In a year clouded by worries over jobs, budget deficits, and energy costs, rapid advancements in domestic natural gas production have offered a ray of hope. Innovations in horizontal drilling and a procedure known as hydraulic fracturing (or “fracking”) allow us to more efficiently and safely extract the gas trapped in our nation’s vast shale deposits. But shale gas extraction is under assault.
Fracking has become the latest environmental cause celebre for professional activists and their allies in government. Their actions could ensnare this promising domestic energy revolution in a quagmire of legal uncertainty, choking off hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process.
At least a century’s worth of natural gas resides in deposits spanning 36 states such as the Marcellus Shale in the mid-Atlantic region. Mile-long wells are drilled, encased in concrete, and then injected with a fracturing solution, which is 99 percent water and sand.
Fracking opponents have bombarded the media with claims that the process contaminates groundwater, propels global warming, and even causes earthquakes.
Governmental or independent scientific authorities have discounted each of these assertions. But agenda-driven ideologues can’t be swayed by facts. Instead, they have pursued a campaign straight out of the Activism 101 playbook.
A 2010 documentary, “Gasland,” painted a profoundly misleading picture of natural gas extraction. Energized by the movie and its sympathetic media coverage, activists lobbied cities and towns to pass local laws banning or limiting fracking.
More than 100 cities as large as Pittsburgh and towns as small as Dryden, N.Y., have adopted such laws. Some face legal challenges. For example, an energy exploration company, which has invested more than $5 million in the Dryden area, has sued the town, arguing New York state law supersedes such local rules.
At the state level, both New York and New Jersey have banned fracking until more studies are done. Advocates for plaintiffs with groundwater contamination suits have urged New York legislators to create a strict liability standard for such legal actions.
And not to be left out, the New York attorney general has sued to stop a Pennsylvania-based commission from issuing proposed rules on fracking.
Even though the states regulate oil and gas activities, activists have sought an extra layer of red tape from the federal government. Not surprisingly, federal bureaucrats are eager to oblige.
At the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, taxpayers are currently funding a wide-ranging study on fracking and a new air pollution rule.
The Energy Department has issued two studies on fracking calling for — you guessed it — more federal rules. The Interior Department wants greater disclosure of chemicals used for fracking on public lands.
Securities regulators, inspired by shareholder activists, have even joined the stampede, threatening new disclosure rules for fracking “problems.” Of course, politicians have jumped on board too, with several introducing fracking regulation bills in Congress.
It’s difficult to square the actions of some states and the federal government on fracking with their rhetoric on creating jobs and reducing budget deficits.
Shale gas extraction, according to conservative estimates, has created at least half-a-million new jobs. That number could ultimately double. One study found that New York would gain $1.4 billion in tax revenues if it ended its fracking ban.
Abundant, cheaper, domestic natural gas can also increase America’s energy security and inspire explosive growth in industries dependent on such fuel.
Federal regulators, city governments, and their activist allies can best achieve environmental protection by allowing state regulators to do their jobs.
Clear legal standards, tailored to the unique needs of each state, will encourage growth and investment in shale gas extraction. Businesses involved in shale gas, however, also must do their part.
Activists have sown the seeds of suspicion effectively, and one careless mistake or shortcut in the development process could be catastrophic for fracking’s future.
That future can be bright, for the natural gas business, and all Americans, if businesses and state regulators beat back the brickbats of activists, and craft solutions that balance economic and environmental benefits.
Examiner contributor Daniel J. Popeo is chairman and general counsel of the Washington Legal Foundation.
