Many American industries are focusing on this century's gold rush for natural gas, which has always been trapped deep underground. Drilling companies just recently figured out the way to use this enormous resource, which is enough to supply the country with gas for heating buildings, generating electricity and powering vehicles for up to a hundred years. There are quite many supporters for this new source of energy. Environmentalists say that it helps slow the climate change because it burns more cleanly than coal and oil. Lawmakers consider it as a source of job and as a way to decrease our dependency on other countries for oil.
However, natural gas also poses many hazards. It causes water to contain higher levels of radioactivity. While people clearly do not drink drilling wastewater, the reason to use the drinking-water standard for comparison is that there is no comprehensive federal standard for what constitutes safe levels of radioactivity in drilling wastewater. It can also contaminate the air. Many health problems arise in several regions where drilling plants operate such as an increasing rate of children who have asthma.
However, the regulators are still unclear about its problems and still claim that coal has far more issues. But the hazards associated with natural-gas production and drilling are far less understood than those associated with other fossil fuels, and the regulations have not kept pace with the natural-gas industry’s expansion.
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