The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) #Science advisory panel is formally recommending a comprehensive fracking study be more precise, even though it showed the drilling technique did not adversely affect drinking water or the #Environment. The report, which took five years to complete and is still in draft form, needs to be more specific, EPA panel advisors said. They want the report to be “more precise” to buffet itself against anti-fossil fuel activists.
Affirms fracking is safe
In the report, the EPA found that they did not find any evidence of widespread, universal impacts on drinking water in the United States. While Industry hailed the report, anti-fossil fuel groups like the Sierra Club assailed the report as not being thorough enough. Indeed, the 30-member panel concluded yesterday the report was “comprehensive but lacking in critical areas.” This was the same criticism given last February by the EPA’s science advisors but who reaffirmed fracking was safe, but said the EPA should be more precise in its statements:
“EPA Science Advisors Buck Enviro Pressure And Affirm ‘Fracking’ Is Safe” https://t.co/Fd2pPLb4Vf
— hockey schtick (@hockeyschtick1) February 17, 2016
The panel has recommended the EPA include “quantitative analysis” to support the report‘s conclusions. That means showing what substances were found in water near fracking sites. The advisory panel is comprised of academic, industry, and government scientists. Congress requested the report back in 2010 when anti-fossil fuel groups accused fracking of contaminating drinking water. Published last June, the report found that after reviewing data from thousands of fracking sites and nearby watersheds they could only find only isolated instances and the problem wasn’t widespread. Activists have been hammering the EPA to change its findings…
