Government Fracking Panel Calls for Environmental Impact Study: Scientific American
The federal government should begin a major effort to measure greenhouse gas emissions tied to the nation’s booming natural gas industry, a Department of Energy advisory panel said today in a series of proposals on air and water quality issues.
The seven-member advisory panel under Energy Secretary Steven Chu released its first report outlining steps that regulators and companies drilling in vast U.S. shale gas reservoirs should take to avoid significant environmental damage and assuage public concern.
“There are serious environmental impacts underlying these concerns and these adverse environmental impacts need to be prevented, reduced and, where possible, eliminated as soon as possible,” says the report. “Absent effective control, public opposition will grow, thus putting continued production at risk.”