Gas Drilling Vote Cancelled: Delaware Governor to Vote No

Trenton, NJ:  The November 21, 2011 vote to be held at the Trenton War Memorial by the Delaware River Basin Commission has been cancelled according to sources.  The vote was to seek approval of regulations that would have allowed shale gas drilling in the Delaware River Basin by the beginning of 2012.  The last minute cancellation is the second time this vote has been put off.  And this time is believed to be in response to an announcement by the Governor of Delaware that he would vote against the regulatory/drilling proposal.

Delaware Riverkeeper Maya van Rossum praised Governor Markell.  “Governor Markell has listened to the will of the people, to the science and to the tremendous environmental and community harm being caused by gas drilling where it is happening.   The issue of shale gas drilling has finally moved out of the political arena and is now being treated as an issue of genuine public policy concern,” said Delaware Riverkeeper van Rossum.

Read the remainder of the press release in full by clicking HERE.

France becomes 1st country to ban fracking

Just as New Jersey recently became the first state in the country to ban fracking, we are learning that France has become the first country in the world to ban it.

The French parliament voted on June 30 to ban the controversial technique for extracting natural gas from shale rock deposits known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the web sites of Le Monde and other French media reported.

The bill had already passed the National Assembly, the country's lower chamber, on June 21, and on June 30 a Senate vote of 176 to 151 made France the first country to enact such a ban, just as New York State is preparing to lift a moratorium on the same method.

The vote was divided along party lines, with the majority conservative party voting in favor and the opposition voting against the bill, according to Le Monde. The Socialist Party, in particular, opposed the bill because it did not go far enough. The bill's critics said that it left open possible loopholes and that in particular it does not prevent the exploitation of oil shale deposits by techniques other than fracking. An earlier version of the bill, which the Socialists had supported, would have banned any kind of development of the deposits, Le Monde reported.

Companies that currently own permits for drilling in oil shale deposits on French land will have two months to notify the state what extraction technique they use. If they declare to be using fracking, or if they fail to respond, their permits will be automatically revoked.

[This article, by Davide Castelvecchi, appeared June 30, 2011 in the "Observations" blog on Scientific American's website.  To read the remainder of the article in its entirety, please click HERE.]