He says that the Monterey geological formation is uncommon, and at present, hydraulic fracturing cannot work there.

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He has described it as the legislative equivalent for his Republican colleagues on Capitol Hill as a box canyon, meaning the sort of naturally occurring, dead-ending geological formation used by Indians and desperados in the Wild West to trap and snare their prey.

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According to Polish daily Rzeczpospolita, on June 15 Lane Energy of Canada is set to begin drilling for unconventional shale gas deposits using a technique called hydraulic fracturing also known as fracing in northern Poland in the geological formation referred to as the Baltic Depression.

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But in 2008 the U.S. Geological Survey announced to great fanfare that the formation likely held 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil and gas equivalents.

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