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Townhall
Frack to the Future
by
John Stossel
Mar
13, 2013
Celebrities
are now upset about fracking, the injection of
chemicals into the ground to crack rocks to release oil and gas. With
everyone
saying they want alternatives to foreign oil, I'd think celebrities
would love
fracking.
I'd
be wrong. Lady Gaga, Yoko Ono and their group, Artists Against
Fracking, don't feel the love. Yoko sang, "Don't frack me!" on TV.
Stopping
fracking is the latest cause of the silly people. They
succeeded in getting scientifically ignorant politicians to ban
fracking in New
York, Maryland and Vermont.
Hollywood
gave an Oscar to Gasland, a documentary that suggests
fracking will shove gas into some people's drinking water, so the water
will
burn. It's true that some water contains so much natural gas that you
can light
it.
But
another documentary, FrackNation, shows that gas got into
plumbing long before fracking came. There's gas in the earth. That's
why it's
called "natural gas." Some gets into well water. Environmental
officials investigated the flames shown in Gasland and concluded that
the
pollution had nothing to do with fracking.
FrackNation
director Phelim McAleer tried to confront Gasland
director Josh Fox about this, but Fox wouldn't answer his questions.
Instead,
he demanded to know whom McAleer works for. He also turned down my
invitations
to publicly debate fracking. Many activists don't like to answer
questions that
don't fit their narrative.
Even
some homeowners who filed a lawsuit claiming that their water
was poisoned by fracking weren't happy to learn that their water is
safe. I'd
think they would be delighted, but FrackNation shows a couple reacting
with
outrage when environmental officials test their water and find it clean.
The
real story on fracking, say scientists, is that the risks are
small and the rewards immense. Fracking lowered the price of natural
gas so
much that Americans heat our homes for less, and manufacturing that
once left
America has returned. For those concerned about global warming, burning
gas
instead of oil or coal reduces CO2 emissions.
Read the rest of
the article at Townhall |
