Support for LAist comes from
Become a sponsor
Audience-funded nonprofit news
Donate
Stay Connected

LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio, a member-supported public media network.

Audience-funded nonprofit news
Listen
Donate
Podcasts Take Two
California considers instituting official fracking guidelines
solid orange rectangular banner
()
Take Two Logo
Apr 5, 2013
Listen • 3:51
California considers instituting official fracking guidelines
Fracking has been going on for decades, but here in Southern California, we don't really know a lot of about where and when its taking place. Or what kind of chemicals are being used in the process. But the state is considering new guidelines change that.
California released new fracking regulations Friday that requires oil companies to request permission to extract oil through fracking. (Photo: Consol Energy employee Jeff Boggs in front of a horizontal drilling rig near Waynesburg, Penn. in 2012).
Jeff Boggs, responsible for the drilling at Consol Energy poses infront of one of the company's Horizontal Gas Drilling Rigs exploring the Marcellus Shale outside the town of Waynesburg, PA on April 13, 2012.
(
MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/Getty Images
)

Fracking has been going on for decades, but here in Southern California, we don't really know a lot of about where and when its taking place. Or what kind of chemicals are being used in the process. But the state is considering new guidelines change that.

By now you've probably heard the term fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing. It's the process where oil companies shoot a high-powered mix of water, sand and chemicals into the ground to break up oil and gas deposits. 

Fracking has been going on for decades, but here in Southern California, we don't really know a lot of about where and when its taking place. Or what kind of chemicals are being used in the process. But the state is considering new guidelines change that.

KPCC's Environment Reporter Molly Peterson is here to fill us in.