HALIFAX - An environmental group is praising a new report that says hydraulic fracturing should be put on hold in Nova Scotia while the practice is studied.

Jennifer West of the Ecology Action Centre in Halifax says the report released yesterday is encouraging.

But she wants to see a 10-year legislated moratorium put in place to allow for more research.

The report by David Wheeler of Cape Breton University says more independent research should be done on any health, environmental and economic impacts.

Andrew Younger, Nova Scotia's energy minister, says he hopes to have a decision on fracking's future before the legislature resumes September 25th.

A two-year moratorium on fracking was put in place by the previous N-D-P government in 2012.

The report estimates that with four-thousand wells, the industry could be worth up to one billion dollars annually.