30 Texas Towns Will Be Out of Water, Because: Fracking

Natural gas is claimed to promise cleaner, more efficient combustion than its petroleum-based competition, but getting natural gas out of the ground through hydraulic fracturing (fracking) can be far more environmentally menacing than getting oil. Now, as many as 30 Texas towns could be learning that the hard way, as the towns’ water supplies have been diverted for fracking. Before you feel too bad for them, read the story, below, originally published on Gas2.

Texas is Fracked: More than 30 Towns Will be Out of Water due to Fracking

More than 30 towns in West Texas will soon be out of water as a direct result of diverting their underground water supplies for use in hydraulic fracking. Largely unregulated fracking, it should be said. Largely unregulated fracking that is definitely putting arsenic into the ground it happens to be drying out. Before you start acting horrified, though, consider: this is exactly what Texas’ mental-midget teabillies voted for.

Please, let me be the first to say it.

Despite the vast consensus of climate scientists, the highly publicized destructive effects of fracking on water supplies, fracking’s seismic impact, and the evidence of their own senses, the mentally deficient residents of Texas keep electing politicians who believe climate change is a myth, and who think the best course of action to address Texas’ crippling drought is several days of organized prayer. Really.

Maybe Rick Perry and the idiots that voted him back into office will be able to pray in some new drinking water while the non-stupid people of Texas pray for a governor with a triple-digit IQ. While you’re waiting to see how that works out for the citizens of West Texas, take some time to watch this interview with Antonia Juhasz, an oil and energy analyst, author, and journalist.

Fair warning, though: if you live in Texas, you probably won’t enjoy it.