The Fracking Facts

Aubrey McClendon

Newsnm note - Spence - Below is a transcript of the Keynote Address by Aubrey K. McClendon. He is Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO, Chesapeake Energy Corporation. He made this speech at the Marcellus Shale Insights Conference, in Philadelphia on September 7, 2011. It contains the FACTS about the process known as "fracking" now under attack by anti-fossil fuel types who are pressing their radical nonsense agendas.

"It’s great to be in the City of Brotherly Love. From the greeting I received outside, I can see how the city earned its nickname! And I must say it made me proud to be an American. Only in this, the freest country in

the world, can people express their opinions enthusiastically and publicly. That holds for the so-called “fractivists” protesting outside and the “factivists” in this room. When I say “factivist,” I mean all of you who share a commitment to use knowledge and common sense to safely and responsibly produce the natural gas our country so desperately needs. Because we understand this industry, we also have an obligation to speak out – not just at this conference, but out in the community. The facts we convey about the safety of our operations and the benefits of our product should kindle the hopes and calm the fears of all who are fair minded. But as we all have discovered in recent years, not everyone we meet is fair minded, or honest about their motives. In a country where freedom of speech and freedom of the press are enshrined in the Constitution, the privilege of unfettered speech can lead to unfettered fear mongering… In addition, the privilege of uncensored publishing – if not balanced by rigorous fact checking – can lead to broad distribution of half truths and outright lies. I am reminded of the famous words of a truly great U.S. Senator from New York and an Ambassador to the United Nations, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who observed that, “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”

So let’s talk about the facts. FACT: The company that I lead, Chesapeake Energy, is the most active driller in the Marcellus and the most active driller in the United States, by a factor of more than two. We employ over 12,000 Americans directly and almost 100,000 indirectly. We have been horizontally drilling and hydraulically fracturing wells since I co-founded the company in 1989. Our company has performed this process 16,000 times – the most of any company in the world. And we are getting better at it with every well. Not only are we getting better economically, we’re getting better in terms of protective barriers, water management, wastewater recycling and air quality improvement.

FACT: The natural gas exploration and production industry has an excellent track record of safety and environmental integrity. Over 1.2 million wells have been fracked by our industry since 1949. Against that track record of over 1.2 million frac jobs performed by the industry, our critics can only find one or two instances of alleged groundwater pollution. And having examined those few instances ourselves, we don't agree that fracking had anything to do with the alleged groundwater contamination. Even in the limited gas migration incidents in Pennsylvania in the past three years that have drawn so much media attention, only a couple of dozen homeowners claim to have been affected – and these incidents were not related to fracking. They were related to issues of casing design." Read rest of speech here: News New Mexico

The Fracking Facts