Fracking freak-out just another flash-in-the-media enviro scare campaign | Washington Examiner

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Fracking freak-out just another flash-in-the-media enviro scare campaign
By: Mark Tapscott
Editorial Page Editor
08/06/10 8:32 AM EDT

Leave it to somebody from an energy state like Oklahoma to say it straight concerning the growing screams among environmentalists and their buddies in government and the mainstream media for a ban on hydraulic fracturing AKA "fracking" of oil and natural gas wells.

Robert Anthony, chairman of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which oversees the energy industry in the Sooner State, has this to say in today's edition of The Daily Oklahoman about the growing anti-fracking hysteria on the Left:

"Simply put, hydraulic fracturing (HF) is an essential oil and gas production technique used for reservoir stimulation.

"Ironically, given the opposition in the name of the environment, HF is also used for environmentally friendly applications such as geologic storage of carbon, developing water wells and "green" geothermal energy and even cleaning up Superfund sites.

"Opponents portray hydraulic fracturing as some horrible practice that endangers our water supplies, polluting them with cancer-causing chemicals.

"In fact, 99 percent of the materials injected are water and sand.

"Other HF ingredients are no stronger than chemicals found around the house.

"Furthermore, the fracturing process takes place thousands of feet below treatable (meaning potentially drinkable) groundwater, with layers of rock in between.

"We've used HF for some 60 years in Oklahoma, and we have no confirmed cases where it is responsible for drinking water contamination — nor do any of the other natural gas-producing states."

You might think there would be nothing else left to say on this issue, as Anthony pretty much covers all the bases in the quotes above, but he goes on and adds further valuable analyses in a debate that is growing increasingly shrill on the anti-fracking side as the public learns more of the facts.

That's why Anthony's conclusion is so important. It has to do with Chicken Little and the back story therein. You can read it all here.

Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Fracking-freak-out-just-another-flash-in-the-media-enviro-scare-campaign-100110484.html#ixzz0vrcQfmwF