Don't Like the Results? Then Study, Study Again

Congress has initiated a study of hydrofracing and the chemicals used there in. Politics, my friends, at their very worst.
The hydrofracing process has existed for more than 60 years. Before we knew we could extract major amounts of gas from shales, it was helping America to pull as much natural gas as possible from conventional wells to meet growing demand. No one complained.
Today, the US is an enviable energy position. Its recently passed Russia in the amount of natural gas it has available for energy use. Despite the brew-ha-ha the anti-everything crowd has whipped up over drilling, natural gas remains the most abundant, most reliable energy source we have -- and it produces 50% less carbon emissions than other fossil fuels.
About a year or two ago when the climate change sky was falling on us all, getting emissions down to the levels natural gas could bring them to, if used more widely for electric generation and transportation, would have been an amazing accomplishment against global warming.
But I digress. After all, we're talking about water pollution not air pollution.
So, allow me to say something I and numerous others have said many times before. In the 60 years that hydrofracing has been used in oil and gas extraction, there has NEVER been even one proven/documented case of drinking water pollution attributed to fracing. NEVER.
That doesn't mean cases have not been reported. They have been. And have been studied by proper authorities (experts in water pollution and contamination, not activists). Cases have been reported in Pennsylvania, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming....none proven. Its been studied by groundwater groups, industry groups, third party labratories and consultancies and yes, even by various bodies of the federal government, including the Department of Energy and EPA.
Letters abound by some of the most respected people in the environmental protection field -- including President Obama's White House Environmental Csar and former EPA Director Carol Browner -- saying flat out that hydrofracing has never been shown to be a problem and does not require federal oversight.
If you get all those studies together, more than 30 organizations have studied hydrofracing and found the same results. Not a problem. Yet beacuse of the screaming coming from the general direction of New York City, where most people wouldn't know a gas well if they walked into a rig, taxpayer dollars are being wasted to study a process thats been studied to death.
Why? There are tons of reasons, but they basically come down to two, in my experience speaking with anti-drilling activists and groups.
The first is a ongoing issue with many environmentally concered organizations. Their hearts are in the right place, but they refuse to compromise on any issue, and cannot grasp the fact that human existence on earth and sustaining the lives we've come accustomed to, is going to mean some problems will exist. So -- all fossil fuels are bad an must be stopped. In some cases, people themselves must be stopped (self-extinction theory, anyone?). But if you have to realistically put up with something, wouldn't you rather take your chances on the one in 2 billion possibility water contamination will occur with fracing, or the known degradation - both to the environment and human health -- that comes from say burning coal? Thought so.
The second issue is even more simple. Its NIMBY. Not in My Backyard if your not familiar. One activist I talk to a lot, who speaks from the angle of being concerned about nature, once told me after we talked and talked that she burns heating oil to warm her house. I worked in environmental protection for years. I've seen more home heating oil spills degrade high quality streams and waterways when the delivery man fell asleeep filling someones tank than I saw of most pollution events. Not to mention the fact that heating oil - regardless of what the heating oil association will tell you -- is the dregs of the refining process. The stuff left over thats not good enough for our vehicles. I pointed this out to my friend. Turns out, she just doesn't want to hear a rig, see a rig or have to deal with a rig. Its not about the environment. Its about NIMBY.
So, our concerned Congressmen, no real science training behind them, are going to study fracing yet again, to appease these types of folks. Forget about the fact that drilling is providing good paying jobs in communities that need them. That farmers who want to keep their land are getting significant royalties for their leases, to fix up buildings, buy new equipment, whatever. Or that companies like Chesapeake, Range Resources and others are moving people in from other parts of the country who are enrolling kids in schools, buying homes and bolstering the economy in Pennsylvania, West Virgina and New York. Or that these companies are fast to spend money for charitable causes in drilling communities. Or that their product has the ability to release us from some of our dependence on countries like Russia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. And, oh yeah, it has the ability to significantly lower our country's carbon emissions totals like nothing else.
If I remember correctly, President Obama's numbers are down beacuse people want him to focus on jobs and stop wasting money on unnecessary ventures. If the administration and Congress would start thinking more clearly about natural gas, he could do that -- and help on the environmental front as well. Its a win win win win win. Unless you think playing politics is more important than America. And apparently, the folks in Washington would rather play games than get down to business.