While I’m committed to environmental protection, I try to be rational on current issues. In trying to reject extremism, I’ve taken second and third looks at certain controversies. Yet in the matter of hydrofracking, I still find, outside of economic expediency, no basis to justify it.
On this issue, it’s helpful to consider recent developments in medical surgery. Surgery is now far less invasive than it was two decades ago. A major operation can now be done through the smallest incision.
Hydrofracking is quite destructive. It involves major breakups of the earth, from the surface to the depths. A rational solution would be to wait for the development of approaches to natural gas that would be far less disruptive.
But in our alarming political environment, business interests will not wait for such developments. With the Gulf spill disaster, we saw what happens with a deregulated oil industry. And as a result of hydrofracking, we have seen earthquakes and water spoilage in Ohio and Pennsylvania. In the absence of government regulation, the businesses involved in hydrofracking have taken shortcuts.
Whether or not other means of energy are soon developed, hydrofracking remains a bad idea.
