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The Fracking Boom: Missing Answers

The Fracking Boom: Missing Answers

A natural gas boom is underway in the U.S., with more than 200,000 wells drilled in the last decade. In states like Colorado, Texas, Pennsylvania and here in Louisiana, residents who live close to the natural gas bonanza have the same questions: What kind of pollutants is the industrial activity putting into their water and air, and are those pollutants making them sick?

In this weeklong investigative series, NPR's science desk explores why there aren't solid answers to these questions yet.

Additional Resources

Learn more about the process of drilling for natural gas with Exploreshale.org, an interactive website produced by Penn State.

Extensive information about the Haynesville Shale — a huge repository of natural gas stretching across northwestern and central Louisiana — from the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources.

Shale Play is an interactive database of natural gas drilling in Pennsylvania; a collaborative project produced by StateImpact Pennsylvania and NPR.

NPR has delved into the economics of, and controversy surrounding, hydraulic fracturing before, with the 2009 series Exploring Shale: The Quest for Natural Gas.