Coal is no longer the king

Opinion: September 3, 2012 at 12:00a.m.

Dallas Morning News: If the communities that are hard at work on gas drilling regulations had any question about the importance of their efforts, this headline makes it clear: Hydraulic fracturing for natural gas deposits is cleaning the air.

The U.S. emits less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than at any time in the last 20 years, a dramatic shift attributed to power companies favoring cleaner natural gas over dirty coal.

It was not that long ago that cheap power and cleaner air seemed an impossible pairing. Coal reigned as the main fuel for power generation but fouled the air. Then came hydraulic fracturing, which made it cheaper for drillers to tap new gas-rich fields in places like the Barnett Shale in Texas and the Marcellus Shale in the Northeast.

The natural gas resurgence isn’t a panacea for all that ails the air. While natural gas burns cleaner than coal, it still emits some carbon dioxide. Critics of drilling near urban areas say it also could contaminate water tables, produce seismic tremors, lower property values and increase noise and traffic in neighborhoods.

City councils must carefully and fairly balance the rights of property holders, residents and drilling companies. We believe the councils would be wise to include tougher rules on how close drilling can take place to neighborhoods and to ban injection wells, which some studies link to seismic tremors.