Activist shareholder groups are pressing the drilling companies to reduce the risks of hydraulic fracturing, the drilling technique that is now being used in the Marcellus Shale formation of West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio and New York. Huge volumes of previously inaccessible natural gas are released while raising concerns about environmental contamination of the land, water and air.
Investor groups said recently that they have filed resolutions with nine oil and gas companies that use hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to extract gas from shale formations usually thousands of feet underground. Many critics contend that fracking has the potential to pollute groundwater. Various industry companies have said that it is safe.
“Oil and gas firms are being too vague about how they will manage the environmental challenges resulting from fracking,” New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who manages the state’s public worker pension fund, said in a statement.
The fund’s stake in two of the drillers — Carrizo Oil & Gas Inc. and Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. — is valued at nearly $35 million. New York, meanwhile, has declared a temporary moratorium on fracking to allow state regulators to issue new guidelines for shale gas extraction. See also this related story here. And, the biggest disaster waiting to happen is the contamination of New York City’s water supply in the state’s Delaware Valley, described here.
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