California Governor Jerry Brown, preparing the state for development of the largest shale-oil reserves in the U.S., signed into law regulations for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, reports Bloomberg News service. The drilling process has been criticized by environmental groups, Michael B. Marois of Bloomberg notes in his report.
The third-largest oil-producing state will for the first time require permits to use the drilling technique, which injects millions of gallons of chemically treated water underground to break up rock and free trapped oil and natural gas, notes the Bloomberg article.
