There's this, too.
Groat, a former director of the U.S. Geological Survey, emphasized that the $380,000 report was independent from the natural gas industry and conducted only with university funds. Underlying white papers were peer-reviewed, he told ScienceNOW, and the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) was consulted on the overall scope and design of the study.
I see. It isn't fracking that is the problem. It's the drilling required to prepare for the fracking.
ReplyDeleteThis must be what is meant by no 'direct evidence.'
“We found no direct evidence that fracking itself has contaminated groundwater." That seems clear enough to me. As for the drilling platforms themselves, they must be properly fitted and welded. I had to research this stuff for an article I wrote last year. Horizontal drilling has been around for about 90 years. Hydraulic fracturing dates back to the late '40s. So these are not new technologies. There are about 60,000 wells worldwide, I believe. Accidents have happened -- this is, after all, Planet Earth -- but the disasters environmental extremists predict have not occurred. Oddly, natural gas was the darling of the environmentalists ... until it could be extracted.
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