Few studies have been conducted on the impacts of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, but there should be.
It’s hard to find people that aren’t polarized on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, a process used to extract natural gas from shale rock thousands of feet beneath the Earth’s surface.
Millions of gallons of water, sand, and chemicals are injected underground, and natural gas escapes through cracks in the shale.
Environmental groups oppose fracking due to concerns about the pollution and depletion of freshwater resources. Industry groups, on the other hand, position gas extraction as a safe panacea that will resuscitate jobs and economic prosperity.
Reality likely lies somewhere in between. A Duke study conducted in New York and Pennsylvania found that residential wells near fracking sites had elevated methane. And in Wyoming, the EPA has found fracking fluids in groundwater near mining operations.
Clearly we need to proceed with caution if we want to avoid compromising the environment. And the sad truth is, we have painfully little science upon which to base informed decisions about the safety of hydrofracking.
The oil and gas industry claims that it has the technology to extract gas with minimal environmental risk. If they truly possess the sophisticated engineering to do this, they should welcome a judicious level of regulation.
Done right, natural gas is one of the cleanest fossil fuels. But we need to ensure that its extraction does not come at the cost of fresh water and science needs to inform policy on this important issue.