Wherefore Art Thou, Neutral Fracking Definition?

Vortex Tools goes in search of a neutral definition of the controversial fracking process, yet comes back with hands smeared with bias from both sides of the issue.

Oh, there he is. He's much easier to find as a giant head in the middle of the page.

Waldo. Carmen Sandiego. That leprechaun with my pot of gold. A neutral definition of fracking.

What do these things have in common? That’s right, they’re hard to find, and the people who’ve found them aren’t sharing on the internet. Instead, you get a lot of opinion staplegunned to the facts (especially with that leprechaun — why is he so greedy?).

A couple of weeks back, we talked about the potential changes coming to fracking in 2012, and while the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is set to finish their official report by the end of January — as opposed to quipping what people figured they’d find anyway: that hydraulic fracturing is responsible for groundwater contamination (followed by a predictable rebuttal from the oil and gas industry) —  it’s hard to find a neutral definition of what the process is.

Let’s look at what we get instead:

Save the intense battle music, this video doesn’t start half bad. Early on, there are couple of key phrases that indicate the narrator’s bias — “toxic products” (0:22), “highly damaging” (0:34) — but by the second half of the video, I can’t be bothered to keep track, so from 1:13 on, hello, blunt anti-fracking opinion.

(Not that the creators were trying to hide their bias, mind you.)

Meanwhile, some companies in the oil and gas industry  want to pretend as though there’s no controversy at all:

Here we get snazzy graphics and a couple of comments to subtlety defend against the accusations lobbed their way:

• Fracking merely exploiting “natural zones of weakness” and being contained “well below the ground” (i.e. groundwater): 1:31-1:50.
• Recycling/disposing of fracking liquids “according to state and federal regulations” at 3:25-3:35.

(Could’ve done with some battle music…)

Inevitably, I’m not labeling these biases as good or bad; I’m just pointing out what’s there. Except you, leprechaun with the pot of gold, hurry up already. I’ve got bills to pay.

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Colin McKay Miller is the Marketing Manager for the SpiroFlo Holdings group of companies:

-SpiroFlo for residential hot water savings (delivered 35% faster with up to a 5% volume savings on every hot water outlet in the home) and industrial water purification (biofilm removal).

-Vortex Tools for extending the life of oil and gas wells (recovering up to 10 times more NGLs, reducing flowback startup times, replacing VRUs, eliminating paraffin and freezing in winter, etc.).

-Ecotech for cost-effective non-thermal drying (for biosolids, sugar beets, etc.)