Don’t rush to frack in NC

Fayetteville (N.C.) Observer: We’re reasonably comfortable with the notion that natural-gas exploration by hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, can be done safely.

But North Carolina’s course to drilling, which is likely to begin in just over a year, makes us uncomfortable. We see little evidence that state leaders’ rush to harvest underground gas supplies is putting health and safety first. Rather, we see lawmakers recognizing that they may have cut state taxes too deeply last year and now are racing to grasp new revenue sources.

State regulators have learned from the problems they have seen in states that got into the gas business long before us. They have adopted fairly strong standards for drilling safety, but have nevertheless left some worrisome loopholes, like too-low bonding requirements for drillers and too-small buffers between drilling sites and private wells.

An equally important concern is property rights, and that hasn’t been adequately addressed. Will North Carolina allow “forced pooling,” which says companies can drill under land against owners’ wishes if a simple majority of landowners in an area approve?

Those are only a few of the questions and problems that this state should be addressing in its fracking regulations, and we fear that it won’t get done in the General Assembly’s almost-panicked hurry to allow drilling.