Poll finds support for fracking, despite environmental impact
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Fracking apparently has a friend in Pennsylvania. But a slightly nervous friend.
So says Robert Morris University Polling Institute, which conducted a nationwide poll in May that included a significant sampling of Keystone State residents. A full 57.1 percent support hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to access natural gas in shale regions. That is slightly above the national figure of 55.9 percent found in the survey.
Economics is the force behind that appeal, as 74.3 percent of Pennsylvanians and 73.3 percent of everyone polled said fracking has the potential to enhance the U.S. economy.
Fracking involves injecting large volumes of water mixed with chemicals into a drilled well site more than a mile under the surface. The water breaks up the shale, releasing natural gas. It has been a polarizing issue regionally, since the advent of unconventional drilling in Marcellus Shale a decade ago, as well as a flashpoint nationally.
Despite generally backing fracking, Pennsylvanians expressed some environmental angst. The RMU survey showed 60.1 percent agree to some extent with the statement, “The environmental impact of gas drilling outweighs any resulting reduced energy costs or energy independence.”
The poll was taken before the recent release of a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report stating that hydraulic fracturing has had little effect on drinking water nationally.
“I think probably the biggest thing you can make of these findings is people want cheap energy and are willing to accept environmental impacts,” Tony Kerzmann, an engineering professor at RMU, said in a prepared statement.
As for fracking in their hometowns, more Keystone Staters said they favor it – 48.2 percent – than are opposed – 43.3 percent.
RMU previously conducted this poll in 2013, and comparisons of certain figures in the two surveys are interesting. Only 42.3 percent nationally supported fracking two years ago, compared with 55.9 now, and the number of people knowledgeable about the fracturing process rose from 45.1 to 70.7 percent.
Visit rmu.edu/poll for more information.