Washington Times: Barring strong evidence of harm, hydraulic fracturing deserves a break

Leftists served the cause of dependency with their “Global Frackdown” on Saturday, when they instigated demonstrations across the planet against hydraulic fracturing, known as “fracking.” The breakthrough procedure for tapping natural gas pumps water, sand and chemicals into underground seams, cracking shale rock and releasing trapped pockets of previously unreachable gas. This sudden leap in production technology is viewed as a threat to the dream of a world powered only by sunshine, breezes and algae. Frackdown organizers wish that credulous mobs, which already are forcing a crackdown on fracking in the United States, will appear in Europe and Asia as well.

The Marcellus Shale Formation, running from New York to West Virginia, holds an enormous treasure of hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of natural gas. The growing use of fracking to reach it has boosted U.S. natural-gas production to an all-time high and driven the price to a 10-year low. American companies are exporting the know-how and equipment overseas to regions where similar underground formations have been found.

Scaremongering requires a bugaboo, so “frackdown” activists have charged that chemicals used in the fracturing process can contaminate groundwater, while escaping gas pollutes the air. Activist bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency used a complaint in Pavillion, Wyo., last year to launch a nationwide study of the effects of fracking on water tables. Adding to the hype is “Gasland,” a 2010 agitprop film blaming the technique for tap water so polluted in Dimock, Pa., that residents could ignite it with a lighter. Despite the propaganda, the EPA found the contamination wasn't caused by fracking chemicals but by methane occurring naturally in the town's bedrock. The agency didn't highlight those unexpected results.