WSJ: The Battle Over Fracking

The U.S. is producing more oil every year. Natural gas, with huge supplies and low prices, keeps attracting new power producers. But environmental concerns swirl around an increasingly common drilling method: hydraulic fracturing, which injects water and chemicals into shale formations to extract oil and gas. 

Has the industry won the engineering battle, but lost the PR war? The Wall Street Journal's Russell Gold discussed the boom times and "fracking" with two leading figures in the industry: Edward E. Cohen, president and chief executive of Atlas Energy LP and Aubrey K. McClendon, chairman and CEO of Chesapeake Energy Corp.  

Here are edited excerpts of their discussion.

MR. GOLD: How did fracking became a four-letter word?

MR. COHEN: I think when we talk about the natural-gas industry losing the PR war, that is not correct. The president's endorsing natural gas in his State of the Union address was an incomparable victory for the industry, because I heard the president four years ago. He wasn't speaking favorably of natural gas. But he, like all the rest of us, can really learn. And he did learn.  MORE