Liberals looking to hamstring our ability to utilize our own energy resources no matter what.

EPA Launches Study Of Fracking As Practice Widens
March 18, 2010

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it'll conduct a massive study to investigate any potential adverse impact of hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas, as the energy industry moves to boost domestic natural gas supplies.

The effort comes as part of a move by government officials and academics to grapple with an expected increase in the decades-old practice of extracting natural gas by injecting water and fracturing rock, a practice known as fracking.

"There are concerns that hydraulic fracturing may impact ground water and surface water quality in ways that threaten human health and the environment," the EPA said Thursday.

The agency said it's re-allocating $1.9 million to help pay for a, "comprehensive, peer-reviewed" study. It'll request funding for 2011 in President Barack Obama's budget proposal. The EPA hopes to complete the study by the end of 2012.

Regina Hopper, president of the industry group, America's Natural Gas Alliance, said the EPA study will help affirm the safety of fracking.

"Hydraulic fracturing has been refined and improved over the past 60 years and has been used safely on more than one million U.S. wells," Hopper said in a prepared statement. "We look forward to sharing with the EPA the extensive work done at every step of the natural gas extraction process."

While hydraulic fracturing usually takes place far underground, well below aquifers for domestic water supplies, it also produces wastewater which much be treated on site or trucked off for disposal.

Last month, the House Energy and Commerce Committee launched an investigation into the potential impact and said it would like to see more information on the chemicals used in fracturing liquid.

Lots of potential, but at what costs?

"Hydraulic fracturing could help us unlock vast domestic natural gas reserves once thought unattainable, strengthening America's energy independence and reducing carbon emissions," said Chairman Henry Waxman, (D., Calif.). "As we use this technology in more parts of the country on a much larger scale, we must ensure that we are not creating new environmental and public health problems."

Fracking piqued the interest of Congress in recent months after Exxon Mobil set plans to buy hydraulic fracturing giant XTO Energy in a deal worth about $40 billion, as part of the energy giant's effort to ramp up the practice around the U.S.

In a hearing on Jan. 20 with Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson, members of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment were generally supportive of the jobs and domestic energy production created by the unconventional gas production business. See full story.

The EPA study is the last of a wave of attention drawn by fracking, including a study of possible earth tremors caused by the practice in Texas.

Southern Methodist University seismologists Brian Stump and Chris Hayward said seismographs recorded 11 earthquakes between Nov. 9, 2008 and Jan. 2, 2009 - too small to be felt by area residents -- near the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. The area is part of the Barnett Shale in Texas, a rich source of unconventional natural gas, and close to well operated by Chesapeake Energy Corp.

The largest tremor measured 3.3 on the Richter scale, as reported by the USGS National Earthquake Information Center. Stump cautioned that the study raised many questions.

"What we have is a correlation between seismicity, and the time and location of saltwater injection," Stump said in a prepared statement on the study. "What we don't have is complete information about the subsurface structure in the area - things like the porosity and permeability of the rock, the fluid path and how that might induce an earthquake."

The study, which also included researchers from the University of Texas, was featured in the March issue of The Leading Edge, the publication for the Society of Exploration Geophysicists.

Julie Wilson, a spokeswoman for Chesapeake, told The Wall Street Journal that the drilling and fracturing "have absolutely nothing to do with the seismic activity" near the airport.