Quick note to point out a very important distinction.  Natural gas is being represented by some members of the oil & gas industry, the media, and by lawmakers as clean / green energy and part of America’s latest clean energy efforts.

And there is some truth to that – natural gas does burn cleaner than coal, for example.

HOWEVER, it is important to note that those statements refer exclusively to the BURNING of natural gas.  It does not and cannot possibly refer to the process of extraction, or hydraulic fracturing – a largely unregulated process that exists in its current format solely because the companies that perform it have been exempted from the Clean Water Act.

Make no mistake, contaminating our water supply in the process of harvesting a clean-burning fuel is NOT CLEAN.  Spraying a mix of water, sand, and nearly 600 chemicals (including carcinogens and nuerotoxins and more) into the ground by the millions of gallons (only to recover 10-50%, leaving the rest deep in the ground) is NOT GREEN.

If you injected a fellow human with poison, even a low-level of poison, again and again – and even if the poison you injected also brought about a positive side-effect – it made them really smart, or good at baseball, or dedicated to community service – IF they eventually became ill or even passed on – THEN you would be charged with a crime, possibly murder.  Why is this any different?

It is not OK to commit a crime, even if the production of that crime may produce some benefits.  Poisoning a human is a crime.  Poisoning the earth is a crime.

Get it straight:  Natural gas extracted by way of hydraulic fracture is NOT clean energy.