Illinois lawmakers approve fracking rules
Source: Associated Press
Illinois lawmakers approve fracking rules
By KERRY LESTER, Associated Press | November 6, 2014 | Updated: November 6, 2014 1:31pm
CHICAGO (AP) — Illinois lawmakers signed off Thursday on long-awaited rules regulating high-volume oil and gas drilling, a practice that lawmakers and industry hope will unleash an economic boom in the southern part of the state.
The rules, which the state Department of Natural Resources has been working on for more than a year and tweaked in recent weeks at the request of a legislative committee, come after months of complaints from industry officials that the DNR was delaying the start of hydraulic fracturing for oil and natural gas in southern Illinois.
The Illinois Legislature last year passed a measure praised as a model of compromise on how to regulate the drilling practice, but that cooperation broke down when draft rules were criticized by both industry and environmental activists.
State officials expressed confidence that the new rules would address the concerns raised in 30,000 public comments in response to those initial rules.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/business/energy/article/Illinois-lawmakers-set-to-approve-fracking-rules-5875295.php
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