US Interior Secretary Sally Jewel has criticized local bans on hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Jewell’s department oversees the lands owned by the federal government and stated the prohibitions on the drilling practice are the result of bad science that discover incorrect health or safety problems. She was quoted in an interview on KQED stating that fracking bans are the wrong way to go.

Environmentalist groups are disappointed with her remarks. Katie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity called Jewell’s comments troubling. Siegel elaborated by stating:

“In essence Secretary Jewell seems to be saying that communities around the country, the governor and public health commissioner of New York, and the over 600,000 people who wrote to the Interior Department urging her to adopt a ban on fracking, don’t understand the science and are just acting out of an irrational fear of fracking,” Siegel said. “It’s insulting, and quite simply wrong.”

The one thing Siegel didn’t count on was that Secretary Jewel is a former petroleum engineer who has hands on experience with fracking. The different vantage points about fracking should be an indication as to what the environmentalists are really up to. They know what they are saying is not true but it makes no difference since, in their minds, they are the elitists that think they know better than the rest of us as to what our energy needs are. As far as fracking is concerned, the studies Siegel points to are political and not scientific. Below is ReasonTV‘s video on fracking that tells the facts about the drilling method.