Second of two parts
Re “Fracking from the Other Side: Brown’s Rejection of a Ban”
Gov. Brown has counted on the support of many environmental groups – such as the Sierra Club and the California League of Conservation Voters – for decades. He is widely recognized as one of the nation’s strongest advocates for renewable energy. It will be interesting to see what kind of conspiracy theories the activists come up with now to explain Gov. Brown’s full-throated endorsement of state regulators to oversee oil and gas development and the use of hydraulic fracturing in a way that provides our state with the energy it needs and the environmental protection that Californians demand.
Of course, in that sense, Gov. Brown isn’t breaking new ground. Scientists, regulators, senior members of the Obama administration and many other authoritative sources have said for years that oil and gas development and hydraulic fracturing are fundamentally safe. Here are examples:
“There’s a lot of hysteria that takes place now with respect to hydraulic fracking. You see that happening in many of the states… My point of view, based on my own study of hydraulic fracking, is that it can be done safely and has been done safely hundreds of thousands of times.”
– Ken Salazar, President Obama’s former Interior Secretary 2/15/2012
“We know that natural gas can safely be developed. To the credit of the industry, many companies are leaning into this challenge and promoting best practices for safer and more efficient production. That’s not always widely noticed or appreciated. But it’s a fact… [The] underlying commitment by industry to continuously improve and adopt effective practices as technology evolves is something our administration applauds.”
– White House Energy and Climate Adviser Heather Zichal, 5/14/2012
“There have been fears that hydraulic fracturing fluid injected at depth could reach up into drinking water aquifers. But the injection is typically done at depths of 6,000 to 7,000 feet. Drinking water is usually pumped from shallow aquifers, no more than 100 or 200 feet below the surface. Fracturing fluids have not contaminated any water supply. With that much distance to an aquifer, it is very unlikely they could.”
– Mark Zoback, Stanford University geophysics professor, adviser to U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, 8/30/2011
“[E]xtremely small micro-seismic events occur during hydraulic fracturing operations. These micro-seismic events affect a very small volume of rock and release, on average, about the same amount of energy as a gallon of milk falling off a kitchen counter.”
– Prof. Zoback, 6/19/2012
“The process of hydraulic fracturing a well, as presently implemented for shale gas recovery, does not pose a high risk for inducing felt seismic events.”
– National Research Council, 6/15/2012
”Micro-seismic monitoring showed all fractures were separated from the designated base of fresh water by 7,700 feet (1.5 miles) or more. … Before-and-after monitoring of groundwater quality in monitor wells did not show impacts from high-volume hydraulic fracturing … Before-during-and-after measurements of vibration and seismicity, including analysis of data from the permanently installed California Institute of Technology accelerometer at the Baldwin Hills, indicates that the high-volume hydraulic fracturing … had no detectable effects on vibration, and did not induce seismicity (earthquakes).”
– Cardno ENTRIX, Inglewood Oilfield Study, 10/10/2012
“Hydraulic fracturing has been a key technology in making shale gas an affordable addition to the nation’s energy supply. The technology has proven to be a safe and effective stimulation technique. Ground water is protected during the shale gas fracturing process by a combination of the casing and cement that is installed when the well is drilled and the thousands of feet of rock between the fracture zone and any fresh or treatable aquifers.”
– U.S. Dept. of Energy and Ground Water Protection Council report, April 2009
“The most important thing we can do is make sure we control our own energy. Here’s what I’ve done since I’ve bee President. We have increased oil production to the highest levels in 16 years. Natural gas production is the highest it’s been in decades… We’ve got potentially 600,000 jobs and a hundred years’ worth of energy right beneath our feet with natural gas. And we can do it in an environmentally sound way.”
– President Obama, 10/16/12
This consensus on both the safety and importance of oil and gas development, using hydraulic fracturing, is good news for all Californians.
Mr. Quast, California Director of Energy in Depth, may be contacted at dave@energyindepth.org
