The latest controversy regarding fracking is getting political officials to step in and prevent it from occurring or to raise safety measures to protect both environmental and public health.Fracking is short for hydraulic fracturing and it concerns the oil industry and how they drill for natural gas deep into the earth. There are insecurities over whether the current regulations put in place are sufficient or if they are causing more issues than the public realizes.
The federal government is now in a bit of a quandary as they need to adhere to the rules and regulations within the industry to protect against environmental hazards and to promote domestic energy production. However some officials such as Senator Greg Ball (R-NY) are aiming to end fracking. According to the Scarsdale Patch, Ball is putting pressure on Governor Cuomo to visit fracking sites such as one in Pennsylvania and speak to locals suffering from health inflictions who are laying the blame on the oil companies drilling there. And according to ProPublica, a panel of members of the Environmental Defense Fund has suggested a few ways to meet rising public concern. This includes monitoring air quality around drill sites and taking extra precautionary measures to lessen the emission of methane gas. They also suggest promoting more accurate readily available information to the public.
However, they also don’t believe that fracking is as dangerous as everyone says and that it has been going on in this country for decades. There are also some criticisms of the panel’s motivations, as they have been ousted as having financial ties to oil companies. Yet the suggestions should not be disregarded. There needs to be a better and more efficient manner of protecting the environment and the public health, yet that transition may be slow. In the meantime, better monitoring and better safety measures need to be implemented to ensure no harmful gases and chemicals are being emitted.