Energy & Entrepreneurs

Fracking Energy

by Raymond J. Keating

Here's a quick test: What does the term "fracking" mean?

a) A curse word on the television show "Battlestar Galactica."

b) A process (also known as hydraulic fracturing) to produce oil and/or natural gas using water pressure to create fractures in rock, allowing oil and/or natural gas to escape and flow out of a well.

c) All of the above.

The answer is c.

But let's put aside the "Battlestar Galactica" nerd moment, and focus on the energy issue.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held a public hearing in Binghamton, NY, on September 13, with another on the 15^th. As reported in the September 14 Wall Street Journal, "The American Petroleum Institute ... says that, with the help of fracturing, the Marcellus Shale formation, which extends from Ohio and West Virginia into southern New York, could produce as much as 18 billion cubic feet of natural gas a day and support as many as 280,000 jobs."

A July 20 Associated Press noted, "So vast is the wealth of natural gas locked into dense rock deep beneath Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Ohio that some geologists estimate it's enough to supply the entire East Coast for 50 years."

But critics, or perhaps more accurately activists, worry about potential environmental ills. However, a 2004 EPA report found: "In its review of incidents of drinking water well contamination believed to be associated with hydraulic fracturing, EPA found no confirmed cases that are linked to fracturing fluid injection into CBM wells or subsequent underground movement or fracturing fluids. Further, although thousands of CBM wells are fractured annually, EPA did not find confirmed evidence that drinking water wells have been contaminated by hydraulic fracturing fluid injection into CBM wells."

It also must be pointed out that fracking has been used for decades successfully and safely in the U.S., including for some 30-plus years in New York.

Finally, U.S. entrepreneurs, businesses and consumers need access to affordable, reliable energy. Whether it be natural gas in embedded in rock, or oil and gas below offshore waters, policymakers should not be placing domestic energy supplies off limits. Given the state of the U.S. economy, this is perhaps never more important than right now.

"Fracking" might be a curse in the sci-fi world, but in terms of real-world energy and economic needs, it's an important process that should be embraced. Policymakers should be focused on removing obstacles to domestic energy production, not imposing new ones.

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Raymond J. Keating is chief economist for the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.