A dedicated band of anti-fracking activists has organized the common folk of Denton, TX a town not far from Dallas-Ft. Worth, sitting nearly astride the Barnett Shale field, the largest developed shale gas area in the U.S. for an up-or-down vote on whether to allow fracking there.
So how did this come to pass, in the heartland of fossil fuels since well, since fossil fuels were invented. Denton is a town of about 130,000 folks, but it s in essence a college town and way more liberal than the Texas population as a whole. But the tactics of the anti-fracking group are not much different from their co-ignorami in the vicinity of the Marcellus shale in New York, to wit:
If the city of Denton can be persuaded to ban fracking, that will confirm all of the wild, environmental, wacko accusations that have been made about fracking all around the country. The only reason for this campaign is for press releases to go out all over the country against fracking
...according to Tom Giovanetti, president of the Institute for Policy Innovation, a Dallas-based public policy research group.
ACSH s Dr. Gil Ross had this comment: No one devoted to the health and environmental impacts and potential effects of any form of drilling activity should give short shrift or condescension to residents legitimate concerns about noise and traffic. Even if highly unlikely, the possibility of groundwater pollution due to human error is real. But to stifle an entire technology with its vast promise of clean available energy supplies, which is in essence no different, or indeed safer and cleaner, than other techniques of energy development, makes no sense. The process should be regulated like any other similar activity. It s a shame that the term fracking has become ingrained, as it s so easy to attack just for the sound of it. But it s just a way to explore numerous sites of shale gas deposits at the same time, with the shattering of the enclosing mineral. See our publications to get the true story of High Volume Hydraulic Fracturing!
