Global environmental challenges from Hallie Seegal: There are
high hopes that the natural gas extraction technique known as
hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, will boost the economy and
bring the United States closer to energy independence, but if
the energy industry expects to break new ground and fulfill a
growing demand anytime soon, they need to make friends with the
people who reside near the drilling rigs. Two new reports out
last week point to the potential of how fracking, the process
whereby a highly-pressured mixture of water, sand and chemicals
is blasted through underground shale rock formations to release
natural gas, could positively benefit our economy. One study
projects that natural gas will account for nearly one-third of
total U.S. energy produced by 2040, and the other one, a
government commissioned report which the Obama administration is
expected to partially base its shale gas policy on, shows
natural gas exports providing revenue to the struggling economy
under every condition consider