After successfully holding hearings around the country on the impact of the natural gas drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing, officials with the federal Environmental Protection Agency ran into a hurdle this week in New York State: finding an acceptable site for a hearing and for the passionate crowds expected to show up for it.

Advocates have been turning out in force at the gas drilling hearings.The agency announced on Tuesday that it was canceling an all-day hearing that had been scheduled for Thursday after local officials expressed concern that they had not been given enough time to prepare security in anticipation of rallies and protests at the event, the New York Times reported.

Judith Enck, the EPA's regional administrator in New York, said that Binghamton University had been squared away as the original meeting place last month but suddenly decided to change the venue to a room with no air conditioning.

When the EPA "pushed back" on this change, she said, the university relented but raised its fee for the event - to $32,000 from $6,000. But university officials countered that they had raised the price to cover security and logistical costs after consulting local law enforcement officials, special interest groups and others who indicated  as many as 8,000 people could show up for the hearing, far more than the 1,200 participants  It is unclear how the university arrived at that 8,000 estimate.

The cancellation disappointed many of the people whose planned attendance had stirred some concern for the host venues. Roger Downs, the Sierra Club's senior staff member in New York, said that environmental and grassroots groups had planned to bus people from around the state to the hearing to hold a rally. He said the rally was intended to signal concern over drilling but also support for the EPA, which is soliciting testimony for a study on the potential impact of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water.