The latest Bloomberg Businessweek includes an interview with Daniel Yergin that includes the following exchange about fracking:
How does fracking change the picture?
The development of shale gas has created—my company [Cambridge Energy Research Associates] did a study—indirectly something like 600,000 jobs. It is a major stimulus to the revival of manufacturing in the country, and in ways that were not anticipated a few years ago. This inexpensive, abundant energy, directly and as a source of electricity generation, makes the U.S. more competitive in the world economy.
What about environmental risk?
I was on a committee that did a report for [Energy Secretary] Steven Chu and Obama. What we concluded is that there are environmental issues to be addressed, and we identified 20 pragmatic ways of addressing them. There’s this public debate, and then there’s what seems to be reality. The scientists on the committee were firm: The chemicals that are used that have gotten attention, it’s very, very unlikely that they’re getting into the water supply. What needs to be managed is what you do with the spent water from the drilling.
