WHERE - Hydrofracking: What Everyone Needs to Know - page 31

life habitat, farm animals, and food supplies have spurred environmental groups to
action. And citizens' fears about the impact of industrial processes, truck traffic,
and the social impact on rural communities have led several states, and individual
towns, to seek bans on fracking. I will discuss this at greater length in chapter 6 ,
but in the context of where hydrofracking is allowed, it is instructive to see where
it is not.
In June 2011, New Jersey became the first state whose legislature passed a
moratorium on hydrofracking, in a 33 to 1 vote. 8 In January 2012, Ohio lawmakers
placed a temporary ban on hydrofracking after a panel of experts argued that the
process of storing used fracking fluid, or “flowback,” was to blame for creat-
ing massive sinkholes and an outbreak of earthquakes—including a 4.0-magnitude
temblor that hit on New Year's Eve 2012. 9 In May 2012, Vermont became the first
state to ban hydraulic fracturing outright. “This is a big deal,” announced Demo-
cratic governor Peter Shumlin. “This bill will ensure that we do not inject chemic-
als into groundwater in a desperate pursuit for energy.” 10
In Colorado, the city of Longmont (population 88,000) banned hydrofracking
in 2012, and was promptly sued by Governor John Hickenlooper—who believes
that hydrofracking fluid is so harmless that he reportedly drank a vial of it in
public. “The bottom line is, someone paid money to buy mineral rights under
that land. You can't harvest the mineral rights without doing hydraulic fracturing,
which I think we've demonstrated again and again can be done safely,” Hicken-
looper countered. 11 In defiance of the governor, the city of Fort Collins (population
147,000) banned hyrdofracking in March 2013. Both the governor and the Color-
ado Oil and Gas Association have threatened to sue the city. 12
Is Hydrofracking Taking Place outside of the United States?
Significant shale plays have been identified around the world, from Australia to In-
dia to Russia, but for now commercial hydrofracking is only taking place in the Un-
ited States and, to a lesser extent, Canada. There are several reasons for this. First,
the process was developed in America, which is now years ahead of every other
nation in research, development, and use of fracking techniques. Second, favorable
conditions in the United States have allowed fracking to spread quickly. The Coun-
cil on Foreign Relations has identified seven critical “enablers” of the American
shale boom: some are essential, such as resource-rich geology; others are catalysts,