经济学人下载:天然气是清洁能源吗?

The chief fear is that the mystery slurry could get into the water supply. In some fracking towns, people have been able to set their tap water on fire. And there have been troubling safety incidents. In late April a big company, Chesapeake Energy, suspended its fracking in Pennsylvania after one of its natural-gas wells blew out and spilled toxic drilling fluid into a nearby creek. France has placed a moratorium on fracking and is close to a full ban.

人们主要担心那种神秘的浆体可能会渗入饮用水源。在一些破裂法开采天然气的城镇，发生了一些安全事故。4月下旬，切萨皮克能源公司在宾州的一个天然气井外溢，致使有毒的液体流入附近小河，该公司的破裂法采气被叫停。法国暂停了该种采气法，不久就会完全禁止。

Activists and scientists reckon that if the process is safe, the companies should come clean. “If they’ve got nothing to hide, why is the industry so paranoid about disclosing their chemicals?” asks Steve Torbit, executive director of the National Wildlife Federation’s Rocky Mountain region. They may have to. The Environmental Protection Agency is studying the process. In 2009, House Democrats proposed legislation that would force the industry to disclose the chemicals it uses in fracking. Several states, including Texas and Colorado, have similar legislation pending.

一些环保人士和科学家认为，如果这个过程是安全的，天然气公司就不应有所隐瞒。“如果无需隐瞒，那为什么他们对于披露使用的化学品的要求那么恐惧呢？”美国落基山地区野生动植物联合会副会长史蒂文??道比特发出这样的疑问。他们可能不得不如此。环保署正在对破裂法进行研究。2009年，众议院中的民主党人士提议立法，强制天然气公司披露他们在使用破裂法中使用的化学物品。有些州，如得克萨斯和科罗拉多，将有类似的法律颁布。

In the meantime public concerns are growing. Late last month 200 people packed a Bureau of Land Management hearing in Golden, Colorado. Dave Cesark, an executive at Mesa Energy Partners LLC, tried to reassure, saying that fracking chemicals constitute “just a drop in the bucket”: only 0.5% of the total fluids, including water, that the company uses to drill natural gas. The crowd did not, strangely enough, find that entirely reassuring. Some producers will grumble that any regulation of fracking is an unwarranted constraint on their business. But if natural gas is not produced cleanly, it will not prove to be so cheap, either. Full disclosure is a price worth paying.

与些同时，公众对这个问题更加关注。上月末，200人齐聚科罗拉多州古尔登土地管理局听证会。Mesa能源合伙公司经理戴夫??赛萨科希望人们打消顾虑，他说，他们在破裂法中使用的化学品只是一篮水中的一滴，仅占包括水在内的液体总量的0.5%。令人感到奇怪的是，他的说法并不能让人完全放心。一些公司抱怨，对破裂法任何的监管措施都是对这种天然气开采方法的无理限制。但如果天然气的生产过程是不清洁的，那么它的成本低廉就无从谈起。对于这种采气法的完全披露也是一项值得支付的成本。