EPA Report That Lowers Methane-Leak Estimates Further Divides Fracking Camps

So there's less methane being released. OK, that's good and all--but it still doesn't address the several other really important problems with fracking.

Like the fact that the toxic chemicals they use to force apart the shale layers are a) basically unknown, b) often left down there, and c) known to be contaminating groundwater in some instances. Or the fact that the gas companies come in, tear up the countryside, create an ecological disaster, make vast amounts of money, and then, when they decide it's no longer worth their time--they just pack up and leave. And the local communities get to deal with the mess for the next 100 years or so.

The basic problem is that there's insufficient regulation here. Preventing companies from exploiting natural resources for tremendous profit while leaving behind a horrific environmental mess--and, in general, preventing privatized profits with socialized costs--is precisely what regulation is best for. The market not only will not deal with these issues, it cannot. It has no way of taking account of the externalities associated with hydrofracking.

Put in place some good common-sense regulation of hydrofracking, with enough teeth to make it actually mean something, and then we can talk about allowing it to happen within 100 miles of my house.

And yes, I live in the northernmost extension of the Marcellus shale in upstate NY, so this issue does affect me personally.

Dan Aris

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/xWVMOU0uTdU/story01.htm

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