Judge denies bid to halt Illinois fracking rules
Source: The 'Southern Illinoisan'
9 hours ago • JIM SUHR The Associated Press
ST. LOUIS — A southwestern Illinois judge has denied a bid by a landowners group to suspend the state's new rules for high-volume oil and gas drilling, ruling that the plaintiffs failed to show they would suffer immediate harm if the practice commonly known as "fracking" was to go forward.
Madison County Circuit Judge Barbara Crowder rejected the request for a preliminary injunction on Friday, three days after she heard arguments about the rules meant to regulate hydraulic fracturing.
Attorneys for the landowners had insisted that the rules drafted by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources and approved Nov. 6 by a legislative panel were procedurally flawed, among other things because the DNR allegedly didn't consider scientific studies and had no representative available to answer questions at statewide public hearings last year. Attorneys for the state countered that the public had had sufficient input.
It was not immediately clear whether the landowners, who along with the Southern Illinoisans Against Fracturing Our Environment group sued on Nov. 14 to at least delay the rules from taking effect, planned to appeal Crowder's ruling. A message left Sunday with one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, Vito Mastrangelo, was not immediately returned....
Read more: http://thesouthern.com/ap/business/judge-denies-bid-to-halt-illinois-fracking-rules/article_7893cba0-4f17-5891-903a-1cf647210600.html
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