It seems Governor Cuomo has decided to sell out Upstate New York and its workers by putting natural gas development on hold. Reports claim Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. convinced Cuomo the health risk was too great and he should await the results of a Pennsylvania health study for which there is no scheduled deliverable. It suggests there is a lot more to the story and, of course, there is.

Governor Cuomo didn’t put his former brother-in-law on the Hydraulic Fracturing Advisory Committee out of familial obligations and he’s not listening to him now for anything other than strictly political reasons. RFK, Jr. is simply a convenient mouthpiece on which to blame a delay engineered by others. There are two plausible explanations for the delay; one is a matter of speculation by many folks and the other is a more likely scenario based on the actions of the Governor as opposed to his words.

Cuomo, it appears to many, is afraid to make a decision because it might interfere with his run for the White House in 2016. Numerous reporters have recently suggested this is at the root of his wavering. Interestingly, I received an e-mail from a supporter in the know back in September 2012 suggesting the New York State Department of Health would be the fall guy for a strategy of delaying any decision until after the Governor’s 2014 reelection, when he wants to roll up a big majority in the state to launch his Presidential bid immediately thereafter. Of course, in New York this requires he not alienate any of the environmental special interests who are part of his natural constituency. So far, everything that supporter predicted has been falling in place and, therefore, this has to be viewed as a credible explanation and very possibly part of the Cuomo thinking.

Still, does a governor trying to establish a record on which to appeal to a national audience and who has to demonstrate economic leadership, surrender policy to the extremist environmental views of his ex-brother-in-law, a man of highly questionable authenticity on the issue? Deferring to such an individual is hardly the ticket to that kind of reputation. There has to be a better explanation, and there is. The Governor’s political dilemma is being exploited by some extremely powerful special interests – New York’s blue bloods – and the result is potentially devastating to the hopes of blue collar New Yorkers who desperately need help.

http://eidmarcellus.org/marcellus-shale/cuomos-choice-blue-collar-b...