Critic: Shale gas a false hope

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WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- Hydraulic fracturing of shale natural gas deposits in the United States is a "dangerously false solution" to energy security, an advocacy group said.

Food & Water Watch announced it opposed energy industry efforts to tout the benefits of liquefied natural gas and hydraulic fracturing.

The group said any effort to expand the use of LNG for exports would lead to more hydraulic fracturing, known also as fracking. More LNG production, they said, means more environmental threats.

Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter said the industry's rhetoric on the benefits of shale gas is "a ruse."

"The industry wants unrestricted drilling and fracking to increase its bottom line," she said in a statement. "The truth is that fracking is a dangerously false solution to America's energy challenges."

Trade groups and environmentalists are debating reports from a monitoring well in Wyoming.

Analysis of deep monitoring wells by the Environmental Protection Agency in a Wyoming aquifer near the Pavillion natural gas field revealed glycols and other synthetic chemicals associated with hydraulic fracturing.

The American Petroleum Institute, a group representing more than 500 oil and gas companies, said the EPA analysis was "unscientific."