New Study Links Drinking Water Contamination to Fracking: Can Proponents Still Keep a Straight Face?

It just got much more difficult for frackers and their supporters to keep a straight face in the sizzling national debate over whether the benefits of hydraulic fracturing outweigh the dangers. The pro-fracking folk have argued – with increased hot air of late – that the swelling ranks of concerned citizens, enviros and wary public officials are making much ado about nothing when it comes to the controversial natural gas extraction process. Fracking proponents have tended to use arguments that center on jobs and economic revitalization, staying out of the weeds on matters of science. And with good reason, since one of the industry's most powerful claims – that natural gas burns cleaner than other fossil fuels – was recently debunked by a Cornell University study (see link below to my previous post "Global Warming Threat: New Studies Suggest Natural Gas Is Dirtier than Coal"). We've also heard a lot of blustering about fracking as the silver bullet to free us from our dependence on foreign oil. Hitting the right nationalistic tones, we hear industry boosters saying nonsensical things like: “If you are opposed to natural gas drilling, you're in favor of foreign oil.” How's that for a non-sequitur? Fracking has been ...