22 Feb 2016 5:54 pm
No wonder you didn't link to their article.onlyaladd » 22 Feb 2016 4:02 pm » wrote: Does Forbes lie too?
The EPA’s report on groundwater contamination by fracking (or frakking to taste) for natural gas says that the process does indeed contaminate ground water.
Finally, the Environmental Protection Agency has admitted what the oil and natural gas industry has been saying for more than 60 years: “Hydraulic fracturing activities have not led to widespread, systemic impacts to drinking water sources.”
EPA’s five-year-long study, requested by Congress, examined more than 950 pieces of information, including published papers and technical reports. While finding “potential vulnerabilities, some of which are not unique to hydraulic fracturing,” the report basically pronounces fracking safe.
This conclusion should not be a surprise. In 2011, then-EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson told a congressional panel there has been no evidence linking fracking operations to groundwater contamination.
Still, there is something for everyone in EPA’s politically sensitive report (this is Obama’s agency, after all), allowing detractors to seize on what could occur, rather than fracking’s strong safety record. In a statement yesterday, for instance, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) reiterated the tired argument that fracking has “the potential to severely impact drinking water and endanger public health and the environment.”
Yes, and cars can crash and swimming pools risk drowning. But we drive and swim using caution to prevent accidents. Even the construction and maintenance of the anti-frackers’ beloved wind turbines, is hardly risk free
.
Best practices and vigilance, as in all industrial activity, are required.
Yoko Ono, Matt Damon, as well as Josh Fox, the producer of two discredited Gasland movies, please call your office. Your campaigns against fracking have done little more than slander the technological achievement that has greatly increased American energy supplies and lowered prices for all.
EPA’s new study, in conclusion, confirms that fracking is a technology that belongs among the ranks of computers and iPhones. It is changing the nation for the better without causing widespread harm to underground aquifers and drinking water. It is producing energy to make America stronger and safer. And nearly single-handedly, it pulled the United States out of the depths of the Great Recession by creating jobs and boosting the economy.
Perhaps anti-fracking groups finally will be forced to admit that their scare tactics were a ruse, a cynical and dishonest talking point to just-say-no to oil and gas production. At the very least, elected officials should take note and reverse fracking moratoria in New York and Maryland. That would be a victory for common sense over nonsense.