Kingston Daily Freeman: Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday singed legislation that requires state-level study of any plans for large-vessel anchorage grounds on the Hudson River.

Environmental advocates cheered the action, which came about four months after the U.S. Coast Guard shelved, but didn’t outright kill, its controversial plan to create 10 anchorage grounds for oil tankers and other large vessels on the river between Kingston and Yonkers.

The bill Cuomo signed Tuesday was approved by the state Legislature in July (93-2 in the Assembly and 61-1 in the Senate). It amends an existing law that lets the state Department of Environmental Conservation work with the Department of State and the Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to set “conditions for petroleum-bearing vessels to enter or move upon navigable waters of the state, as well as ‘tanker avoidance zones’” on the lower Hudson River.

“Governor Cuomo has taken bold and decisive action by signing into law legislation that protects the Hudson River from barges and tanker ships that carry dangerous petroleum-based products and other hazardous materials,” Ned Hudson, president of the environmental group Scenic Hudson, said Tuesday in a statement emailed to the media. Read more.