I know Vermont just signed a bill banning hydraulic Fracturing. The states where Hydraulic Fracturing is allowed are all doing very well though. Natural Gas drilling brings in lots of money and creates jobs for Americans. If a well is dug responsibly, there should not be any effect on the environment whatsoever, so a state banning hydraulic fracturing seems a little excessive to me.
About 50 states.
The controversial around hydraulic fracturing is the contamination of the water that we consume.
yes hydraulic fracturing of natural gas does effect seismic activity.
Yes.
Hydraulic fracturing was created to allow otherwise inaccessible oil and natural gas reserves to be tapped and harvested for human use.
Hydraulic Fracturing
Earthquakes
Hydraulic fracturing, also called fracking, hydrofracking, and hydrofracturing, is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of bedrock formations by a pressurized liquid.
Hydraulic fracturing breaks open the rock that contains oil or gas deposits and holds this fracture open with sand or proppant so that the oil or gas is able to flow into the wellbore for surface extraction. Without hydraulic fracturing oil and natural gas prices in this country would be astronomical.
Hydraulic fracturing may be in for a bumpy ride.A previously unreported study out of the Oklahoma Geological Survey has found that hydraulic fracturing may have triggered a swarm of small earthquakes earlier this year in Oklahoma. The quakes, which struck on Jan. 18 in a rural area near Elmore City, peaked at magnitude 2.8 and caused no deaths or property damage.The study, currently being prepared for peer review, follows news today that Cuadrilla Resources, a British shale gas developer, has found that it was "highly probable" its fracturing operations caused minor quakes of magnitude 2.3 and 1.5 in Lancashire, England (Greenwire, Nov. 2). The Cuadrilla study could complicate the expansion of hydraulic fracturing for shale gas in risk-averse Europe, where France has already banned the practice.
Drilling oil and gas wells and hydraulic fracturing
The French use either fracking or fracturation(fracturing).See the related link.