During a congressional briefing this week Dr. Anthony Ingraffea offered his opinions on onshore natural gas development to an audience composed largely of congressional interns and environmental activists. Cornell staff made clear Ingraffea’s remarks were his own when they mentioned they weren’t reflective of the University.  At the time I thought it was a standard disclaimer, but it turns out there was good reason for its use as Ingraffea quickly launched into a tirade.

It was one hell of a show, complete with references to the peril of our Nation’s children and grandchildren.  In fact, as I was watching I couldn’t help but think that the professor’s remarks were so hyperbolic they seemed more fitting for a natural gas activist than a tenured professor at one of the nation’s premiere Ivy League institutions.

The discussion, from an objective standpoint, went haywire shortly after the professor relayed the title of his PowerPoint presentation, “Unconventional Development of Shale Gas: Do we really know what we are doing?”

Turning a blind eye towards science, documented history, the findings of multiple academic studies, EPA inquiries, and the comments of over a dozen state regulators and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, Ingraffea declared:

     “[out of] hundreds of thousands of wells you will have many, hundreds if not thousands of cases of water contamination, anywhere shale gas development occurs.”

Wow, so much for that University of Texas study that said otherwise. A study from the Center for Rural Pennsylvania also found no impact on drinking water from Marcellus development in Pennsylvania where over 10,000 wells have been developed in recent years. There’s also a review from the EPA which declared the same.

Read more at http://eidmarcellus.org/marcellus-shale/ingraffea-unleashes-tiger-s...