In the latest New York Review of Books, there is an article by Bill McKibben entitled "Why Not Frack?" which for the first time clearly sets forth the objections of the radical environmentalists to hydraulic fracking. It is extremely revealing even though it only confirms exactly what most observers previously concluded. According to McKibben, there are three reasons to fight against hydrofracking. The first and least important is that fracking may let hydrocarbons leach into surface wells and acquifers. McKibben, of course, offers no proof that this is happening anywhere except in one locality where the cause was traced back to something other than fracking. McKibben only says that it may be happening. It seems that after years of screaming about this, the radical environmentalists and their allies in academia still have not been able to find the proof for which they have searched.
The second reason McKibben cites for opposition to hydrofracking is that the disposal of "contaminated" water brought up with the natural gas recovered will pollute streams, rivers and lakes and do great harm. Interestingly, McKibben ignores the processes like fracking with a gel made from propane rather than using water, a process which completely solves all of the supposed ills about which McKibben complains. Indeed, McKibben offers no example where a river, stream or lake was materially polluted. He also ignores the increased regulation on the disposal of waste water from fracking which has been adopted in state after state. In short, after citing two reasons to oppose fracking, McKibben has come up with hyperbole but no facts to support his view.
That takes us to the third reason for opposing fracking which McKibben says is by far the most important. What is that reason? Fracking will make abundant supplies of natural gas available at a very low price. This will mean that Americans will have a low cost alternative to imported oil and even domestic coal. Energy costs will tumble. As a result, projects that produce high cost solar and wind energy will not be able to compete. If the "green energy" of solar and wind cannot compete we will be forced to live in a future where fossil fuels still comprise the main source of energy in the United States and around the world.
If you were expecting more in the way of a key reason to oppose fracking, it just is not there. Fracking must be opposed because it works too well. All of the schemes of the radical environmentalists to force energy costs higher are undermined by the existence of fracking. If you remember back to the 2008 campaign where then candidate Obama told us that under his plan, energy costs "would necessarily skyrocket", then you understand that the goal of radical environmentalism has always been to drive fossil fuel energy prices as high as possible. With gasoline prices as high as they are now, Obama is not upset with the high prices, but only with the fact that prices rose so rapidly. We have a group who have adopted a religion of global warming. Scientific evidence for man made global warming has been undermined and mostly destroyed in the last two years. Indeed, research at CERN has demonstrated that the most likely determinant of the global climate is the level of solar radiation interacting with the Earth's magnetic field. Even so, this scientific heresy is ignored by the true believers in the global warming cult. Hydrofracking is a threat because it provides the chance for progress for millions, indeed billions of people for a future based upon abundant and low-cost fossil fuel energy.
Next time someone starts to tell you about the horros of fracking, please remember this. The real goal of the opposition to fracking is to force everyone to live in a world where progress is a dirty word, where abundance is a nasty nightmare, where the good life for the average person is just too expensive. These are people who put their "religious" beliefs above the welfare of humanity. They may not wish literally to sacrifice humans to their new deity, but they certainly want to sacrifice comfort and well being to that cause.
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