Fracking offers a risky salvation for America's hard-pressed heartlands

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/dec/16/fracking-risky-salvation-america-hard-pressed-heartlands

America's next energy revolution is not taking place on drilling rigs in the Arctic Circle or the Gulf of Mexico, nor is it for the most part even under the control of the global energy giants.

With the exception of solar arrays and wind farms, energy supply over the next several decades will look like this: modest wellheads on farms dotted with traditional barns, or tucked into forest clearings. That at least is the bucolic image advanced by the energy industry.

In Pennsylvania, more than 3,000 gas wells have been drilled in the Marcellus Shale, a formation estimated to hold more than 14 trillion cubic metres of natural gas, making it the second-largest such field ever discovered.

Nearly 240,000 new jobs have been created, helping to absorb some of the workers who were laid off as the area's manufacturing base withered away. Oil and gas producers, pipeline and drilling support firms are contributing billions in taxes to state and county coffers.