In New York, state officials have opened the door to natural gas drilling inside the watershed supplying drinking water to some fifteen million people, including nine million New Yorkers. On Wednesday, regulators unveiled new guidelines allowing companies to drill for gas in the Marcellus Shale, but under strict conditions. Environmental advocates and citizens’ groups had called for a full drilling ban over concerns the drilling will contaminate water supplies. The New York rules are billed as the toughest in the country, but critics say that doesn’t go far enough. Kate Sinding of the Natural Resources Defense Council said, “It is not appropriate to allow drilling in such a unique and extraordinarily valuable resource. The record in other states is so abysmal, and it doesn’t take much to do better than [them].”