I’ve been following a lot of news reports about fracking, which essentially means drilling for natural gas. Wiki defines it this way, here. And, being a professional writer, I need to know all the facts before I speak.
I know one overzealous person who believes fracking is the end of the world as we know it. I know others who don’t think it’s harmful at all. And then the rest are like me: we’re still on the fence, and waiting for more results to see if fracking, indeed, is harmful to humans or the environment. If you search the web, you won’t find much, other than basic definitions or those overzealous types who blog without facts or knowledge; just emotion.
This article below (link) was the best example I could find on the internet that says so far the EPA hasn’t been able to find anything harmful about fracking. But like I said, I’m still on the fence. I’m not ready to start waving protest signs. But I’d like to see more information and more studies done, so that if fracking is harmful regulations can be imposed.
Good News For Fracking: EPA Confirms No Water Contamination
Rob Port • May 25, 2011
One of the chief complaints of the fracking hysterics – who turned on the drilling practice after they realized that it would increase access to cheap, reliable fossil fuels and thus further marginalize energies like solar and wind – is that it puts our water supplies at risk. Indeed, one of the most high-profile images of the anti-fracking movement is a scene from the movie Gasland where a man sets his own tap water on fire, claiming that it had been contaminated by fracking near by.
The problem? There’s been no solid evidence to link fracking – be it for oil or natural gas – to ground water contamination. And in an inconvenient turn of events, Obama’s EPA chief Lisa Jackson was forced to admit as much before Congress.
“I’m not aware of any proven case where the fracking process itself has affected water, although there are investigations ongoing,” she said
Jackson does her best to keep the door open by saying that there are on-going investigations, and there are no cases to her knowledge, but keep in mind that fracking has been on-going for years. If this were the major environmental risk some are claiming it is – and to be sure fracking efforts should be carefully monitored and regulated – then we’d have evidence of it by now.
