JASON DEAREN, Associated Press, By JASON DEAREN and ALICIA CHANG, Associated Press
Updated 1:25 pm, Saturday, August 3, 2013
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Companies prospecting for oil off California's coast have used hydraulic fracturing on at least a dozen occasions to force open cracks beneath the seabed, and now regulators are investigating whether the practice should require a separate permit and be subject to stricter environmental review.
While debate has raged over fracking on land, prompting efforts to ban or severely restrict it, offshore fracking has occurred with little attention in sensitive coastal waters where for decades new oil leases have been prohibited.
