Oklahoma’s oil and gas industry is skeptical of another anti-fracking report, one Rolling Stone magazine calls “the most authoritative study of its kind” that reveals how fracking is imperiling the health of millions of Americans.
The 266-page report was released by critics of fracking who call themselves Concerned Health Professionals of New York and the Nobel Peace Prize-winning group, Physicians for Social Responsibility.
“Our examination…uncovered no evidence that fracking can be practiced in a manner that does not threaten human health,” stated the report.
The Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association had a different response.
” This is another example of anti-oil and gas activists exploiting a lack of understanding about the drilling process and the industry as a whole to incite confusion and, in cases like this report, fear. That fear has been used to push an anti-oil and natural gas agenda that would slow oil and gas production and eliminate jobs at a time when the industry is still recovering from a historic downturn in oil and natural gas prices.”
The researchers used news investigations, government assessments and more than 1,200 peer-reviewed research articles. They claim their study found that fracking is “poisoning the air, contaminating the water and imperiling the health of Americans across the country.”
One of the reports eight co-authors, Dr. Sand Steingraber said, “Fracking is the worst thing I’ve ever seen. “Those of us in the public health sector started to realize years ago that there were potential risks, then the industry rolled out faster than we could do our science.”
Steingraber maintains that fracking risks have turned into human harms and people are getting sick as a result.
“And we in field have a moral imperative to raise the alarm,” she added.
The group, Energy In Depth was critical not only of the researchers but Rolling Stone Magazine, writing,
“It’s been said many times before, but bears repeating: Rolling Stone really should stick to music.
The once revered rock magazine sustained another hard news fail this week with an article that claims a “new” and “authoritative study” proves “fracking is contaminating the air and water – and imperiling the health of millions of Americans.”
Not only is the “study” that the article is based on not new — it’s not even a study at all. It is actually a compendium of disproven anti-fracking health reports and recycled talking points that has been compiled, “peer-reviewed” and recycled for years by a pair of anti-fracking groups — Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and Concerned Health Professionals of New York (CHPNY) — whose members are anything but impartial medical experts.
Given Rolling Stone’s past coverage of the oil and gas industry, and the fact that the activists responsible for this “report” are Rolling Stone’s primary sources for the story, it’s no surprise that the piece’s click-bait claims don’t stand up to scrutiny. Here are some key facts to keep in mind while reading the story.
Rolling Stone fails to mention that its primary source is CHPNY’s Sandra Steingraber, who is the co-founder of New Yorkers Against Fracking. Steingraber isn’t a big fan of disclosure, either.
You may remember that Steingraber infamously signed a document declaring she had no conflict of interest prior to peer-reviewing a study that New York Health Commissioner Howard Zucker used to support the state’s ban on fracking back in 2015.”
Another of the researchers, Dr. Kathleen Nolan of Physicians for Social Responsibility and Concerned Health Professionals of NY said, “Substantial scientific evidence now leaves no question that drilling and fracking cause serious harms to public health. Further studies will continue to illuminate the full extent of those ill effects and to define causal pathways in further detail, but it is abundantly clear that the practice is not safe and that no set of regulations can make it safe.”