NJ Senate Passes First Bill to Ban Controversial Hydraulic Gas Fracturing (Fracking)

It seems like just yesterday I was writing on the possible link between hydraulic fracking and earthquakes in Arkansas, as well as some of the other environmental concerns related to natural gas and this method of obtaining it…. Oh yes, it was just yesterday (published this morning, though). Now, the big news is that the New Jersey Senate Environment Committee has just passed the first bill aimed at banning hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking) in the State of New Jersey.

Why write about hydraulic fracking on CleanTechnica?

This may not seem like a cleantech topic to most of you — it doesn’t really seem like one to me. However, natural gas is considered “clean energy” by our government and many others. It, supposedly, results in much fewer greenhouse gas emissions — though, that claim may not be so true after all.

Given that Gasland, a documentary on this topic, was nominated for an Oscar this year, you’ve probably also learned a bit about the tremendous water quality problems hydraulic fracking is causing around the country. It seems that a number of people and governments are now waking up to the threat and are looking to put fracking on pause until we understand more about its environmental effects.

New Jersey, like on so many things, is showing great leadership on this front now. However, the bill to ban fracking still needs to make it all the way through the state legislature to make it more than another failed attempt to protect the public from this dangerous process.

“We applaud the NJ Senate Environment Committee’s approval of a bill to ban fracking in New Jersey and we urge the legislature to pass the ban,” said Jim Walsh, New Jersey Director for Food & Water Watch. “It is time to put our drinking water above the interests of multi-national corporations.”

Related Stories:

• The Horrors of Hydraulic Fracturing
• ExxonMobil Shareholders Demand Natural Gas Fracking Risk Assessment
• No Need to Regulate Gas Fracking, Says Incoming Republican
• EPA Asks Natural Gas Drillers to Disclose Chemicals in Fracking Brine
• Fracking Moratorium Partially Vetoed by New York Governor
• Solar Power Almost as Cheap as Natural Gas in Six States
• SCE Buys 20 Years of Solar Power for Less than Natural Gas

Photo via Ed Yourdon