The Stream, July 4: France Bans Fracking

France became the first country to outlaw hydraulic fracking, after French senators voted 176 in favor and 151 against a bill to ban the controversial technique, Bloomberg reported. According to the new law, energy companies that plan to use fracking to produce oil and gas in France will have their permits revoked.

A Reuters analysis forecasts that natural gas and renewable technology will be the future energy sources of choice.

Europe is forecast to produce 3.5 percent less wheat this year after a spring drought slashed yields in France and the United Kingdom, Bloomberg reported, citing farm lobby Copa-Cogeca and cereal-industry group Coceral forecast.

Montana emergency officials and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are scrambling to contain as many as 42,000 gallons of oil leaked into the fast-flowing Yellowstone River, UPI reported.

Plans to grow water-thirsty sugar cane and jatropha for biofuels are pushing people off their farmland in Kenya’s Tana Delta, according to the Guardian. The irony, the article says, is that most of the land is being taken to satisfy the demands of new green legislation in the west, designed to ease carbon emissions by mixing biofuels with petrol and diesel.

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