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Wednesday, May 21, 2014

'Fracking' makes it into dictionary; coastal California county with no known oil leases bans it

The word "fracking" is no longer a clever, but unofficial, way to shorthand hydraulic fracturing. The Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary made it an official word, announcing that it has added the noun fracking, and verb frack, to its 2014 edition, Don Mason reports for Fuel Fix. Fracking, which is already used in the Associated Press Stylebook, is one of 150 words recently added to the dictionary. (Read more)

Despite receiving no interest from oil companies, Santa Cruz County became the first California county to ban fracking when a Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 Tuesday to do so, Jason Hoppin reports for the Santa Cruz Sentinel. The "vote bans above-ground production support facilities. In doing so, the new law echoes a similar local effort from the 1980s to ban facilities for offshore oil drilling, an effective regulatory tool that became a model for coastal communities across California."
 

While there is little chance oil companies will want to drill in Santa Cruz County, residents hope the fracking ban inspires other communities to act, Hoppin writes. County resident Joy Hinz told him, "This is a historic decision and it'll be looked back on as visionary. And it will hopefully spur other counties to do similar things, and to prevent harm before it happens." (Read more)

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