Friday, November 22, 2013

Study finds most Americans have little knowledge, much less opinions, about hydraulic fracturing

Horizontal hydraulic fracturing to produce oil and gas is a booming business in the U.S., and is not lacking in controversy, but more than half of Americans don't know anything about the practice, according to a study by researchers at Oregon State University, George Mason University and Yale University.

Of the 1,061 people sampled in the "Climate Change in the American Mind" survey, 58 percent "said they didn’t know or were undecided about whether they supported or opposed fracking, while 20 percent were opposed and 22 percent supported it," Bobby Magill reports for Climate Central, a nonprofit news organization that analyzes and reports on climate science.

Magill writes: "Research shows Americans have very little knowledge about fracking and its benefits and risks, findings that have implications for U.S. energy policy and risk communications, the paper says." It states: “Broadly speaking, our results paint a picture of an American populace that is largely unaware and undecided about this issue. Over half of those surveyed had heard nothing at all or only a little about it, and more than half didn’t know or were undecided about whether to support or oppose it. Among the minority who has formed an opinion, respondents were nearly split between support and opposition.”

Samantha Malone, manager of science and communications for FracTracker, an oil-and-gas research organization, told Magill, “When conducting training sessions on how to use FracTracker.org, we often find that we must first explain the process of drilling for unconventional oil and gas before the training can commence. Education results in the formation of stronger opinions. At a policy level, this research supports the development of a more formal and objective educational approach to discussing the benefits and drawbacks of this emerging technology. The potential economic and job benefits and the risks — such as environmental, health and social impacts as well as broader climate change implications — should all be part of the larger energy dialogue.” (Read more)

A similar study of 2,400 people in 2012 by the University of Texas found that 63 percent had never heard of fracking or were unfamiliar with it: 

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