Bogus anti fracking studies exaggerate drilling effect by 900 percent

Chris Faulkner:

University of Maryland researchers recently warned that hydraulic fracturing — the process of shaking oil and gas free from shale deposits far belowground — could endanger the health of nearby residents by exposing them to air and water pollution.

This would certainly be cause for alarm — if true. But it’s not.

The study doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. And its baseless claims could threaten a drilling technique that has actually lessened the harmful health impacts of the energy industry by reducing our reliance on coal.

The U of M researchers largely relied on data from another flawed study from the Colorado School of Public Health.

The Colorado study — which blamed fracking for high levels of local carcinogenic benzene — relied on air samples at well sites located within a mile of a major interstate.

Vehicle exhaust is the largest source of benzene, but the Colorado researchers didn’t even control for those pollutants.

The Colorado data also incorporates a false assumption, namely that it takes five years to develop a well. In fact, it actually takes as few as six months.

Industry experts from the Independent Petroleum Association of America estimate this error alone caused the study to inflate pollutant-exposure times by as much as 900 percent.
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Where did they get the idea it takes five years to develop a well?  Currently the process is accomplished in a mater of weeks.  This study looks like a bad faith effort by the anti energy left.