MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin on Wednesday
signed into law the nation's first ban on a hotly debated
natural gas drilling technique that involves blasting chemical-
laced water deep into the ground. The Democrat, surrounded at a
Statehouse ceremony by environmentalists and Twinfield Union
School students who pushed for the ban, said the law may help
Vermont set an example for other states. The ban may be largely
symbolic, though, because there is believed to be little to no
natural gas or oil beneath the surface in Vermont. The gas
drilling technique, called hydraulic fracturing, or fracking,
involves the high-pressure injection of water and chemicals into
the ground to split rock apart and release natural gas or oil.
It's being used extensively in the rapidly expanding natural gas
industry in several states. Critics have blamed the practice for
contaminating drinking water wells of some residents living near
the drilling operations, but natural gas industry officials
dispute those claims.