Two federal organs are impeding that a controversial project in California fractures the bedrock to kilometers of depth of the surface to extract energy, until that a scientific study is determined the project can or not to unchain dangerous earthquakes, they said assistants of press of the departments of Energy and Interior of the USA on Monday.

The project from AltaRock Energy, an emerging company with offices in Seattle and Sausalito, California, won a concession of US$ 6,25 million of the Department of Energy, and authorities of the Department of Interior indicated that could also give legal permission so that the company fractured the bedrock in federal territory in an of the areas more seismic actives of the world, the north of California.

However, several federal employees informed that AltaRock had not revealed that a similar project in Basel, Switzerland, it was suspended after provoking earthquakes that shook the city in 2006 and 2007.

Jan Bedrosian, advises of press of the Unit of Administration of Soils of the Department of Interior, said that any legal permission for fracture in the perforation place will be granted when the Department of Energy concludes the study.

Jeff Gospe, president of a community organization in Anderson Springs, California, a small city which is about three kilometers of the project of AltaRock, said that the city is happy with the federal investigation.

The area around the Geysers is already shaken by small several earthquakes unchained by an extensive operation that perforates in relatively less deep soil to extract heat to produce electricity.

Via: NYT.