A secret ‘fracking’ trip

The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.: After the fact isn’t good enough when it comes to a governor making a trip on behalf of the taxpayers, at their expense, and in their plane with other public officials aboard. But it wasn’t until after Gov. Beverly Perdue’s quick visit to Pennsylvania on March 5 that the governor’s aides acknowledged it. The purpose? To learn more about inland shale gas extraction, the drilling process known as fracking.

The debate over virtues versus drawbacks is not settled, and the governor has been right to proceed cautiously.

Presumably, her exploratory trip to Pennsylvania, where she toured Shell Oil operations, was to gain more knowledge. In addition to keeping the trip secret, Perdue’s aides did not provide an itinerary, but said she did not meet with local environmental groups. They did note she has met in the past with North Carolina officials of the Sierra Club and the Environmental Defense Fund.

The governor said after the trip that she thinks inland drilling can be carried out safely in North Carolina, with proper regulation and fees.

Maybe so, but environmental groups have a good reason for hesitation. If fracking for gas does indeed prove hazardous to other natural resources, long-term damage could be done. There are questions about threats to human health if groundwater was contaminated.

Does the benefit of this kind of “drilling” really outweigh the expense in the process and what the process might produce? It’s a legitimate question, and it’s unfortunate that it has been politicized.

Of course, the secrecy of the governor’s trip helped to escalate that problem.