(Community Matters) an important Economist article about Fracking – Sorting frack from fiction
There are three main concerns: that it could set off earthquakes or play havoc with water supplies; and that methane could escape into the atmosphere and exacerbate global warming. . . . A report from America’s National Research Council on energy and seismic activity, due to be published later this year, records only two incidents of minor tremors associated with fracking—the one in Britain and just one in America, despite the scale of activity there.. . . With over 20,000 wells drilled in the past decade there have been only a few instances of groundwater contamination, all of them due to breaches of existing regulations.. . . The EPA is now conducting the biggest study ever into all aspects of shale exploration [including methane emissions], likely to be published next year, which might help allay public fears.
