Nocera, fresh to the big stage of the oped page, responds to legitimate questions about a recent column by throwing a hissy fit.

Joe, Joe, Joe. You wrote a column about natural gas without mentioning environmental concerns. Readers pointed out the omission. The proper response is to concede the oversight and deal with the issues at hand, not to snark at your critics and wave the bloody shirt ("...the Middle East, where American soldiers continue to die") as if drill, baby, drill was the only true expression of patriotism.

Beneath the attitude, even you are forced to acknolwedge serious problems with "sloppy gas producers who didn’t take proper care in cementing their wells," and admit that "producers in the Marcellus Shale will have to do a better job getting rid of the waste."

You say we need to "insist that it be done properly."

But on a day when your own newspaper front-pages an article about weakening enivonmental protections in the states -- incuding North Carolina, where the fracking fight is just beginning -- your casual attitude is irresponsible.

Of is your BFF Boone going to take care of all that for us, too?

Comments

[Joel Patterson]

Amen. Nocera should know that the 2005 Energy bill exempted fracking from the Clean Water Act, thus socializing the costs of private enterprise drilling for gas. Joe hates it when Wall Street socializes the costs of its business. He should apply the same standard to the gas bidness.

[Billy Jones]

none of it matters, we'll drill until drilling no longer works and then history will repeat itself as people cut down every tree in sight just to survive... same as it ever was...

[Oilfieldguy]

Next big moves in Natural Gas exploration will be Ohio and Michigan. Lease acquisition teams have already been dispatched...

[Andrew Brod]

I'm like this guy, just learning about fracking. One thing I didn't know was Joel's point, that the technique is exempt from federal oversight via the Clean Water Act. That's really bad policy. Maybe fracking's benefits exceed the costs and maybe they don't. But it shouldn't be exempted from federal scrutiny.

[glenwoodobserver]

AB - I didn't learn that either until I finally got around to watching Gasland last week. It is the legacy of the Cheney Energy Task Force to stimulate energy production in the US - that somehow, those pesky environmental laws which protect the public health of its own citizens were a nuisance. Because, by now, we have learned that oil and gas companies think about the future of our planet first before profits.

[jawbone]

oilfieldguy @ 12:12PM -- Do you have links for where this fracking may take place? Info on locations within OH and MI?

And, what is the possibiity of contaminating Great Lakes waters? Which provide drinking water for millions....

[RBM]

@jawbone

I asked about this over at The Oil Drum and received a link http://oilshalegas.com/collingwoodshale.html which is a MI play.

[RBM]

Regarding my query about NC wastewater capabilities is this in the news:

Radioactive Frack Waste Dumping Prohibited

West Virginia environmental regulators do not allow natural gas companies to dump radioactive frack water from drilling sites into streams, rivers or injection wells.

Pennsylvania regulators are preparing to screen the frack water for radioactive elements such as uranium and radium.

These elements are found in fracking wastewater because they are naturally occurring in the earth.

[glenwoodobserver]

And then there is this problem demonstrated in this April 12 NY Times article:
"Much of the methane emissions associated with natural gas development are, or at least should be, relatively easy to prevent and capture. And if that fugitive gas is captured, natural gas remains a far, far cleaner-burning option than coal or oil.

The first step in getting beyond this debate, many environmental advocates argue, is for the industry to stop refusing to take detailed measure of its methane leakage rates, to make that information public, and to submit to rules requiring them to capture it."

So, there you have it...getting the natural gas industry to do anything that might add to the cost of extraction, i.e., capturing methane or treating its wastewater will not be accomplished without a fight.

The full article:
http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/fugitive-methane-stirs-debate-on-natural-gas/?partner=rss&emc=rss