Fracking Poses Grave Threats to the Environment and Public Health
The combination of two technologies— hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling—has enabled the oil and gas industry to engage in an effort to unlock oil and gas in underground rock formations across the United States. “Fracking,” however, has also led to tremendous environmental harm and put the health and safety of communities across the country at risk. Since 2005, according to industry and state data, more than 137,000 fracking wells have been drilled or permitted in more than 20 states, but the scale of fracking’s impact on our environment can be difficult to grasp. To protect the public and our environment, Texas should take action to ban fracking and ensure that oil and gas companies are held to the highest level of environmental performance, transparency and accountability. No plausible system of regulation appears likely to address the scale and severity of fracking’s impacts.

The oil and gas industry—not taxpayers, communities or families—should pay the costs of damage caused by fracking.

The public’s right to know about fracking’s environmental damage must be respected. More complete data on fracking should be collected and made available to the public, enabling us to understand the full extent of the harm that fracking causes to our environment and health.