Robert W. Harms, Bismarck
A recent letter by Tom Irgens falls short in accurately depicting the safety and necessity of a commonly used energy development technology known as hydraulic fracturing, where fluids under high pressure are injected thousands of feet below the water table to promote oil and natural gas production. This process is essential to develop the Bakken formation here in North Dakota.
Irgens invokes "secrecy" several times as he makes the case for legislation in Washington that seeks to strip states of their right to regulate the process a job they've done for more than a half-century. Used commercially for more than 60 years without a single documented case of groundwater contamination, there's nothing secret about the materials used in fracturing an energy well. Many states post a list of those materials online.
Irgens maintains that the anti-energy bill moving through Congress would overturn a 2005 "exemption" that fracturing was given in the Energy Policy Act. In truth, the 2005 energy bill which was supported by then-Sen. Barack Obama simply clarified that Congress' intent was never to regulate hydraulic fracturing under the Safe Water Drinking Act of 1974. History bears this out, as SDWA has been amended three times since 1974 without even the suggestion that fracturing be added to its portfolio. How can you earn an exemption from something that never covered you in the first place?
But perhaps Irgens' most misplaced claim is that fracturing operations "typically use toxins." Scare tactics like these do North Dakotans an awful disservice. Your readers should know that these fluids are more than 99.51 percent water and sand. What remains are materials you're just as likely to find under your sink and in your cupboard as you would at a Bakken well site. In fact, some 1.1 million wells have been fracked in the U.S., and today, 9 out of every 10 well produced uses this safe technique to produce oil and natural gas.
Our government has a legitimate role to play in making sure hydraulic fracturing remains safe. Thankfully, it's a role they're already playing and have been for 60 years. Efforts to suggest otherwise not only miss the mark, but intentionally distract your readers from the potential jobs, revenues and energy security that lie ready and willing to be produced from the Bakken.
(Harms is president, Northern Alliance of Independent Producers)