Today marks a make-or-break point in the debate over shale drilling. The State Senate's environmental committee meets at noon - the last meeting of the session - and on the agenda is a bill to establish a one-year moratorium on drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

Even if the bill passes, it's unlikely to please environmentalists, who want legislators to advance and pass a bill, S7592A, which would forbid hydrofracking until the federal Environmental Protection Agency completes a safety study. The study is expected to take several years. But that bill has been left off of the agenda. (The moratorium is not tied to the EPA study.)

This morning, the state Sierra Club chapter sent out an action alert, asking recipients to contact state senators on the environment committee and push them to pass the stronger moratorium.

The Assembly is also considering a moratorium bill, says the Sierra Club alert. That bill matches the EPA-linked Senate moratorium.

Environmental groups are pushing for the longer moratorium because the state, they say, isn't prepared for large-scale Marcellus Shale drilling. They point to Pennsylvania, where there's already hydrofracking in the shale formation and where there have been several significant problems; the most recent was a well blowout that shot fracking fluids and flames 75 feet into the air.

In Pennsylvania, the drilling started without Marcellus Shale-specific regulations in place. The irony is that some Pennsylvania residents, activists, and politicians now want a moratorium and regulation to address the issues.

In short, they want to do exactly what New York has done. The state has a moratorium in place, and it will remain in place while the Department of Environmental Conservation finalizes a new environmental statement for the drilling. But once that's done, the department will start issuing permits. It expects to finish the review this year and to begin issuing permits next year.