produce its second set of recommendations.
Chairman David Vanko said Tuesday that Gov. Martin O’Malley has given the Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission until Dec. 31 to produce a draft report on the best practices used elsewhere to extract gas by hydraulic fracturing. That would be followed by a public comment period, with the final report on best practices due Aug. 1, 2013.
That report would otherwise have been due this August.
Vanko says the panel wants to do a good job rather than a rush job.
He says there’s been no talk of delaying the group’s third report, about the impact of gas drilling. That report is due Aug.
1, 2014.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
