Theo Colburn and Nadia Steinzor in their commentary, "Beware impact of fracking," March 4, notes the dangers of gasses such as "methane, ethane, propane, toluene, formaldehyde and acetaldehyde" that may occur near natural gas exploration sites. I hope the writers also avoid farms (methane), ripe fruit (ethane), finger nail polish (toluene), human breath (formaldehyde) and coffee (acetaldehyde). The only thing I can imagine that would be worse than natural gas exploration is eating organic fruit near a farm while drinking coffee and breathing.
Perhaps the writers would prefer we continue to use extremely toxic fuels like gasoline and diesel fuel. Burning these fuels creates massive amounts of toxic gasses and producing, transporting and storing liquid fuels cause vast contamination of our water supplies. Examples include Deepwater Horizon, the recent spill of 9,500 gallons of gasoline in the Shingle Hollow Creek, and, regionally, 36,569 leaking underground storage tanks.
What we need is a reasonable approach to the actual risks of our energy supply. Natural gas produced under strict environmental rules is a better solution than the extremely toxic liquid fuels we use now. I would rather fill my car with $6.40 worth of clean, abundant, locally produced, natural gas than $45 worth of imported toxic gasoline.
David Hauber
Troy