Fracking — or hydraulic fracturing, as it’s known up in the top story, K2-view, Perrier-on-the-table board rooms of big-pocketed transnational oil and energy corporations, where the slightest breathy mention of the term fires up visions of parading dollar signs and upward NYSE jags in the minds of hungry suits — is controversial. As you may have heard. Any time a natural gas mining practice can be linked conclusively to seismic rumbles, you’re talking about a concept that’s going to have to work for public appeal.
And the large companies betting their necks on the success of this deep-earth natural gas drilling process know they’re facing an uphill climb in the PR department. That’s why certain outfits are pulling out all the stops. As representatives from two energy concerns recently boasted at an industry conference in Houston, they’ve decided to tap the psychological and military techniques employed by U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The comments are getting a lot of circulation among fracking critics nationwide, but it just so happens both companies have footprints in Ohio.
This article appears in Jan 11-17, 2012.