"A federal judge in Brooklyn dismissed a lawsuit on Monday brought by New York state and environmental groups challenging proposed natural gas drilling in the Delaware River basin."

"U.S. District Judge Nicholas Garaufis threw out the action on procedural grounds, saying there was no basis for the lawsuit since the regulations it sought to halt had not yet been finalized.

'The court concludes that this dispute is not currently fit for judicial review,' Garaufis wrote. 'The harms that plaintiffs ultimately are concerned about are speculative, and rely on a chain of inferences that may never come to pass.'

New York and several environmental groups sued the U.S. government and Delaware River Basin Commission in 2011, asking for environmental studies to determine the effect of gas drilling on the basin, which supplies water to about 15 million people, including some New York City residents."

Jessica Dye reports for Reuters September 24, 2012. [2]