On Local Government: Regarding Fracking

While it sounds like something you used to get slapped in the face for uttering, this word has become the cry of outrage from environmentalists regarding natural gas drilling. It is an outrage worth considering, but those who speak about it must know what they are talking about. Otherwise, it could become a rationale for lost credibility.

I have a friend who owns property in northeastern Pennsylvania where the fracking “craze” began in the US. Anyone who has driven through that area north and west of Bethlehem towards Scranton and Wilkes-Barre probably remembers the piles of coal at the side of just about every road you drove. Often, the mere existence of that coal indicates the likely presence of natural gas.

In fact, most people don’t realize that the first major oil strikes in the US were in Pennsylvania. (Hence, the brand name Pennzoil.) But, when the coal was deemed too dirty and the easy oil was tapped, the process of hydraulic fracking was introduced. This uses chemically enhanced water under high pressure to fracture shale rocks and release natural gas.

It has been an economic boon for a devastated area. But, it has also made people sick and has, according to some, damaged the environment, in particular ground water, for both this generation and into the future.

The toxic mix of lead, uranium, mercury, ethylene glycol, radium, methanol, hydrochloric acid and formaldehyde that makes up the fracking fluid certainly gives one pause. It sounds pretty awful.

I mention this because the implications gleaned from the data put out by the opposition to oil drilling in Hermosa Beach makes one believe that fracking is in our future. At least for the present, it is not.

There is actually oil out there that could be harvested. Whether it should or not is a very debatable subject, which will occupy Hermosa Beach voters for a while. There are lots of good reasons for opposition, but not fracking.

Meanwhile, in California, there is, in fact, fracking going on, or is planned, and the State Legislature is considering what to do about it. The first bill, AB 1301, authored by Richard Bloom, the former mayor of Santa Monica, passed its first test last week in committee. It would place a moratorium on fracking until studies have been done to determine its impact.

This type of legislation is of a kind that drive some people crazy. For the most part, they contend, there is not a whole lot of history in the use of fracking to indicate why it should be stopped. However, prudence seems to lie on the side of those who want to hold off and find out what the damage could be, both short and long term.

Until a future Legislature gives the OK, fracking will be on hold. From the anecdotal evidence from Pennsylvania, the delay is more than justified.