New Jersey lawmakers from considering what would be the nation's first statewide ban on the natural gas drilling technique known as hydraulic fracing.  The state Assembly and Senate both have votes on the proposed ban scheduled for Wednesday. Gov. Chris Christie, who supports the use of natural gas for energy, has not said whether he would sign a law if it's passed.  Natural gas drilling has become an unfortunate contentious political and policy issue for states that put emotion over science.  Anti-business and energy leaders who sit over the Marcellus Shale, an underground formation that stretches from Tennessee to New York oppose fracing.

In Pennsylvania, energy companies have been rushing to lock up land rights for drill wells while officials debate how to regulate the industry. In New York, there's a moratorium on fracking. There, lawmakers have passed a ban, but former Gov. David Paterson vetoed it. Jacquelyn Pless, an analyst at the National Conference of State Legislatures, said no other state has banned the practice, though cities such as Buffalo, N.Y., and Pittsburgh have.

Fracing involves pumping millions of gallons of water, along with sand and chemicals, into wells to creature fissures in the rock and allow natural gas to flow up. The practice has raised environmental concerns, although the industry insists the process is environmentally safe. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is studying fracing's impact on groundwater. The debate surrounding the ban in New Jersey seems to be mostly symbolic, much like their nickname.

Terry Engelder, a geosciences professor at Penn State University, said the only known natural gas under New Jersey is in the northwestern corner of the state, on the edge of the Marcellus Shale. Besides the Marcellus Shale, Engelder said, there's a chance that there's some natural gas underground near the structure known as the Newark Basin, which stretches from areas of New York just northwest of New York City to parts of eastern Pennsylvania.  "Whatever natural gas New Jersey has, it's noneconomic," he said. "The New Jersey Legislature is wasting its time."

Jim Walsh, New Jersey Director of the environmental group Food and Water Action, doesn't think so, in part because his group wants the state's member of the Delaware River Basin Commission to act to ban fracing near the waterways of New York and Pennsylvania that feed the river. Walsh said there is a practical concern, too: A decade ago, he said, the idea of drilling in places like Pennsylvania seemed far-fetched. But since then, new technology has made it possible.

Chris Tucker, a spokesman for Energy In Depth, a campaign run by energy producers, had heard of the New Jersey legislation. He called it "irrelevant" but said his group opposes it because it would set a precedent that could hurt the industry elsewhere.  He suggested that the people pushing for the ban are being hypocritical: "If you're trying to be principled and you oppose natural gas, oppose using it too."

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