Environmental group says reaches accord to stop offshore fracking in California
Source: Reuters
World | Fri Jan 29, 2016 9:19pm EST
Environmental group says reaches accord to stop offshore fracking in California
A conservation group said the federal government must stop approving offshore fracking from oil platforms in California's Santa Barbara Channel under the settlement of a lawsuit it filed.
The group, the Center for Biological Diversity, in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, had challenged what it said was the U.S. Department of the Interior's practice of rubber-stamping fracking off California's coast without engaging the public or analyzing fracking's threats to ocean ecosystems, coastal communities and marine life.
The settlement reached on Friday prohibits officials from authorizing fracking practices in federal waters until the Interior Department's Bureau of Ocean Energy Management and Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement complete an environmental review, the Center for Biological Diversity said.
The pause, however, will not likely affect production at large because California has not been producing much offshore oil lately.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-california-fracking-lawsuit-idUSKCN0V802K