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Anti-Fracking Groups Renew Push to Stop the Hydraulic Fracturing Process

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Environmental groups in Illinois are renewing their push to stop fracking in Illinois before it starts. 

In November, a Kansas-based company withdrew its permit to drill for oil and gas in southeastern Illinois. It was the first permit for large-scale fracking Illinois issued since a 2014 law went into effect. 
An executive for Woolsey Operating Company called the process “burdensome, time-consuming and costly.”

But environmentalists view the withdraw as a win. Fracking opponents now want to take current regulations a step further.

They want to get rid of what’s called forced pooling, a part of the 2014 law that allows gas companies to drill under a person’s property without their permission as long as the majority of their neighbors have agreed to let the company drill.

Jessica Fujan is Midwest director of Food and Water Watch.

“We believe that by eliminating forced pooling and giving people expanded property rights, we will see fracking ended or diminished in the state of Illinois.”

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