HDNet's 'Dan Rather Reports' Investigates a Revolutionary Technique in Drilling for Natural Gas - Will It Ease Our Dependency on Foreign Oil, or Contaminate Our Water?

DALLAS, April 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Tonight's "Dan Rather Reports" travels to the western U.S. this week to investigate a revolution in drilling technology, meant to harvest the nation's vast reserves of natural gas found in shale rock.  The technique combines horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing.  The industry calls this "fracking" and it has allowed the United States to surpass Russia in becoming the largest producer of natural gas in the world.  

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In "fracking" a well is first drilled vertically, then, the drill is turned sideways and continues to drill horizontally.  "Fracking" a well means to inject millions of gallons of water, mixed with sand and chemicals into the ground, pumping it into the well bore at extremely high pressure - forcing the rock to crack or fracture - allowing pathways for natural gas to flow out.

Aubrey McClendon, CEO of the Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy believes that "fracking" will greatly decrease the U.S. dependency on foreign oil.

"We have discovered in the United States, twice as much energy equivalent power measured in BTUs as Saudi Arabia," McClendon tells Rather.  "So, Saudi Arabia claims to have 250 billion barrels of oil reserves.  There's some debate about that.  We believe we discovered twice that equivalency in the U.S. in natural gas."

However, there are those who are worried about the chemical by-products of this "fracking" process and how these chemicals used may be polluting the drinking water in the communities hosting these wells.  So far, the Oil and Gas industry has not been required to disclose what those chemicals are.

Dr. Daniel Teitlebaum is a toxicologist with the Colorado School of Public Health and has served as a consultant for the Environmental Protection Agency. He tells Rather, "We know that in the past they've used diesel fuels.  We know that in the past they've used various kinds of arsenicals.  We know they've used borates.  All of these are toxic materials and they have a very broad range of toxicity.  They are toxic to the central nervous system.  They are toxic to the liver.  They are toxic to the skin.  They cause respiratory problems."

The EPA has been restricted from testing water near "fracking" sites after Congress passed, and President Bush signed, the Energy Policy Act in the summer of 2005.  This Bill excludes Oil and Gas companies from the Drinking Water Regulation – the only industry to have such an exclusion.

However, Colorado Congresswoman Diana DeGette has co-sponsored new legislation to regulate hydraulic fracturing under the EPA's Safe Water Drinking Act.

"I think this is an industry that in the late 1990s and the early part of this century got used to pretty much doing whatever it wanted to do," says DeGette.  "I don't think that they like being regulated.  They don't want additional regulations.  And a lot of the folks that I talked to say, 'Well we say there's nothing wrong.  So therefore you shouldn't regulate us.' And of course that's not how it works."

"Dan Rather Reports – Fracking Gas" airs TONIGHT, Tuesday, April 13 at 8:00 p.m. ET and will re-air at 11:00 p.m. ET to accommodate West Coast Prime Time.

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