To Frack or not to Frack….is it better to have flammable drinking water or energy security? That is the question.

More than 130 people signed up to speak at a U.S. Department of Energy hearing on fracking, a process used in the Marcellus Shale gas drilling industry at Washington and Jefferson College in Washington, Pa.
People on both sides of issue had a chance to share their beliefs with the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, but shouting started outside the building before the meeting even began.

“My children and I have to wear respirators because the air is contaminated,” said Marilyn Hunt of West Virginia.

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as “fracking” involves using high-pressure injections of water, chemicals and sand to open cracks that release gas trapped in rock deep underground. Advances in fracturing technology have led to a dramatic surge in gas extraction nationwide. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates that the United States has 2,119 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas, about 60 percent of which is “unconventional gas” stored in low permeability formations such as shale, coalbeds, and tight sands. In 2010, production of this “shale gas” doubled to 137.8 billion cubic meters, up from 63 billion cubic meters in 2009. A Pennsylvania State University study stated that deployment in 2008 of hydraulic fracturing technology in the Marcellus Shale region generated more than $240 million in state and local taxes for Pennsylvania, 29,000 jobs and $2.3 billion in total economic development.

A recent study from Duke University suggests that gas drilling can cause methane gas to leak into drinking water and sometimes the air in people’s homes. The study suggests that approximately 44 million Americans rely on a private water supply that is typically sourced from shallow aquifers.

The Duke study also notes that a wide array of factors can potentially lead to contamination from wastewaters associated with hydraulic fracturing including, “the toxicity of the fracturing fluid and the produced waters, how close the gas well and fractured zone are too shallow ground water, and the transport and disposal of wastewaters.” It also says that despite precautions by industry, water contamination can still occur through “corroded well casings, spilled fracturing fluid at a drilling site, leaked wastewater, or, more controversially, the direct movement of methane or water upwards from deep underground.”

Methane, which comprises 90 percent of shale gas, is not regulated in drinking water as it does not alter the color or taste of water, nor does it affect its potability. The Duke study found that methane levels were 17 times higher in water wells near gas drilling operations above the Marcellus and Utica shale gas formations in Pennsylvania and New York than those farther than 3,000 feet away. The study noted that outside extreme cases of explosion, flammability and asphyxiation, methane is not typically viewed as a health hazard in low concentrations.

To make sure that the best practices are followed by the industry, Energy Secretary Steven Chu has appointed a committee to recommend environmental and safety improvements for fracking. The seven-member panel consists of environmental, industry and state regulatory experts and is chaired by MIT chemist and former CIA director John Deutch. Within 90 days (from 9 May 2011) the committee will submit its recommendations on any immediate steps that could be taken; Chu set a six-month deadline for delivery of separate advice for federal regulatory agencies.

Other members of the committee include former Clinton administration officials Kathleen McGinty, who chaired the White House Council on Environmental Quality, and Susan Tierney, former assistant secretary for policy at the Department of Energy. Others are global energy analyst and Pulitzer-prize winning author Daniel Yergin, Stanford University geophysicist Mark Zoback, Texas A&M University petroleum engineer Stephen Holditch, and Environmental Defense Fund president Fred Krupp. The panel was established as a subcommittee of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board, although only Deutch, Tierney, and Yergin are members of the full SEAB

Some stocks that will benefit when the regulations get certain:

HES, APC, DVN, EOG, ECA, CHK, SWX, PWE, PXD, CLR, NFX

And my favorite of all links (what happens if we don’t regulate Fracking) => Flammable Drinking Water & it taste good too…. Not!!!

http://frack.mixplex.com/content/scientific-study-links-flammable-drinking-water-fracking

Let’s also remember without fracking, which has dropped the cost of natural gas to circa $4 mmbtu, we have predictions of natural gas soaring to $7-12 mmbtu.

The choice is yours, make it wisely.