AMERICA


of the House, Congress directed the EPA to study whether fracking could contaminate water supplies. The EPA recently selected seven sites in Louisiana, Pennsylvania, North Dakota, Texas, and Colorado for studies. The concern that fracking could contaminate water escalated after YouTube videos showed people using cigarette lighters to ignite water fl ow- ing from a household faucet due to the presence of methane gas, which, critics claim, is released by fracking. There’s only one problem: No one has defi nitively linked the methane to fracking.


It turns out shale formations tar- geted by fracking are thousands of feet underground. The aquifers that cities use for their drinking water are typically a few hundred feet below ground. About one-fi fth of a mile of solid rock separates them.


“There is a huge separation between fracking and aquifers,” says Fred Hagemeyer, a managing direc- tor for Black & Veatch, a Kansas City engineering and infrastructure con- sulting fi rm.


“It’s only a few dozen feet you are fracturing, and you’re several thou- sands of feet from any groundwater,” Hagemeyer tells Newsmax. He adds that rig operators install cement cas- ings from top to bottom as they drill, to keep the gas and the fracking mix- ture contained.


China


United States Argentina Mexico


South Africa Australia Canada Libya Algeria Brazil Poland France Norway Chile India


0 200 400


GAS GIANTS Technically recoverable shale gas resources.


S e


600 800 trillions of cubic feet SOURCE: U.S. Energy Information Administration 14 NEWSMAX / SEPTEMBER 2011 1,000 1,200 1,400


SHALE IN PLENTIFUL SUPPLY


Areas in the United States where shale fracking technology is either being employed or has future potential.


It’s not just industry experts who say there’s no evidence fracking contaminates water supplies. EPA administrator Lisa Jackson, labeled “a determined enemy of fossil fuels” by the Journal, recently testifi ed before Congress that there have been no “proven cases where the fracking process itself has affected water.” That’s especially important given


that there’s strong evidence frack- ing generates something besides oil and natural gas: jobs. Pennsylvania’s labor department, for example, has estimated fracking in the Marcellus formation has generated 72,000 jobs in the Keystone State alone. In North Dakota, fracking is cited as a major reason why that state has the lowest


SOURCE: U.S. Energy Information Administration based on data from various published studies


unemployment rate in the nation — just 3.2 percent.


Like any other industry, the frack- ing process has its issues. Defective well casings near the surface can cause contamination. As the BP spill in the Gulf of showed, any drilling operation requires effective safety measures and inspections. Some experts suggest the real opposition to fracking has to do with the steady parade of noisy, exhaust-spewing trucks that drillers use to haul sand, cement, and fl uids. But defenders of fracking point out that no form of energy development carries zero environmental risk.


Wind turbines are noisy and kill birds. Manufacturing solar panels generates thousands of tons of toxic waste each year.


Electric car batteries must be spe- cially disposed of because they con- tain hazardous materials. Ethanol distillation emits carcinogens. So the only way to utterly elimi- nate the risks is to stop energy devel- opment altogether — and at times it seems that’s precisely what environ- mental activists have in mind. Or as the Journal warns regarding fracking, “If we let the fear of undoc- umented pollution kill this boom, we will deserve our fate as a second- class industrial power.”


ILLUSTRATION BASED ON INFORMATION COURTESY OF ENERGY IN DEPTH / ROCK/GETTY IMAGES


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