We thought you’d like this op-ed from USA Today, titled “Campaign to stop fracking sacrifices nature for ideology":
Goaded on by grassroots opposition to fracking and fearing that cheap gas would slow down the transition to renewable energy, environmental leaders now claim that fracking is contaminating wells and depleting aquifers, and that leaking natural gas makes fracking worse for global warming than coal.
In reality, gas remains a vastly superior source of energy than coal by virtually every environmental metric — just as it was a decade ago. That's because coal is a dirty sponge rock. Burning it emits mercury, a toxic heavy metal, and sulfur dioxide, which causes acid rain. You have to literally blow the tops off of mountains to get the stuff. Whole river watersheds in West Virginia are buried under toxic debris. This month, thanks, in part, to natural gas, new federal statistics show mountain top mining is down 62% since 2008.