Bill Opening North Carolina To Fracking Signed By Gov. Pat McCrory

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Gov. Pat McCrory has signed into law a bill that clears the way for permits to be issued for gas drilling by a method called fracking in North Carolina as soon as next spring.

McCrory on Wednesday signed the Energy Modernization Act during an event at North Carolina State University. The measure further refines previous legislation to allow companies to extract oil and gas from the ground by injecting high-pressure mixtures into rock.

The bill lifts a 2012 moratorium that blocked permits. Critics say the bill passed gives lawmakers less time to object to those rules and changes how permits would be issued.

McCrory  said in a statement that the law will spur economic development and create jobs throughout all sectors of the economy, especially in rural areas.

"The expansion of our energy sector will not come at a cost to our precious environment. This legislation has the safeguards to protect the high quality of life we cherish," he said.

Environmental groups including the Sierra Club and Environment North Carolina quickly criticized the law as harmful to the public waterways and negligent of other energy sources like wind and solar.

"There are more than 1,000 documented cases of contaminated water from fracking across the country," said Elizabeth Ouzts, state director of Environment North Carolina. "By rushing to frack, Gov. McCrory and legislative leaders are putting North Carolina's rivers and the drinking water for millions in jeopardy."

In this file photo from Oct. 14, 2011, a drilling rig is seen in Springville, Pa. State regulators blamed faulty gas wells drilled for leaking methane into the groundwater in nearby Dimock, Pa. It was the first serious case of methane migration said to be related to the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale gas field drilling boom.

 SPRINGVILLE, PA - JANUARY 18: A truck with the natural gas industry, one of thousands that pass through the area daily, drives through the countryside to a hydraulic fracturing site on January 18, 2012 in Springville, Pennsylvania.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - MAY 30: Protestors stage a demonstration against fracking in California outside of the Hiram W. Johnson State Office Building on May 30, 2013 in San Francisco, California. Dozens of protesters with the group Californians Against Fracking staged a protest outside of California Gov. Jerry Brown's San Francisco offices demanding that Gov. Brown ban fracking in the state

In this March 29, 2013 file photo, a worker checks a dipstick to check water levels and temperatures in a series of tanks at a hydraulic fracturing operation at a gas drilling site outside Rifle, Colorado.

In this March 29, 2013 file photo, workers tend to a well head during a hydraulic fracturing operation at a gas well outside Rifle, in western Colorado.

This is a Thursday Aug. 15, 2013 image of the Cuadrilla exploration drilling site in Balcombe, southeast England.

A lump of shale rock on display at the Cuadrilla shale fracking facility on October 7, 2012 in Preston, Lancashire.

Actor/director Mark Ruffalo (C) speaks at the Hydraulic Fracturing prevention press conference urging the protection of the drinking water source of 15 million Americans at Foley Square on April 25, 2011 in New York City.

Witchy sez:
Come on all you armchair environmentalists , follow me , just lend me your voice , we are not gonna take this anymore .
Before you know it, NC will start to experience earthquakes just like Oklahoma and Texas that have been found to be related to fracking.
What a shame for the Environment and the people of North Carolina. Water is too precious and necessary to give up for corporate profit.