Christie Orders One-Year Moratorium on Hydraulic Fracturing
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie vetoed a bill Thursday to ban hydraulic fracturing, instead ordering a one-year moratorium on the practice.
Christie said a permanent ban is not warranted, given federal and state studies under way and ongoing improvements in drilling technologies, but cited concerns about drinking water.
“I believe that the better approach to the issue is to impose a one-year moratorium,” Christie wrote in a letter to the Senate.
Christie is a very intriguing figure. I had initially shrugged him off as a product of political discontent in NJ; a tempest in a tea cup which would be forgotten by the next elections. But I am coming to the conclusion that he is a clever politician and someone who gets a lot of things right. His appointment of an Islamic judge to NJ Superior Court and his subsequent vocal and vociferous defense of the appointment, and now a measured and appropriate response to fracking. He may know that 2012 is not his time, given the extremists in charge of the GOP, but I am convinced we will be jearing more of Governor Christie in the years to come.