France upholds decision to ban fracking

New York Times : France, which in 2011 became the first country to ban hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, recently reaffirmed that decision when a US company, Schuepbach Energy, sought to perform exploratory drilling there. During fracking, water is mixed with sand and chemicals and then pumped into a wellbore to create fractures in the ground through which gas and petroleum can flow. Fracking has raised some environmental concerns, however, including the possible contamination of local groundwater and the potential to raise atmospheric carbon dioxide levels when the previously sequestered hydrocarbons are burned. Although the practice has been successful in the US, other countries have been slower to adopt it. Nevertheless, French president François Hollande has pointed out that the law does not prohibit research on other techniques to recover the gas.