Documentary about fracking

By Thomas J. Pyle0

But filmmaker Josh Fox is certainly not “most people, ” and his documentary, set to debut on HBO July 8, represents another attempt to discredit the economic miracle of natural gas.

The first installment of Gasland blamed the hydraulic fracturing process used to extract natural gas from rock formations for everything from contaminating drinking water to setting faucet water on fire. Experts have debunked these claims, but that didn‘t stop him from recycling them throughout most of the film.

Fox now blames shale gas drilling for methane contamination. In April, however, Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection concluded that naturally occurring shallow gas was responsible for contaminating well water of three private homes. Also in April, the EPA lowered estimates of methane leaks during natural gas production, prompting environmental group Breakthrough Institute president Michael Shellenberger to remark that this is “strong proof that existing technologies can be deployed to reduce methane leaks.”

What Fox fails to acknowledge is that oil and natural gas companies have used hydraulic fracturing safely for more than 60 years. Far from an environmental threat, cleaner-burning natural gas was actually a major contributor to a drop in U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s June energy report.

Until a few years ago, much of America’s vast supplies of natural gas were inaccessible because they were trapped inside shale rock. Thanks to recent technological advances that combine hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling, the United States now leads the world in natural gas production. All told, North America’s total recoverable reserve of natural gas can supply America’s electricity needs for the next 575 years at current consumption rates.