US Energy Panel Cautiously Endorses Fracking

Hugh Pickens writes "The Christian Science Monitor reports that a U.S. Energy Department advisory panel has endorsed fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, a promising technology that injects a mixture of water, sand, and chemicals underground to fracture rock and release shale gas previously thought unretrievable, paving the way for tens of thousands of new wells. If fracking can be done safely, it could be a major source of domestic energy over the next century. Shale gas makes up about 14 percent of the U.S. natural gas supply today, but is expected to reach 45 percent by 2035. But first, serious environmental concerns must be addressed. Earlier this year, a Duke University study of 68 private groundwater wells in Pennsylvania and New York state found evidence that shale-gas extraction has caused them to become contaminated with methane. One key recommendation by the panel is a call for transparency regarding the use of chemicals in the extraction process. Drillers say they would like to keep the exact formula of the chemicals they use secret because it represents a competitive advantage."

Comments

Re:It already is a major, massive source of energy

[cowboy76Spain]

Fun fact - the people who own those mineral rights probably don't care about the environmental damage, they are getting massively rich. if you could somehow spread out the wind-power profits to a few hundreds of wealthy people you might see more political support for wind farms.

There, fixed that for you.

Re:WTF?

[jellomizer]

The technology is still new and the full environmental impact isn't known. Trying it out in a controlled method as they ramp up to more is reasonable. This method is no worse then other energy extracting methods such as drilling for oil or coal mining. We need smart environmental laws that realize that some things do have a cost however the benefits out weight the costs. It seems like environuts are booing every idea that has a negative impact on the environment, forcing us to stick to the old end even more environmental damaging methods, Oil Drilling, Coal Mining...

Re:WTF?

[Syberz]

I agree that better methods are needed and that current methods aren't great, but fracking has been proven to be a problem and the benefits definitely do not outweigh the cost. This documentary provides quite a bit of info on the subject.