CHRISTIE FAVORS FRACKING (FOR NOW)--YOU?

In New Jersey, Christie Vetoes Anti-Fracking Bill

WHATTA YOU THINK???

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 By Jim Malewitz, Staff Writer

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie vetoed a bill Friday (September 21) that would have banned the disposal of hydraulic fracturing waste in New Jersey, rankling environmentalists who oppose the method of natural gas extraction and fear that the wastewater it generates taints local water supplies.

“Governor Christie has sold out our drinking water to the fossil fuel industry,” Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, said in a release. “Instead of protecting our waterways he is allowing companies to dump toxic fracking pollution in our waterways.”

The veto by Christie, a Republican, is his second major move against a fracking crackdown.  In 2011, he vetoed an outright ban of the practice, a bill that found wide support in the state’s heavily Democratic legislature.

Hydraulic fracturing isn’t practiced in New Jersey. The state has few proven shale reserves and remains under a moratorium on the practice, which involves the high-pressure injection of millions of gallons of chemical-laced water deep underground to break apart rock and free the resources locked within. But the technique is widely used in neighboring Pennsylvania, which often sends its waste across the border.

Some of that waste is sent to landfills in New Jersey, though it’s not clear how much. Two New Jersey landfills accept the waste, according to the online data tool FracTracker, Much of the waste is sent to Ohio and injected into underground wells, a practice that has been linked to minor earthquakes in the region.
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TODAY:
At a news conference in Long Branch today, Christie said the bill was "simply unconstitutional" because there is no potential for fracking in New Jersey. So in practice, he said, a ban would only hurt other states even though it also forbids it in state.

"This is another one of those political bills," Christie said. "They know that it's wrong and they send it anyway because they think, 'Well, he won't veto it because that would take some guts.' Well, I did."

 

 SIDEBAR: Approximately 40% of America's oil comes from domestic oil fields in states like Texas, Alaska, and California. Some of this oil is actually sold to other countries, such as Japan. The other 60% of the US oil supply is from foreign sources.