So I walked in the house to hear my wife shouting at the CBS evening news.
Scott Pelley was talking about fracking and said that it was "pumping water and sand".
No mention about the EPA-exempt mystery cocktail of chemicals added to the water/sand mix!
So it's no wonder people think fracking is "A-OK", the fossil fuel companies keep the media quiet by buying tons of ad time talking about "clean, safe natural gas".
The supposed glut of cheap natgas actually increased our cost per therm vs. last year, proving the system is rigged and not in our favor.
She's now furiously tweeting in an attempt to counter the water/sand narrative.
Money corrupts all!
= new reply since forum marked as read
- You hire a 
He said that in terms of climate, fracking was a great thing (since you get more energy per ton of CO2 emitted with natural gas than coal; of course, the picture is less bright if you consider methane leaks in extraction, transport and storage, and "less bad" is not the same as "good"
and that it's a shame people didn't realize fracking fluids are basically little more than water with some dish soap.
I told him that even if this is true it's not as though I could tell my students this, because nobody tells what's actually in the fluids. If industry felt knowledge of the true contents of fracking fluids would improve their image, they should be open about what they're using.
He replied that they can't do that, it's a trade secret.
I answered that it sounds like they'll just have to take their licks in the public eye, if their calculation is that keeping these secrets is better for them than transparency.
