The National Governors Association (NGA) issued a 16-page report last Thursday encouraging governors and their states to adopt policies that encourage a) the use of less drinking water for fracking, and b) the use of more recycling of flowback water in fracking. The report, titled “State Practices to Protect Drinking Water While Developing Shale Energy” (full copy below), is the result of a a 35-member panel that met in March. The panel included gubernatorial advisers, state and federal regulators, professors, environmentalists and representatives of the oil and gas industry. We’ve had a look over the recommendations and frankly, there’s really nothing new in them that isn’t already either being done or in the process of being done. In addition to the study, MDN includes below some perspective on just how much drinking water gets used for fracking versus water used for other purposes…
