Wednesday letters: EPA study undermines anti-fracking argument

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is finally catching up to America’s shale revolution, with its release of a six-year study showing that fracking for oil and natural gas is not harming drinking water sources. This undercuts one of the key arguments that the greens and their political allies have used in trying to restrict a practice that has revolutionized oil and gas production in the United States.

Not too long ago New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, banned fracking after one of the country’s most powerful environmental lobbies, the Sierra Club, mounted a major campaign to kill the practice. In time, Gov. Cuomo may recognize the lost economic opportunity to develop shale beneath his state and lift the ban. Maybe the Sierra Club will wake up to the fact that solar and wind energy won’t be developed unless natural gas is available for back-up power on days when the weather isn’t cooperating.

Until then, the losers include New York owners of the mineral rights to oil and gas in the Marcellus shale, the giant formation that has given an economic shot in the arm to their neighbors in nearby Pennsylvania and Ohio. That’s money that goes back into the economy and helps buy groceries, pay for mortgages and college tuition, contributes to taxes and saving for retirement, and that supply of natural gas increases national security.

Hilton Head

This story was originally published June 30, 2015 at 7:08 PM.