Opponents of hydraulic fracturing in New York State won two small, but important victories this week. On Wednesday, the Obama administration announced new regulations for controlling emissions from “fracking,” while the state on Thursday delayed its report on the environmental impact of the practice.

In the early 80s, an oil and gas company issued a press release about its plans to “frack” a well. But now, you will never hear anyone from the energy industry or conservative politics using the word “frack.” Instead you read “hydraulic fracturing,” or sometimes “fraccing” if they’re trying to be sneaky, or “clean energy” if they’re blatantly lying.  Even Obama didn’t use the word “frack” in his State of the Union address when he was offering praise for natural gas development.

A New York State Supreme Court upheld the Town of Middlefield’s ban on hydraulic fracturing and gas drilling on Friday, mirroring a decision made Tuesday on Dryden’s hydraulic fracturing ban.

In the brewing legal melee between gas drilling companies and local municipalities seeking to ban hydraulic fracturing on their lands, round one, it appears, is over: Local communities in a win by decision.

As hundreds of anti-fracking protestors descended on the New York State Capitol Monday, the Tompkins County Council of Governments released a comprehensive study detailing the potentially transformative effects of hydraulic fracturing on the region.

Ithaca native Aaron Lavine ’01, J.D. ’04, was appointed as the new City Attorney of Ithaca by Mayor-elect Svante Myrick ’09 at a Common Council meeting last week.

With the City of Ithaca set to vote on a proposed hydraulic fracturing ban Wednesday, the Town of Dryden is preparing to defend its own ban on natural gas drilling before the Tompkins County Supreme Court on Friday.

As Gov. Andrew Cuomo seeks to repeal a state moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, Ithaca’s Planning and Economic Development Committee moved forward to bar encroaching gas companies from ever using the controversial practice in the City of Ithaca.

In cases like the hydrofracking debate — where science, politics and industry are entwined in conflicting interests — a free press has the democratizing power to put information in people’s hands and let them decide for themselves.

Karim Lakhani '14 takes discourse about fracking to the level of journalistic ethics.