A friend called last night. “Quick, turn on NPR. They’re doing fracking.”

That quickly, she was gone. Not near a radio, I went to National Public Radio’s website, then linked to the award-winning “This American Life” and found Episode 440: GAME CHANGER.

Here’s how the site describes what a listener will hear:

Prologue.

Host Ira Glass tells the stories of two professors, each making a calculation that no one had made before. One gets acclaim. One ends up out of a job. The first, Terry Engelder, a geologist at Penn State, was estimating the amount of natural gas that’s recoverable from the Marcellus shale, a giant rock formation that’s under Pennsylvania and several other Eastern states. The second, Conrad “Dan” Volz, at the University of Pittsburgh, estimated how much toxic crap—chemicals and pollution from gas exploration—might be getting into water supplies. (6 1/2 minutes)

Act One. You’ve Got Shale.

Producer Sarah Koenig continues the story Terry Engelder and Dan Volz, their rival calculations about natural gas in Pennsylvania, and how each was treated by his university. She explains how Pennsylvania’s universities, politicians and industry have united to develop natural gas. Other states have been more cautious. (26 1/2 minutes)

 

Act Two. Ground War.
Sarah takes us to Mt. Pleasant, PA, where a gas exploration company called Range Resources has leased 95% of the township’s land. This led to a standoff between Mt. Pleasant and Range, starting with zoning disputes and ending in a full scale PR war—a war in which the town was seriously outgunned. (23 1/2 minutes)

Our view:  You can read dozens of print news stories and get a pretty good idea of  what economic, environmental and political forces are at war over natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

Listening to the voices of people who playing parts in this American drama is quite another thing. Listening deepens your understanding.  It raises new questions in your mind. It makes it difficult to turn the page and let your focus wander off to the next topic, the next crisis, the next pop-culture diversion.

Don’t be put off by the length of the podcast . It’s something you can save on your computer, pause when you need to and start up again when you have time. That’s how I intended to approach it.  But I found it so compelling that, once it started, there was no possibility of stopping.

Like our friend said: Quick, turn on NPR.  They’re doing fracking.

After you do, use the comment box below to let us know what you think. 

Our most recent posts:
Take EnviroPolitics for a two-week vacation

Try it free for 30 days!  No obligation. Cancel anytime with one click.