California Issues Draft Regulations on Fracking

The State of California Tuesday released draft rules on the hydraulic fracturing process to produce oil and gas. The practice known as hydraulic fracturing or fracking, injects a mix of water and chemicals under high pressure to extract fossil fuels from deep in rock formations. Fracking regulation was the focus of several unsuccessful bills in the state legislature last year. Last week the U.S. Bureau of Land Management auctioned 18,000 acres of public lands in the vast Monterey Shale formation along the Coast Range of Central California. Governor Jerry Brown’s administration has promoted shale-oil development in the state, and has been under pressure from environmentalists to come up with basic oversight rules. Vic Bedoian reports from Fresno.