[RWebb]

Fracking - fracturing - is a way to get at oil & gas that could not be economically recovered beforehand. It is driving a huge energy boom in the US, killing off the worst polluting energy source we have (coal, which is about like burning toxic dirt for energy), and increasing energy security for us.

Fracking often entails huge volumes of truck traffic on narrow rural roads, noise, commotion, etc. - all NIMBY factors.

Because it is pretty new, regulations to control pollution, encourage best practices, etc. are not yet in effect.

Env'l groups and some industry groups recently agreed upon a set of best practices to follow & a search here will pull up a thread I started on it.

Things to control include:

- drilling and chemicals used for that
- chemicals used for recovery during operations
- and leaks from methane (which is a potent, but short-lived greenhouse gas)

Chemicals can leak thru layers of rock thought to be impermeable and care needs to be taken in how they are sequestered and discarded.

If done properly, NG from fracking can reduce greenhouse effects by HALF compared with coal (!) If it displaces all coal burning, then mercury emissions (a neurotoxin that concentrates in fish, esp. tuna) will be near zero.

Some env'l groups are not so pleased with the great promise of NG from fracking as they think we should skip it and move to PV solar ASAP. I think that view is naive.