Environmentalists Claim EPA Allows Drillers to Operate Above the Law

Environmentalists with the Environmental Working Group released a report last Tuesday that attacks the natural gas industry's extraction methods. Hydraulic fracturing, the process of blasting water, sand, and solvents deep underground to break up and dissolve rock formations, has become a standard procedure to allow extraction companies to drill deeply and efficiently. The boosted productivity and record reserve levels of natural gas in America are credited to this technique.

Many environmentalists say that it's too good to be true. Citing pollution to deep water resources that could eventually end up part of drinking water, some green groups want this process stopped right away. The EPA researched the matter, and concluded that hydraulic fracturing posed very little risk to human health, and actually moved to help Congress pass an exemption to the clean water act to allow drilling companies to intensify their use of this method.

Green groups then turned their attention on the solvents being injected in the now-legalized hydraulic fracturing process — one of them being diesel fuel. Diesel, like gasoline and other petroleum distillates, off-gasses a cancer causing chemical called benzene. Last week we reported how a Texas town was fighting to push natural gas drillers away from their homes and farms, citing medical issues and dead livestock.

According to the Environmental Working Group, oil and natural gas companies are using toxic petroleum solvents without obtaining the proper permitting, often substituting diesel fuel with a less known chemical in order to comply with the law. "These substitutes are extremely toxic," said Dusty Horwitt of the Environmental Working Group.

Gas companies say otherwise, pointing to tight controls and the sheer depth at which these chemicals are employed to assert that the process is safe. In response to the new round of criticism, natural gas industry groups have launched a new PR and lobbying campaign to clear their name and prevent further regulation costs associated with drilling.