Drilling in Marcellus Shale has the potential to create thousands of jobs and inject millions of dollars into Pennsylvania’s economy. Yet, if the cries from the environmental crowd are to be believed, in terms of danger to the environment, drilling in Marcellus Shale is on par with nuclear fallout.
Much of the environmental concern surrounds hydraulic fracking or “hydo-fracking” or just “fracking,” which is the primary means of extracting natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation. The procedure involves injecting fluids into a well bore to expand fractures in the shale formation in order to allow the natural gas to flow more freely to the well head.
Opponents of fracking have portrayed it as a risky procedure which causes ground water contamination, air pollution, and surface contamination from chemicals used in the process. Of course, opponents are also quick to point out that their favorite whipping boy Haliburton is leader in hyrdo-fracking technology.
Leave it to the Wall Street Journal to take an unbiased and rational view regarding the alleged dangers of hydro-fracking. As the Journal points out, many of the environmentalist’s claims are unfounded. The Journal points out that claims that fracking threatens drinking water are unfounded because the average shale formation is thousands of feet underground, while the average drinking well or aquifer is only a few hundred feet deep.
The Journal also debunks the myth, popularized by the trailer for the movie Gasland, that fracking leads to drinking water being contaminated with methane gas. What the studies on drinking water often fail to mention is that the drinking water already contains methane gas regardless of whether fracking operations have been performed nearby.
Finally, the Journal underscores the real question we all need to ask on the issue:
“The question for the rest of us is whether we are serious about domestic energy production. All forms of energy have risks and environmental costs, not least wind (noise and dead birds and bats) and solar (vast expanses of land). Yet renewables are nowhere close to supplying enough energy, even with large subsidies, to maintain America’s standard of living. The shale gas and oil boom is the result of U.S. business innovation and risk-taking. If we let the fear of undocumented pollution kill this boom, we will deserve our fate as a second-class industrial power.”
I agree. This country was built on risk. We need to be willing to accept the risks that drilling in Marcellus Shale create. Otherwise, our country’s energy problems and dependence on foreign oil will persist.
Wally Zimolong
Wally represents contractors (and subcontractors) and developers. His clients build and develop residential, commercial, and industrial properties nationwide. Wally enjoys working with the owners of the businesses he represents because they tend to be entrepreneurs and all around interesting people.
