America’s fracking wars are coming to a head. Increasingly, everyday people are seeing the risks of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, of shale-rock formations to get the oil and natural gas that’s trapped beneath – and they’re deciding they don’t want any part of it. As a result, lawmakers in Washington are taking unprecedented steps to keep angry citizens and aggressive state regulators from challenging the hegemony of Big Oil and Gas. First, the good news. Public officials and citizens in the state of Colorado – one of several states that have seen a surge on gas drilling and production in recent years – are rising up strongly in opposition to the practice. On Election Day, another four communities in the Centennial State voted to ban the practice as unsafe – amid growing reports of radioactive wastewater dumping, increased air pollution and even links to earthquakes. On Monday, Colorado officials took one of the strongest moves against fracking by any state so far:
Colorado proposed new rules Monday to reduce methane leaks from oil and gas operations, the first effort in the country to ...