California Lawmakers Turn Down Moratorium on Fracking

California lawmakers rejected a bill that would have stopped drillers from using hydraulic fracturing to free oil and natural gas from shale beds until state regulators implement rules for the controversial practice.

Legislators turned attention to the technique because California may hold 15.4 billion barrels of oil -- two-thirds of the nation’s shale-oil reserves -- in a formation known as the Monterey Shale, according to federal estimates.