Dishes rattle; walls crack. In earthquake-prone Japan people know what is happening. In Texas, these tremors are something new, and people are trying to understand their relationship to hydraulic fracturing, commonly called “fracking.” Fracking requires vast quantities of wastewater to be injected underground.
Residents, scientists, oil and gas executives and environmentalists across the state are entitled to their own opinions, but not their own facts. Thankfully, Texas — a global leader in oil and gas know-how — is looking into the facts.
The Texas Railroad Commission has requested industry data on the frequency and intensity of wastewater injections into disposal wells. It has also hired a seismologist to interpret the data.
That scientist, David Craig Pearson, appears to be well-qualified and free of any preconceived agenda. Pearson has vowed to determine the cause of the earthquakes, “be they natural or man-made.”
With so much at stake, Pearson is going to be under pressure from all sides. Oil and gas companies employ hundreds of thousands of people across the state. The state budget depends on the severance taxes imposed on oil and natural gas production.
“If it’s shown that there’s a definite link between fracking and earthquakes, that’s definitely going to have a serious impact on the oil and gas industry,” said Andrew Lipow, an industry consultant in Houston. “Not just in Texas, but all over the country.”
There’s a natural tendency for advocates of both industry and environmental preservation to exaggerate or oversimplify. Good science, in contrast, should be grounded in factual detail and statistical accuracy.
After Galileo was forced to recant his theory that Earth moved around the sun, according to popular legend, he is said to have mumbled, “And yet it moves.”
There is a tendency for those in the industry to dismiss criticisms of fracking because much criticism is based on fear rather than fact. Yet, like Galileo, many Texas residents who have observed tremors are noting, “Yet the ground moves.”
We hope that all the parties interested in the outcome of Pearson’s research will respect his independence. Nothing good happens when those with political agendas substitute their opinions for science or try to shape scientific investigation to reach a pre-determined outcome.
As the prosecution of Galileo shows, those who stifle scientific analysis may postpone but not alter the ultimate verdict of history.
— Houston Chronicle
