Environment News Service: As of early next year, New York State will be permanently off-limits to hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, for oil and gas. The decision follows the release Wednesday of a long-awaited Department of Health report that details adverse health and environmental effects from exposure to the process. Fracking involves horizontal drilling and the fracturing of underground shale rock with pressurized water and chemicals to release deposits of gas and oil. New York lies over the Marcellus shale formation,...