Michael Virtanen

Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - New York's highest court agreed Thursday to hear appeals from a drilling company and a farmer challenging municipal bans on hydraulic fracturing for natural gas.

The Court of Appeals, without comment, accepted two cases where lower courts upheld bans in the upstate towns of Middlefield in Otsego County and Dryden, near Ithaca.

If the case is handled routinely, it will be argued and decided next spring, court spokesman Gary Spencer said. In requesting top court review, nobody has yet asked to expedite the case.

New York hasn't decided whether to lift a 5-year-old moratorium on fracking. State health officials are still studying its effects.