The economic incentives for the oil and gas companies, getting as much gas out of the ground as quickly as possible, don't line up with the incentives of local people, to do these things in a safe way. The Chesapeake explosion is an example of how industry is cutting corners, from blowouts like this, to dumping frack water into rivers, to inadequately treating production, or even failing to insulate their pipelines, which can have negative climate impacts. In fact, a recent analysis (see link below), suggested that, full, life-cycle emissions for natural gas might actually be worse than coal, depending on how much natural gas is allowed to escape in transport and production.

Development of the week: Industry is fond of saying that there have been no examples of water pollution from fracking. But this week our Secretary of Energy, Stephen Chu, went on national broadcast media and said, yes, there have been instances where water pollution has occurred, and we have to ensure that doesn't happen in the future.
Looking forward: The natural gas industry just came out with its own guidelines for water disposal. Most notably, they call for injecting wastewater underground rather than dumping it in rivers. I suppose it's promising that they at least acknowledge that there are best practices. But it's also discouraging that the industry is in charge of policing itself rather than the EPA or various state agencies.

It's interesting that Texas, which is the No. 1 gas-drilling state, is having these scattered protests. People commenting on my article say, well, it's just a few dozen protesters in Fort Worth. But for Texas, which has been in the oil and gas business since 1901 when we struck a big oil gusher in East Texas, this is a new thing. And both the gas industry and other observers have noted it.

Development of the week: In Southlake, where there are signs saying, "Get the frack out of here" and similar sentiments, one drilling company just ended plans to drill in that community. So people are making an effort, and to some extent, that may be paying off.
I'll be watching: … a proposal in the Texas state legislature to require public disclosure of chemicals used well by well. The language of the bill still provides trade secret protection if companies apply for it specifically. Environmentalists are going to be watching that aspect. But the industry told me it's behind this bill because it's seen some of the public reaction to hydraulic fracturing, and it says it wants to get in front of these concerns by providing disclosure.