Fracking, shale gas drilling, is hot and controversial green energy topic in Maryland. From Hagerstown on West, Maryland sits atop the Saudi Arabia of natural gas reserves known as the Marcellus Shale. Embedded in the shale is a projected 50 to 100 years of natural gas; right here in the U.S.
Natural gas is being touted as a possible green energy savior and given Japan’s recent nuclear woes and rising gas prices, $3.68 per gallon in Baltimore on April 5, 2011, natural gas’ role in our energy policy is hotter than ever.
According to the Energy Information Administration, the U.S. shale natural gas supply has grown from 1 percent in 2000 to 22 percent in 10 short years. There’s a game-changing natural gas boon happening right under our feet.
So, first the good news: Natural gas emits half the emissions of oil and coal. It’s an American resource. We can get to it. The drilling boom is bringing lots of cash to rural landowners and tax coffers. And, fracking brings jobs.
Now the bad news: Fracking is the only U.S. industry that isn’t regulated. Fracking uses highly toxic chemicals. Fracking drills through water tables and aquifers and is being blamed for thousands of water and health issues.
A quick primer on getting to the gas. Oil and gas firms drill down miles and fracture the shale by pumping millions of gallons of water laced with sand and chemicals which then releases the gas bubbles from the rock. The natural gas is pumped up to storage tanks. The chemical water,or fracking solution, is also pumped to the top, stored in open and lined pits and trucked to local water municipal facilities for disposal.
What some see as an home-grown and clean answer to energy dependence, others view as a water-polluting drilling method that hurts the land, water, people and animals and could possibly harm the Chesapeake Bay.
The fracking industry gained national attention in 2010 when Josh Fox made a documentary called Gasland, which aired on HBO and was a 2011 Oscar nominee. Mr. Fox lives in Dimock, Pennsylvania where it was later discovered that Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. contaminated drinking wells and spilled fracking solution into the Stephen’s stream.
The Gasland documentary, followed by a 60 Minute’s segment, an on-going investigation by the non-profit newsroom ProPublica and thousands of on-line videos and web pages tell the same messy story: “bubbling, gassy and flammable” water wells, animals dying, people developing strange and rare illnesses, and thick clouds of noxious gases.
The Oil and gas industry maintains the fracking process has been in use for over 50 years and is safe and cite a 2004 Environmental Protection Agency report found that fracking posed no risks to water. The EPA is conducting another fracking safety study with results due in late 2012. That same 2004 EPA was also used as evidence in supporting the three paragraphs in the 2005 Energy Policy Act that exempted the natural gas drilling industry from the Safe Water Drinking Act. States regulate fracking, not the EPA or federal government.
The petition filed on April 4, 2011 by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and its coalition of twenty environmental groups asks the White House for a scientific analysis of fracking’s impact on the Chesapeake Bay. This petition highlights fracking’s controversy and tensions in Maryland. In 2010 alone Pennsylvania approved 3,500 fracking wells adding to the 2,000 in use. Pennsylvania’s waterways flow into the Chesapeake Bay.
Maryland has no fracking wells and the Department of the Environment has been reviewing six well permits. Yet, on March 23, 2011 in Maryland’s 2011 General Assembly, the House voted to place a two-year moratorium to study and develop safer fracking regulations by approving the Marcellus Safe Drilling Act, Bill 852. The State Senate votes on their version soon. New York State has also placed a fracking moratorium because New York’s drinking water source and the Marcellus Shale region are one in the same.
Fracking and it’s role in Maryland’s economy, environment and political landscape will unfold in the near future. Only then will we know if fracking is the green energy answer, the problem or a bit of both.
We'll keep you posted.
Comments