New York Bans Fracking

New York last week finalized its prohibition of hydraulic fracturing. Although drillers are extracting shale gas via fracking in neighboring Pennsylvania, New York has had a moratorium on the technique since 2010. The ban comes at the end of a seven-year review by the state Department of Environmental Conservation of the potential environmental and public health impacts of fracking. The report cites concerns about potential groundwater and surface-water contamination from drilling wastewater and chemicals added to fracking fluids as well as climate change due to release of methane, which is a potent greenhouse gas, from drilling sites. Hydrocarbons emitted from upstate wells could also raise levels of air pollution downwind in New York City because these compounds are precursors to ground-level ozone, the main component of smog, it adds. New York is the second state to ban fracking in recent months. Maryland approved a two-year prohibition that went into effect on June 1.