The New Jersey Senate for a second time moved a bill out of committee that would prohibit fracking for natural gas in the most densely populated U.S. state.
New Jersey was set to have the first U.S. statewide ban on the shale-gas extraction method known as fracking, after a bipartisan measure passed the Legislature in June. Governor Chris Christie, a Republican, issued a “conditional veto” of the bill in August, saying he wanted a one-year moratorium while he waited for the results of two federal studies.
Democratic lawmakers’ push for a fracking ban is “nonsense,” Christie told reporters today in Trenton. There is no urgency for such a prohibition in a state that doesn’t produce natural gas, he said.
“Really? We’re going to ban fracking in a state where no one wants to frack?” Christie said. “Even if we say the practice is good, nobody’s coming here to frack. There’s no shale. This is the type of nonsense they engage in because they’re grappling for political advantage.”
Fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, is a process by which companies inject water, sand and chemicals under high pressure thousands of feet underground to break up shale-rock formations and release trapped gas. Advances in the technology have pushed shale gas to almost 30 percent of U.S. production in the past 15 years, according to data from the U.S. Energy Department.
One Year
Environmental groups say fracking contaminates drinking water and pollutes the air. The Environmental Protection Agency is studying the issue and weighing nationwide regulations. France and Bulgaria have banned the practice, while Ohio is considering tougher drilling rules in response to unprecedented earthquakes in fracking areas.
Christie’s moratorium, which lawmakers agreed to last month, expires in January. The delay in deciding on a permanent prohibition will allow government to “study the environmental effects of fracking so we have a factual scientific basis to make a judgment on this practice,” Christie said today.
While New Jersey produces no natural gas, the Utica Shale formation, a largely unexplored deposit running from Ontario, Canada, to Tennessee, lies partly under Warren and Sussex counties in the state’s northwest. A ban would head off future fracking in an area that provides almost half of New Jersey with drinking water, Senator Robert Gordon, a Democrat from Fair Lawn who sponsored the bill, said in a Feb. 6 telephone interview.
The measure unanimously passed the Senate Environment and Energy Committee and is headed to the full Senate. It also needs Assembly approval before it can reach Christie’s desk.
Democrats control the Assembly, 48-32, and the Senate, 24-16, and would need a two-thirds majority, or 54 members in the Assembly and 27 in the Senate, to override Christie vetoes.
Dear Honorable Governor Cuomo,
You have done so much to rebuild the strength and hopes of NY with promising budget plans and bold moves. Make one for the sake of the health of the citizens and posterity of NY by protecting our pure water air and soil from the dangerous and unsustainable methods of high volume hydraulic fracturing. I am a mother of a 21 month old son. I am not a scientist, or a doctor, but I have read enough reports from them to realize that NY will be in dire straits if the oil production companies are welcomed into this state. I know that our agriculture, farming, tourism, fine universities and real estate investments will be severely impacted. The industries that make NY a beautiful safe place will be threatened and desecrated by industry, the air filled with contaminents that will cause respiratory distress, and perhaps neurological problems such as is presently occuring in Leroy, NY. I know that the water treatment plants are not accustomed to dealing with frac fluid and that there will be mistakes, an estimate of 213 leaking wells in relation to the average, in Tompkins County alone, and the smartest scientists in our area have decreed this decision catastrophic for NY. I have heard that there is chemical free fracking available through Ozonix, but I have not heard of any legislations to protect NY with this measure. I am just an ordinary citizen, and yet I am distinctly aware of the ecological risks posed by draining our water sources of billions of gallons of water to become radioactive waste, just the drainage will have unimaginably negative effects on our ecosystems, and because NY is prone to high water tables and occasional flooding, we are setting ourselves up for disaster if we move forward.
I can’t imagine being educated on a higher level and condoning this environmentally shameful decision.
I do know that the future will laud those leaders that fought to protect the air, water, and soil for the health of generations, and those that were bought by corporate powers will be forever signing themselves to a legacy of shame. My emotion heralds the facts, and the fact is, I do not want my son exposed to toxic air and chemicals. I want him to swim in the waters I have, free of fear, and eat the produce grown here without worrying about radioactive contaminents in the soil. Thank you. I will save this letter, and send it again, every year, if a ban does not occur, until it is evident I am writing the tr