Opponents of natural gas, which are organizations like ProPublica and groups like that in particular, are all funded by political action committees and foundations associated with the Democratic Party, which is also strongly associated with the coal lobby.
The public relations coup that our opponents managed was to link problems associated with conventional drilling, which have existed for 100 years--and we continuously get better at that--to hydraulic fracturing. By making that link in the public's mind, they've been able to point to problems caused by conventional drilling and say, “Oh, you see? This hydraulic fracturing is dangerous.” But we are starting to win back on that issue. We now have a growing number of independent studies and reports showing that the idea that a few trucks pumping water on surface will break through one or two kilometres of solid rock is, if you really think about it, almost ridiculous on the face of it, yet in the public's mind it's a concern.
Within safe depths, the potential for us to fracture to surface or into aquifers is negligible--immaterial--and that's backed up by studies by MIT and the Ground Water Protection Council. Worldwatch has done a review, and Frac Attack has done a review. Most recently the department of environment and energy in New York State has put out a comprehensive report, which I think is going to be a 1,220- or 1,300-page study, and they have concluded that the risks are negligible. Finally, the 2004 EPA study, which was a study of fracking in coal bed methane, which is far closer to surface, also concluded that the risks were negligible.
I think that's one issue on which we're on really solid ground, but it has highlighted that conventional drilling can occasionally disturb aquifers and that human errors in procedures on surface can occasionally create the potential for groundwater contamination, and that's the issue we need to address.