"The safety of the nation’s water supply should not have to rely on luck or the public relations talents of the oil and gas industry. Thanks in part to two New Yorkers — Representative Maurice Hinchey and Senator Charles Schumer — Congress last week approved a bill that asks the E.P.A. to conduct a new study on the risks of hydraulic fracturing. An agency study in 2004 whitewashed the industry and was dismissed by experts as superficial and politically motivated. This time Congress is demanding “a transparent, peer-reviewed process.”

Home of Benjamin Franklin, Betsy Ross, Independence Hall, and the Constitution Center, Pennsylvania's got something new to boast about when it comes to patriotism: a major stake in America's booming gas drilling industry. With at least 4,000 oil and gas wells drilled here in the last year, the state is becoming a forerunner in our nation's search for natural gas. With that title comes a new problem that many were not prepared to confront as gas drilling expands nationwide, however. And it happens to weigh 9 million gallons a day. According to industry estimates used by Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), that's how much wastewater oil and gas wells disgorge in Pennsylvania each day, and by 2011 that figure is expected to rise to at least 19 million gallons. Much of this wastewater is a byproduct of what is becoming a familiar culprit: hydraulic fracturing. Pennsylvania's situation is just one of the many key statistics and figures released within the past couple of weeks that has shed light on the dangers of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Today fracking has become a key issue in the nation's environmental debate, and many are now calling for a change.

Prior to a House Natural Resources subcommittee hearing (scheduled for June 4) to assess environmental risks of natural gas drilling, the American Petroleum Institute gathered reporters for a conference call to explain why it is prepared to fight to the grave proposed regulatory legislation. "The API repeatedly referenced a recent study claiming that federal oversight...would cost the industry more than $100,000 per new well and threatened that thousands of jobs would be lost...It maintained that fracturing...[is] a safe technology proven not to harm water. Asked what recent scientific studies support that notion, however, the institute’s senior policy analyst...answered: 'That’s a good question. I’m not aware of any.'"