Controversial 'Fracking' Drills Downs on Energy Question

George P. Mitchell, chairman of The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, addressed the issue of natural gas sustainability in the story, “Controversial ‘Fracking’ Drills Down on Energy Question,” by Tedd Cohen, published in the February 2013 edition of Institutional Investor. Natural Gas Sustainability is one of the foundation's grantmaking programs.

Excerpts include:

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“It’s appropriate that states lead in regulating drilling activities,” says George Mitchell, the 93-year-old fracking pioneer and founder of Mitchell Energy (which he sold in 2002 to Devon Energy). “Each state and shale formation has unique challenges related to issues such as water supplies and water treatment and disposal, community impacts, and infrastructure needs.” 

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Mitchell offers a different perspective. Energy independence is a myth, he says, because oil and gas are global markets. “That makes our economy interdependent with other nations’ energy markets,” he says. “The notion of American energy sustainability is more meaningful. To be sustainable, we need to focus more on the use of the cleanest energy supplies domestically and export our clean-energy technologies abroad.”

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For the complete story, visit Institutional Investor.

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